Animation Foundations: Drawing Cartoon Characters

Course details

Learn to draw cartoon characters for classical cel animation, digital animation, comic books, or just for fun. In this course, Dermot O' Connor reviews the basics of character drawing and the principals that underlie effective characters: silhouette, exaggeration, squash and stretch, asymmetry, texture, line weight, and more. Then he focuses on drawing individual body parts—eyes, mouths, hands, and hair—as well as different types of animals, creatures, and objects. Finally, watch Dermot take a drawing from start to finish, creating a memorable character ready for handoff to animators.

Follow along with your favorite illustration program, your Wacom tablet, or paper and pen.

Learning objectives
Drawing gesture and attitude drawings
Creating thumbnail drawings
Understanding line of action, negative space, exaggeration, and more
Drawing eyes and mouths
Drawing feet and hands
Drawing animals
Going from rough sketch to full-color drawing

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome
02 - Understanding the exercise handout - Print it out

1. Basics Overview

03 - Body types, proportions, and construction
04 - Gesture and attitude drawings
05 - Thumbnails
06 - Composition and camera angles

2. Understanding Drawing for Animation

07 - Line of action reversals
08 - Silhouette and negative space
09 - Counterpose torque
10 - Exaggeration
11 - Squash and stretch - Understanding volume
12 - Straight vs. curves and parallels
13 - Breaks on curves
14 - Vary shapes, asymmetry, and texture
15 - Point of origin
16 - Open and closed areas
17 - Tangents
18 - Materials and drag
19 - Line weight

3. Drawing Body Parts - Detail

20 - Understanding anatomy
21 - An introduction to drawing eyes
22 - Eyelids, eye blinks, and eyebrows
23 - Drawing realistic eyes
24 - Drawing cartoony mouths
25 - Drawing realistic and stylized mouths
26 - Drawing the nose
27 - Drawing ears
28 - Adding details to build character in a drawing
29 - Drawing hands
30 - Drawing hands - Details, touching hands, and fine points
31 - Drawing hand styles
32 - Feet
33 - Hair and beards
34 - Drawing clothes and flowing materials
35 - Drawing animals
36 - Drawing creatures
37 - Drawing cartoon effects for animation
38 - Drawing objects

4. Bringing It All Together

39 - Bringing it all together

5. Full Drawing - From Start to Finish

40 - Starting with a rough construction
41 - Tie down
42 - Cleanup
43 - Troubleshooting and plussing
44 - Model sheet and turnaround
45 - Advice on drawing in different styles
46 - Adding color to your drawing

Conclusion

47 - Next steps