ADVICE ABOUT CARTOONING

stevezodiac · Post by **stevezodiac** » 04 May 2007, 21:23

I have been an amatuer cartoonist for about 35 years and have some ideas for single panel newspaper "gag" cartoons. The thing is I open the post in work and can never throw away a white envelope without doing a doodole on it and they look fresh, vibrant and animated. However when i try to draw a proper cartoon I draw it in pencil first but it always seems stilted and stiff. What i'd like to know is do newspaper gag cartoonists draw straight to paper in ink? Some of the cartoons in The Weekly News seem badly drawn and it is of course the humour that matters. But they don't look like the artist has worked too hard on the execution of the picture.

tonyodonnell · Post by **tonyodonnell** » 07 May 2007, 17:41

Steve - I reckon that if you prefer the doodles to the carefully pencilled -then inked Cartoons then it is perfectly possible that the Doodles are better. If you are less relaxed when working on actual 'Cartoons' rather than doodles it will affect the finished work.
I may be wrong but the market for GAG cartoons seems to have shrunk quite a bit in recent years and they are printed much smaller now.
I think you have to submit 2-3 gags and if you are lucky you will sell one.
The Fee depends on the publicaton and the size the Cartoon is printed..I would hope that the minimum fee is now at least ?25.

jamie · Post by **jamie** » 07 May 2007, 18:10

this is an issue i've always had personally too, that working on an image never retains the freshness of the original sketch. there are two methods i'm using at the moment to get round this, one is to do work as finished pencil sketches (check out Herobear and the kid to see how great pencil work can be finished art - http://www.theastonishfactory.com/herobear.php), also you could go for the more Calvin and Hobbes approach and keep a very loose ink line, it prevents the style becoming too worked-on and nicely casual.
i think most artists use pencil before they ink but there are never any rules in this game. if you do it and it works, thats all you need (i figure) ^_^

Brendan McGuire · Post by **Brendan McGuire** » 07 May 2007, 19:00

At the risk of teaching your oul' granny how to suck eggs, have you considered using a light-box? You keep the pencil drawing as fresh as a daisy and you can ink over the top of it umpteen gazzillion times until you're nicely loosened up and happy with the end result.
I am also sending off gag cartoons. Unsuccessfully so far, so perhaps mine is not the best advice to follow, but I would highly recommend John Byrne's Drawing Cartoons That Sell (1997) and Robin Hall's The Cartoonist's Workbook (1995). If you can't find them in the bookshop try abebooks.co.uk. Those two books tell you everything you could possibly need to know.

stevezodiac · Post by **stevezodiac** » 07 May 2007, 19:38

Yes I got a how to draw cartoons book by Maddocks a few years ago. I have about five ideas for cartoons at the moment. There is one cartoonist who has a gag or two in the Weekly News each week and every single one is based on a weak pun. It's as if the cartoonist has no real feel for comedy and relies on a set formula. Also there is always a gag based on a wife criticising her hubby, alseep on the couch, to a friend which is another good/easy formula. Many friends tell me I am the funniest person alive and I must admit I make myself laugh out loud just composing mad texts for friends. I grew up listening to the Goons and watching the Marx bros which is how my humour comes across. One example: My mate always uses massive tea cups (about two thirds of a pint), yesterday his daughters were visiting and one said to me "do you want a cup of tea Steve"? Quick as a flash i replied "No thanks, I had one earlier and my blood count still hasn't recovered." Well i liked it. It was off the cuff at least.

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 07 May 2007, 21:07

"do you want a cup of tea?"

-I'd prefer to drink out of my hands please..

-maybe later after my cup of S's thanks!

-Sorry I'm a tea-total!

-Yes that would be great though leave out of the cup the beans the sausage and chips will be plenty for tea!

-Yes please..Glad teabags are round these days it was hard finding square cups!

-just bring the kettle I'll drink it out the spout saves washing up!

-Thanks I like my tea very weak just let the hot water look at it!

-Thanks I like my tea very strong leave it for a few days!

-Thanks....though I find tea goes right through me...I'll have to drink it in the bathroom!

A good way in panel cartoons is brainstorming.....how many ideas good and bad can you get out of one line......or juggling words together...phrases...sayings..
Keep going until BINGO!..........I think my Tea--total ...drinking out of the spourt are my best ideas so far.....But I would keep going...

stevezodiac · Post by **stevezodiac** » 07 May 2007, 21:46

Thanks for your contributions but my tea story actually happened, thought i'd made that clear, most of my humour comes out of just discussing things with people. Once me and a mate were sitting in a pub with a couple of girls and the only place to sit was where the sachets of sauces were, one of the girls said it feels a bit strange sitting among all these sauces and i replied "yes it's epiculiar", she said that was very funny and i replied "thanks for the condiment" But seriously I remember reading about Galton and Simpson writing the blood donor, when the doctor asked for a pint of blood hancock originally replied "a pint? that's an armful" it then became "A pint? That's nearly an armful" but they were still not happy until finally settling on "A pint? That's very nearly an armful" I find i will write a caption and then after a few readings decide a word can be changed or the wording can be improved and you get to the point where you're not sure which caption is the snappiest. One word can have you agonising for days. Another source of humour is watching old tv shows like i did this morning with my mate and making up our own dialogue - star trek TOS in this case. We have Kirk getting browned off with Scotty for always being so negative and threatening him with being put on janitor detail. We end up in tears.

Peter Gray · Post by **Peter Gray** » 08 May 2007, 15:50

Would you like a cup of tea.......?

Sorry no thanks its not my cup of tea..

Conor B · Post by **Conor B** » 08 May 2007, 15:56

Peter Gray wrote:Would you like a cup of tea.......?

Sorry no thanks its not my cup of tea..

lol

MikeC · Post by **MikeC** » 08 May 2007, 22:18

Damn, where's the tumbleweed emoticon when you want it?

Just kidding - keep it up, guys!

Brendan McGuire · Post by **Brendan McGuire** » 09 May 2007, 00:19

Terrorist to neighbour: May I borrow a cup of T.N.T.?

Okay, okay, I know the way out. I was just getting my hat and coat.

Speaking of which, have you met my pet coatee? i got him on Mundi.

It - it's gone very cold and quiet in here.

SH · Post by SH » 09 May 2007, 23:12

A good way I find to keep inks fresh and also keeps your pencils seperate. is to scan in your pencils. then if you have Photoshop print them out on board as a blue line drawing.
that way your not intimidated about guffing up your pencils. Also you dont need to rub out the pencils because when you scan the art back in it only picks up the ink line.
I sometimes do a sketch on a scrap of paper while at work or on the phone and if I likes it i do the above and scan ,print and ink it.
it does help if you have a printer that prints out 11 by 17 though.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 10 May 2007, 01:05

SH wrote:A good way I find to keep inks fresh and also keeps your pencils seperate. is to scan in your pencils. then if you have Photoshop print them out on board as a blue line drawing.
that way your not intimidated about guffing up your pencils. Also you dont need to rub out the pencils because when you scan the art back in it only picks up the ink line.
I sometimes do a sketch on a scrap of paper while at work or on the phone and if I likes it i do the above and scan ,print and ink it.
it does help if you have a printer that prints out 11 by 17 though.

Interesting. Could the same be achieved penciling in blueline? (ie: Would the scanner only pick up the black inks, not the blue?)

Although personally I scan pages in as a bitmap, then convert them to greyscale or CMYK to work on in Photoshop.

Lew

SH · Post by SH » 10 May 2007, 16:50

yeah if the scanner is set to line drawing it wont pick up the blue. I always set the pixels high so its about 1300 resoulotion then reduce it once I have it scanned in. I only just started doing this and I love it . before when my pencils got heavy I wouldn't see mistakes in the ink until i rubbed out the pencil. try this link its pretty helpful.

http://www.steeldolphin-forums.com/html ... neart.html

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 10 May 2007, 17:05

SH wrote:yeah if the scanner is set to line drawing it wont pick up the blue. I always set the pixels high so its about 1300 resoulotion then reduce it once I have it scanned in. I only just started doing this and I love it . before when my pencils got heavy I wouldn't see mistakes in the ink until i rubbed out the pencil. try this link its pretty helpful.

http://www.steeldolphin-forums.com/html ... neart.html

Thanks Steve. I hate the boring task of erasing pencils so using a blue pencil would be very useful. Is there a specific type of pencil to use? I presume one can't just use any old blue pencil?

Lew

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