Lay out your work to view it from a different perspective.
Cartooning is a way to visually tell a story by using emotion conveyed through drawn images. Shape, form, lines of movement and perspective can all impact how a cartoon is perceived by the viewer and can convey just as much of an impact as other traditional art forms. By combining body language, facial expression and fluid drawings, cartoons can express complicated situations with very few or no written words.
Observe Live Subjects
In order to develop an ability to accurately portray understandable body language, you must observe real people and real body language. Carry a sketchbook with you to the park, sit on a bench and make quick drawings of the people standing around or walking by. Capture the tense posture of a stressed business man on a cellphone, or the loose, playful body language of children playing on a jungle gym. Study how pigeons peck at bread crumbs or how an old man walks by with a cane.
Find a Mirror
Place a mirror where you can easily see yourself from your workspace. Contort your face into a variety of expressions and sketch what you see. Go through a spectrum of emotions: happy, sad, angry, surprised and frightened. Make notes on how each part of your face moves to create the expression. Try to make several expressions for one emotion and sketch each variation. Get others to create expressions in the mirror to see how they differ from yours.
Simple Shapes
Practice creating cartoon characters from simple shapes and forms. Try to make the shapes you draw fit whatever character you are designing. For a child or baby character, use round or bulbous shapes. By contrast, a villain might have an angular or pointed shape. Superheroes are often very broad and square. Female characters are usually round and curvaceous, with curves and S shapes. Experiment with other characters and identify them with simple forms.
Dynamic Perspective
Be creative when using perspective to display the intensity of a cartoon image. Use drastic horizon lines and unusual points of focus to exude emotion through your environments and characters. Emphasize a character pointing dramatically by foreshortening their pointed hand and arm, making their body and face small in perspective. Give the impression of a huge character by showing it from a smaller character's view. Practice dramatic perspective by lying on your back on the floor and sketching a model pointing down at you.
