Cartoon Drawing: Heads

The purpose of this first lesson is to start you drawing the cartoon head in its simplest form, and to teach you how to place the features correctly.  The method given for locating the features from all views is a time tested way of creating faces.  It is basic and it works.

For practice you will cover sheets of paper with balloon head shapes and swing those balloons in freely.  Use the center and eye lines for locating the features.  Strive for new combinations of features and draw the heads from different angles.  Keep your eyes open for people around you and what their features looks like.  Using the balloon and guidelines, try to capture those features in their simplest form on your paper; the best cartoons are based on observation of real people and animators almost always base their work on video they take of themselves or others. Don’t copy the heads in the examples, make your own, and take your time. Good work takes hard work. When you feel you can draw heads upside-down and sideways following the rules then turn in your assignment.

Project Reading Materials

Project Goal:

On a piece of 8 1/2 x 11-inch printer paper, draw in as many heads as you can fit. Tilt the heads as many different ways as you can and vary the heads shapes using what you learned on page 6.

Vary the expressions to suit yourself but make them as lively and animated as possible . Use the balloon with center and eye lines to help you draw them correctly and leave these lines in the drawing (do not erase !) so that I can see you understand their use .