How to Draw Cartoons Step by Step

Have you ever seen a cartoonist on a kids show, teaching preschoolers how to draw cartoons step by step? I still remember my first exposure to it.

The show was Captain Ernie's Cartoon Showboat. It came on early - like 6:30 - weekday mornings on our local public television station. It was brilliant programming, because it gave me and my brother something to watch while we ate our breakfast of corn flakes and toast. With our parents getting ready for work and our lunches packed and maybe throwing a load in the washing machine, Captain Ernie's Cartoon Showboat was a blessing to us all.

What I remember is when Captain Ernie showed us how to draw a horse head. He drew two circles, one bigger than the other, and then connected them with a line from the top of the larger circle to the top of the smaller circle, and a second line from bottom to bottom. Immediately, it looked like the head of a horse. I was in awe. I heard my brother ask, "Did you see that?" and knew he was as stunned as I was.

That was a half century ago. I stayed with art, earning my BFA in 1971. I taught high school art classes in California for thirty years and now I'm retired. And you know what? I still doodle that horse head.

It may sound ridiculous to compare learning how to draw cartoons with capital "A" Art, but it's not. Any beginning class in life drawing starts the same way Captain Ernie started that horse head. You learn to break down objects into simple shapes, construct and connect the shapes and then start filling in the details. So don't kid yourself - learning how to draw cartoons step by step is learning how to draw, period.

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