Learning how to draw funny cartoons can be a fun hobby. If you really enjoy it, and are good at it, you could even get paid for your creativity. But before you even pick up the pencil to begin drawing, you need to think about your character, or characters.

First, you need to determine what you want to express through your character, and the message that you want them to convey. You need to create a life history, or a biography of your character, or characters, as you will usually have more than one character in each caption. This will make it easier to draw them with the right attributes and qualities. It will also make it easier to draw them in new, future situations, should they be a continuing, or main character.

Next, you need to decide on their physical characteristics: are they, fat or thin, attractive or weird looking, short or tall, young or old, male, female, an animal, or some other creature. Then you need to decide on their personality traits: are they, dramatic, serious, happy-go-lucky, sad, suave, or stupid. Next is their social life, and how they interact with others: are they, grumpy, loving, optimistic, pessimistic, friendly, or rude. If you find yourself blocked, just look at the people around you on the street, and in the store. Notice what makes the cashier unique, or your dentist, or neighbor. Inspiration can come from anywhere.

Finally, you are ready to draw. You should begin with the head and the eyes. The eyes are what helps to instantly give the character life and personality, and can instantly create a mood, telling you what the character is thinking and feeling. You then draw the body, and fill in the background.

Many artists have struggled with pencil drawing and have not really gotten good at it. They then move on to paint with colors, and when they find that they face the same basic drawing problems, they choose to ignore them and make up some excuse so that they can avoid having to face those problems. If you’re facing the same problems, my advice to you is to meet those problems head on and overcome them once and for all. Artists who refuse to face and tackle drawing problems head on can only do so much. Their growth is stunted, and their drawing skills will not improve. Over time, their skills will be overtaken by those who took the trouble to examine the problems and actually solve them.

Once the drawing problems are solved, it’s then a question of consciously choosing how you want to draw. For example, many artists cannot draw realistic pictures using pencil. When the drawing didn’t turn out the way they wanted it to, they say it’s abstract art, or they’re trying to symbolise the subjects. But we all know the truth. There are times when drawing a realistic picture is much better than symbolic drawing, so we can’t run away forever. Sooner or later, we’re going to come face to face with the same set of problems.

But the good news is, once you undersand the basic problems of pencil drawing, you’ll learn that they’re not that difficult to overcome. And if you can learn to overcome these problems, you’ll also find it easier to overcome problems associated with color, since the problems are similar in nature. The number one problem to pencil drawing is control. Artists can’t draw what they want to draw because they don’t know how to control the drawing tools properly. But how difficult can it be to control a pencil? It’s easy if you know how.

For instance, you can vary the pressure of the pencil to shade with a whole range of different tones. You can choose to work with a blunt or sharp pencil, or decide to hold the pencil differently. These are all techniques related to pencil drawing. So don’t jump the gun, be patient, and learn to draw well with pencils before moving on. After all, part of drawing is about problem solving, and if you can’t solve your pencil problems, you won’t be able to solve your painting problems. That’s why pencil drawing is an essential skill to acquire.