I remember in the days when I was at Junior School, at the tender age of seven or maybe eight, our Nature teacher, a Miss Smith, tried to make drawing both fun and easy: whenever she wanted us to draw animals, for example, then she “built them up” using vegetables – the body would be a potato, the tail would be a carrot, and so on.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but Miss Smith had obviously grasped a key aspect of how we learn most effectively – by breaking larger tasks and concepts down into smaller ones that are much easier to get your head around.

Now, I have to admit that what I produced was less than artistic – my natural talents lie in other directions – but that lesson has stuck with me ever since (and we’re talking over 40 years ago now).

Dreaming of being a cartoonist…

Over the many intervening years, I’ve always wished I was able to draw, and while I appreciate fine art as much as the next man, it was always cartoons that appealed to me.

I tried various paperback books, but however good they might have been, they were too dry and lifeless – page after page of text, with obviously some illustrations.

Whatever the problem, the net effect was the same – I was never motivated to do anything to learn how to draw cartoons…

Until, that is, I came across a completely different type of cartoon course.

It’s called Draw Cartoons … Today!

Now, you need to know that Draw Cartoons Today is actually delivered as an ebook that you download to your computer (i.e. in the same way that you would download an MP3 music file).

The advantage of this is, of course, that you can be downloading, reading and beginning your course within a few minutes of purchasing it – there’s no waiting for some company to get around to shipping it, and then eagerly awaiting the mail man to deliver it.

The disadvantage, however, is that not many people enjoy reading long books on their computer screen.

The company who produce this cartoon course acknowledge this, and also recommend that you print a copy off because they have found that the guide is not rendered well on a computer screen, and given that the majority of the book is written in cartoon-style lettering, with tons of illustrations, I think it’s worth accepting what they say and biting the bullet by printing it off.

A better compromise might be to print off one lesson at a time, as the course is split over 12 days. This way, you can print off what you need, follow that particular lesson, practise what they tell you, and then, once you’ve mastered that aspect, move on to the next chapter.

So, what do you get when you buy Draw Cartoons … Today?

The Draw Cartoons … Today ebook, which teaches you how to draw cartoon characters step by step, contains 174 pages of material, which comprises:

• the title page
• a brief introduction to the guide itself
• Day One covers an introduction to cartooning, a list of the materials you’ll need, and some “loosening up exercises”, including pen and brush handling, and patterns and colouring
• Day Two show you how to draw comic heads
• Day Three is all about drawing expressions, hands, feet and shoes
• Day Four teaches you about drawing figures, as well as clothes and wrinkles
• Day Five covers drawing people in motion, and kids
• Day Six is where you learn about the drawing of both animals and women – I’m sure there’s no connection!   :-)
• Day Seven, which is one of the longer chapters, covers the drawing of stock types, off-beat comics, comic gimmicks and props, and that all-important perspective
• Day Eight moves on to comic lettering, caricatures and gag panels
• Day Nine talks about the comic strip, which is, of course, present in almost every newspaper and magazine these days
• Day Ten is devoted to the ever-popular sports cartoons and political cartoons
• Day Eleven is the last drawing-based lesson, and covers general newspaper features as well as items that go by the strange name of “Gloomies”
• Day Twelve is the bonus chapter that moves on to the commercial aspects of cartooning, with the main topic being how to market yourself and your work.

Included in these pages are over 1,000 illustrations, in the form of cartoons to draw, which not only show you a bunch of different options, styles and techniques, but which are also designed so that you can learn by copying them, thus honing your skills.

The course itself is by Lou Darvas, a highly-prolific cartoonist who was twice awarded the National Cartoonist Society Award for the best work in the field of sports, but it also includes examples from other artists such as George Wolfe, Haff Nelson, Frank O’Neal, and H.M. Talburt.

Your Guarantee

There is also an unusual guarantee – if you don’t get your cartoons professionally published within three months of completing this Lou Darvas Cartooning Course, you can get a full refund.

Get Started Today…

So, if you’ve got a budding cartoonist itching to get out, give this cartoon drawing tutorial a try – you won’t be disappointed, and with their guarantee, the only thing you have to lose is a missed opportunity to discover a hidden talent and fulfil a life-time dream.

When you take things step by step, drawing cartoons is not only easier than you might ever have thought – it’s fun too!

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