Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
I feel like I'm repeating the obvious here, but I wasn't saying that being inspired by someone else is bad. But here's someone who's still very much untrained, who tries to skip the whole getting-good-at-drawing part and wants to become a cartoonist right away. Which is just silly, I hope you'll agree.

Depends on your definition of "cartoonist". Have you seen some of those strips you get in newspapers? Being able to draw isn't exactly a prerequisite [smile].

Cartooning is funny in that it is entirely possible to get decent results by learning a series of tricks that "work", which is part of the reason why I like the medium; it's easier to get good looking cartoons than life drawings. The big downside is that as an artist you'll be extremely limited in what you can draw, meaning you'll never be as good or versatile as a artist that doesn't need to rely on the tricks.

Well no one really expects to look at a work of art when looking at the funnies. People are usually in too much of a rush in the morning to enjoy any kind of great detail in a 2 to 3 frame comic. You definitely have to know how to draw well before being able to draw badly though, to good effect anyways. I believe there are rules, universal constants that connect all of the great comic artists in their stylistic development. The success of those styles likely revolves around developing an associable consistent thematic (in overall artistic style) that people can identify with quickly and easily. Thats the difficult part of it because the comic visuals have to be generally very threadbare in the actual layout of the drawing but also have a flair that catches the eye.

Its in my belief that commitment to vision is of the greatest necessity when developing a drawing style. To make sure that there is enough stablity and consistency within visual schemes such as shapes and proportions with particular parts of the human anatomy or some other mechanic of the drawings work to keep the style grounded so that people can understand there is a form to it all and therefore be more open to accepting the credibility of the layout. A drawing can be crappy and still be good if there is a consistency to that crapness. its all about purpose and the visual cues help sell this premise. That is why its important to sell it with consistency.

People (especially the artist behind Ren and Stimpy) were chiselling family guy for its lack of artistic 'merit' in the visuals. It is true that the drawing style of the show isn't flashy but the animators and artists are very committed to making the bland character models come to life so that the characters themselves are easier to 'see'. I mean, the drawing style itself isn't so distracting that the nuance of each character becomes difficult to follow. The incredible voicework is what sells the characters but the fluidness of the design in Family Guy makes it easier for the characters to become fully realized. I find that the simplicity of the design in Family Guy to be one of its strengths. Its not groundbreaking but it doesn't need to be. The characters are much more identifiable and as a result endearing in the long run. This is one of the many reasons why Family Guy is technically brilliant.

Anyways, training is essential if anything for realizing little things like this that artists can work with while trying to create a layout for a new fictional universe. I wanted to draw comics for a long time but simply don't have the talent or patience for that kind of work. Maybe I'll pick it up again.