You’ve seen the videos. Someone takes a Sharpie, scribbles a shaky circle, adds two dots, and suddenly there’s a living, breathing personality on the page. It looks like magic. Honestly, it kind of is. But here’s the thing: most people think they can’t draw a cartoon characters because they’re trying to draw "well" instead of drawing "clearly."
Cartoons aren't about anatomy. They’re about symbols.
Think about Mickey Mouse. If you look at an actual mouse, it’s a twitchy, brown, triangular rodent with tiny black eyes. Mickey is three circles. That’s it. If you can draw a circle, you’re already halfway to a career at Disney, or at least a very popular Instagram account. The gap between "I can't draw a stick figure" and "I can make people laugh with a sketch" is way smaller than you think.
The Geometry of Personality
Most beginners jump straight into the eyelashes or the cool sneakers. Stop that. You have to start with the "bean." Whether you’re looking at the work of Chuck Jones or modern artists like Dana Terrace, everything starts with simple, chunky volumes.
A square character feels stable, stubborn, or maybe just a bit dim-witted. Think of Wreck-It Ralph. He’s a brick. A triangular character? That screams danger or speed. Look at Phineas from Phineas and Ferb. His head is literally a triangle. Circles are soft, huggable, and safe. When you draw a cartoon characters, you’re basically playing with blocks like a toddler, just with more intent.
There’s this concept in animation called "squash and stretch." It was pioneered by the "Nine Old Men" at Disney back in the 1930s. It’s the idea that a character shouldn't be rigid. If they jump, they squash down like a water balloon before springing up. Even in a static drawing, you can imply this. A character who is "squashed" looks burdened or impactful. A "stretched" one looks fast or surprised.
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Why Your Sketches Feel Dead
You’re probably making them too symmetrical. Humans—and cartoon humans—are messy. If you draw both eyes exactly the same size, on the exact same horizontal line, your character will look like a robot. Or a serial killer.
In the industry, we talk about the "Line of Action." It’s an imaginary curved line that runs through the character's spine. If your character is standing straight up like a 2x4, they have no life. But if you curve that spine into a "C" shape or an "S" shape, suddenly they’re leaning into a wind or moping in sadness.
Expert illustrators like Stephen Silver, who designed the characters for Kim Possible, emphasize the "silhouette test." If you fill your character in with solid black ink, can you still tell what they’re doing? If it just looks like a black blob, your pose is weak. You need negative space. You need "the gap." If a character is scratching their head, make sure there’s a clear space between the elbow and the torso.
Tools Don't Make the Artist, But They Help
Let's talk gear for a second. You don't need a $3,000 Wacom Cintiq. Plenty of pros are out here using a basic iPad with Procreate or even just a Pilot G2 pen and a stack of printer paper. The "Blue Pencil" technique is a classic for a reason. Using a non-photo blue pencil allows you to sketch messy, loose shapes that don't show up when you scan the art or go over it with a heavy black liner.
- Pencils: 2B is the sweet spot. Soft enough to smudge, hard enough to keep a point.
- Digital: Procreate is the king of mobile, but Clip Studio Paint is what the comic book industry actually runs on.
- Paper: If you’re going analog, get something with "tooth" so the graphite actually sticks.
The Secret Language of Eyes and Mouths
The eyes are where the soul lives, obviously. But in cartooning, the eyebrows do 90% of the heavy lifting. You can keep the eyes exactly the same, but if you tilt the eyebrows inward, the character is angry. Tilt them upward in the middle? They’re worried.
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The mouth shouldn't just be a line. It should follow the "muzzle" of the face. Even on a human character, there’s a slight protrusion where the teeth and lips sit. When you draw a cartoon characters from a 3/4 view—the most common angle in animation—the far side of the mouth should be slightly compressed. It’s a perspective trick that makes the face feel round instead of flat like a pancake.
Breaking the Rules of Reality
Realism is the enemy of a good cartoon. If you want to draw a tall person, don't just make them a bit taller. Make them freakishly tall. Give them legs that take up 80% of their body height. This is called "pushing the pose" or "exaggeration."
If a character is surprised, their eyes shouldn't just widen. Their eyeballs should literally pop out of their skull. Their hat should fly six inches off their head. This is the visual shorthand that tells the viewer's brain exactly how to feel without them having to think about it.
I remember reading an interview with a storyboard artist who worked on The Simpsons. They mentioned that early on, the characters were "uglier" and more experimental. Over time, they became "on-model," which means they followed strict rules about how many spikes are on Bart’s hair (it’s nine, by the way). While being "on-model" is great for a multi-million dollar show, it can kill your creativity when you're just starting. Mess up. Make them weird. Give them three arms if it helps tell the story.
Actionable Steps to Improve Today
Don't just read this and go back to scrolling. If you actually want to get better, you have to put the graphite to the page.
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First, go find a "character line-up" from a show you love, like Gravity Falls or Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Don't trace them. Instead, try to find the "bones." Draw the circles and squares that make up their bodies. This trains your brain to see the structure underneath the clothes and hair.
Second, practice "gesture drawing." Give yourself 30 seconds—literally 30 seconds—to draw a character in a dynamic pose. You won't have time for details. You’ll only have time for the energy and the flow. This kills the perfectionism that stops most people from ever finishing a drawing.
Lastly, start a "morgue file." This is an old-school term for a folder full of references. Collect weird noses, cool shoes, and interesting hairstyles from the real world. When you sit down to draw a cartoon characters, you’ll have a library of "parts" to pull from.
The best way to start is to draw the same character five times, but change their emotion each time. Start with "Ecstatic" and end with "Bored to Tears." Notice how the eyelids drop and the shoulders slump. That’s where the character actually starts to live. Stop worrying about the "right" way to do it. Just draw the bean. Add some eyes. See what happens.