5 Things I Learned from Drawing Myself in Different Cartoonist's Styles

And 5 Reasons Why You Should Do It Too!

Well it’s Back to School week so I thought I would share one of my favorite projects.

In my Sophomore foundation Cartooning class, I have my students do many self portrait exercises. Some show off their ability to render realistically from reference, another pushes them to abstract to the barest forms while others show them how to exaggerate with symbols using stretch and squash.

The artist from the pen of Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz and Butch Hartman.

After being introduced to the basics of facial character design and inking, I give them a list of 162 cartoonists from different genres of Cartooning. This ranges from traditional comic book artists to kid lit illustrators to comic strip cartoonists to manga artists to editorial cartoonists etc etc.

The Rules

• They need to draw themselves 20 times in a different cartoonist’s style

• They need to choose at least one artist from each category on my list

  • (There are 9 in total)

• They need to build a mood board/slideshow of reference material to go back to

• They need to match the style of their character design, inking and rendering.

• They need to bring in at least 4 cartoonists that aren’t on the list that they are inspired by. (Everyone should be able to discover new artists!)

  

When I sometimes feel lost or unmotivated in my own work, I look to this project as an exercise to keep my hand and mind moving. I have drawn myself in 64 cartoonists styles so far out of the 162 on the list. (It is not a definitive list and I’m sure it has glaring absences on it but it’s a start!) I have only gotten through the Comic Strip Cartoonists, Children’s Book Illustrators, Editorial Cartoonists and half of the magazine cartoonists on the list.

What I Learned

1. Seek Energy Over Precision - (Stop Worrying about Perfection!)

   The imperfect line or rendering can be better than the perfect one. This makes their style unique. Style becomes a byproduct of imperfection. Someone like Quentin Blake, Shel Silverstein, Jules Feiffer or Matt Davies seek energy in their line rather than precision. They draw the eye for the right reason.

   

2. There is No Right Answer - (Stop Looking for It!)

   I don’t know why they like to use a varied line versus a static one or why they use only spot blacks or only hatching or why they choose to do everything in an angular side profile or a fluid 3D 3/4 view. There is no right answer! They are building their own unique world and bringing you into it.

   

3. Everyone is Using the Same Tools - (So Stop Asking!)

   Well, not literally. They use digital software, pens, nibs, brushes, pencil or even a combination of them all - whatever! What I mean is they have the same tools at their disposal - line, shape, value, texture (in some cases, color) to create character and form. It’s how you choose to employ it that makes it uniquely you.

   

4. Story and Content Informs Style - (Stop Worrying about Yours!)

   If I am doing a humorous cartoon, I probably won’t choose a realistic style and if I am doing a more dramatized serious story, then I will choose a style to match it. Think of Wally Wood and Jack Davis’s EC Comics Tales from the Crypt art style compared to their cartoony simplified style for MAD Magazine! Both amazing but very different!

   

   Still, this is not always true - Matt Diffee draws more realistically than any other New Yorker cartoonist and Art Spiegelman drew in a very cartoony style for Maus. Do Diffee’s deadpan figures and expressions make the punchlines even funnier? YES! Does Spiegelman’s use of cartoon rats and mice make the holocaust stories of his parents more impactful and accessible? YES! It needs to help sell the story in the best way.

   

5. Even Your Influences Have Influences - (Who are Yours?)

   If I try to draw Walt Kelly’s style and then Jeff Smith’s right after it, I will see definite influence in the line work and thick to thin luscious brushwork. This is not to say that Jeff Smith is not doing something completely different because he is - but the influence is there. It’s nice to see your influences influences, and eventually you can discover new hidden gems and make a family tree of sorts.

   

Why You Should Do It Too

1. Think of it as Mini Master Copies

   Drawing in someone else’s style means you really have to sit with their work and analyze it. Why did they choose to draw hair like that? How would they draw my hair or my nose or my jaw line? Is their line work static, open or varied? How do they render the form? You can learn a lot from delving into someone’s work for a sustained period of time and mimicking their process to complete it. We see so many images in our daily life but don’t really sit down and think about them critically like we should. Everyone sets their own rules for their world. Now go set your own rules!

   

2. Good Artists Steal

   You might like the way this person renders hair or how this person uses bold line work or how this person uses stippling for their noses! If you steal the whole thing from one person, then it is plagiarism. But if you steal lots of little things from many people and put it together into a Frankenstein’s monster, then you’re an artist! Your style evolves naturally from this and can change over time because of it.

   

3. You Can Learn from EVERYBODY

   I am a very cartoony and simplified cartoonist. I like to do a lot with a little for my (hopefully) humorous comics but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn a lot from more realistic editorial cartoonists or traditional comic book artists or manga artists! Every new person is an opportunity to learn something new and change how or who you are as an artist. I’m in my comfort zone so far but will be out of it in the traditional comic book artists. That’s a good thing. A good welcomed challenge.

   

4. Researching Cartoonists is a lot of Fun

   I love learning about cartoonists and the thoughts behind their work. I love to know quirky stories about how cartoonists changed the world - such as coining terms politically (Herblock and Walt Kelly!) and socially (Peter Arno!) or even how Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse comic strip caused Hitler and Mussolini to fight during World War II! Hitler thought they were American propaganda but Mussolini refused to stop running them in his papers because he liked them so much! (At least Mussolini got something right!)

   

5. You Get to be a Part of Their World

   You get to see yourself in your favorite video game, comic book, children’s book, manga, webcomic, comic strip, movie or tv show! You get their interpretation of you! Plus you didn’t have some plastic looking, environment killing AI atrocity do it! You get it for free and learn a lot while doing it!

   

Well What Are You Waiting For?!

Make your own list of artists you love, spend some time with their work and make some yourself! Hopefully, some day someone will be sitting with your work and trying to figure out how you do things.