ART with DESCH

a place to find class information, student work, events and inspiration

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 1: Due Friday Feb. 21st

Sketch 1: Line is one of the most commonly used elements of art. Line can be straight or curved, horizontal or vertical, thick or think. Use a pencil to invent 10 different types of line as you can of think of.

Sketch 2: Complete a contour line drawing of a made up character of your choice.

Sketch 3: Complete gesture drawing of a person or animal.

Sketch 4: Draw a favorite cartoon character that you remember from your childhood.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 2: Due Friday Feb. 28th

Think about something you do every day that takes several steps to complete, such as getting ready for school. On a page of your sketchbook, draw out the steps, starting on the left side. If you need more space use multiple pages in your book. Make sure your drawings take up to at least five steps. Key idea: these do not have to be detailed drawings, sketches are what I am looking for here.

Sketch 1: Draw the five steps to one of your daily activities.

Sketch 2: Draw the five steps to a different daily activity.

Sketch 3: Draw the five steps to an activity that maybe you don't do everyday but something you enjoy doing on a regular or semi-regular basis.

Sketch 4: Draw the five steps to any activity that you or another person completes.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 3: Due Friday March 6th

Looking at and copying master comic strip artists is an excellent way to improve your character development and drawing skills. This week I want you to study the work of two masters; Bill Watterson and Charles Schulz.

Sketch 1: Search for a funny sample of a Bill Watterson's comic, Calvin and Hobbes. Complete a sketch of 1-2 of the panels. Not the entire strip just 1-2 boxes which are called panels.

Sketch 2: Search for another funny sample Bill Watterson's comic, Calvin and Hobbes.. Complete a sketch of 1-2 panels of the example.Not the entire strip just 1-2 boxes which are called panels.

Sketch 3: Find, read and then Copy and sketch a Charles Schulz Peanuts Comic Strip, draw 1-2 panels of the strip.Not the entire strip just 1-2 boxes which are called panels.

Sketch 4: Find, read and then Copy and sketch a second Charles Schulz Peanuts Comic Strip, draw 1-2 panels of the strip.Not the entire strip just 1-2 boxes which are called panels.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 4: Due Friday March 13th

Comics are about communicating ideas with pictures and words. A cartoon needs to convey important information to the reader without having to say it. For example, if your main character is a crime fighting duck, your readers need to immediately recognize it as both a duck and a crime fighter.

Make three columns, label them "Animal" "job" and "description". “Description” could be personality traits and/or physical traits. In each column, write a list of examples. At least 4 in each column.

Sketch 1: Mix and match the columns and sketch/draw one of these characters.

Sketch 2: Mix and match the columns and sketch/draw another one of these characters.

Sketch 3: Replace the categories with other things such as vegetables instead of animals or super powers instead of jobs. Draw/sketch one.

Sketch 4: Replace again and draw/sketch one more of these characters.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 5: Due Friday March 20th

One of the best ways to show emotion on a character is through facial expressions. The face may seem complicated to draw at first, but when you follow a few simple steps you can draw all kinds of faces! The best way to draw anything is to break it down into a few simple steps.

Sketch 1: Face Shapes:

Most faces are oval, but some look angular. Draw five different face shapes. Once you draw face shapes you are happy with, lightly make guidelines across the faces. Draw vertical and horizontal lines in the middle of your face shapes to help guide you as to where to place the rest of the features.

Sketch 2: Noses

The nose is often used as a reference point on the face because it doesn't change shape as often as eyes, eyebrows, and the mouth. The bottom line of the nose is usually halfway between the horizontal guideline and the chin. Draw 5 different noses.

Sketch 3: Eyes

Every cartoonist has his or her own style of drawing eyes. But the darkest part of the eye, the pupil, almost always goes on the horizontal guidleline. Draw five different sets of eyes.

Sketch 4: Mouth

The mouth is an important part of facial expression. One curve upwards or downwards and the entire look of your character changes. Draw five different mouths.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 6: Due Friday March 27th

Cartoon faces need to be attached to cartoon bodies to do stuff such as run, dance, sit and fly. Get ready to draw cartoon bodies, bones first! Stick figures also called Wire Framing, give us a general idea of where to put everything on our final drawing. Like the bones in your body, these lines give us a frame to build the meat of our characters.

Sketch 1: Draw a figure using the stick figure – wire framing technique. Draw a middle action line and then add the arms and legs. Use an oval, triangle or rectangle to show the mid section and little circles for all of the joints like the shoulders, knees etc. Add the head, hands and feet.

Sketch 2: Repeat. Draw another wire framed figure in a different position. Make sure to follow the guidelines in sketch 1.

Sketch 3: Draw yet another wire framed stick figure but this time try “bulking out” the stick figure. This means you draw lines around the wire framing to show the actual body.

Sketch 4: Repeat sketch 3 in a different position.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 7: Due Friday April 3rd

Some parts of a character are really tricky to draw. The two that cartoonists struggle with the most are hands and feet. Let’s practice these tricky parts so you can improve your skils.

Sketch 1: Try drawing one of your hands with detail.

Sketch 2: Try drawing one of your feet, without shoes, in detail.

Sketch 3: Draw a pair of non-human hands.

Sketch 4: Draw a pair of non-human feet.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 8: Due Friday April 10th

Caricature is a picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic effect. Try your best at sketching some caricatures.

Sketch 1: A caricature of Trump or a past president.

Sketch 2: A caricature of someone you know, a friend or family member.

Sketch 3: A caricature of a celebrity.

Sketch 4: A caricature of one of your teachers.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 9: Due Friday April 24th

Creating backgrounds, locations and context is an important part of storytelling in the art of cartooning. Consider where one of your characters would fit into each location. You do not have to draw a character in each sketch, it is optional.

Sketch 1: Draw a landscape, an outdoor natural location. For example, a lake with mountains or an ocean scene.

Sketch 2: Draw an urban location. Find a photo of a famous city online to help as a reference.

Sketch 3: Draw a suburban location, like Duvall! Think of a park or neighborhood in our town and sketch it.

Sketch 4: Draw a room from the inside of a home, business or school. You could simply draw your room for this sketch.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 10: Due Friday May 1st

Design a Cast of Characters. If you saw just a dark outline of your favorite cartoon character, you could probably tell who it was from its shape. Russell from the movie Up looks like an egg, Popeye is skinny with a knobby head and huge forearms, and Sponge Bob is, well a sponge! Interesting shapes make interesting characters. Practice making different characters out of everyday shapes.

Sketch 1: Find Five small objects from around the house such as vegetables, fruit, bottles, glasses, boots, electronics etc. Arrange the objects in front of you and draw each shape. Do the shapes suggest any body types to you?

Sketch 2: Turn each of the five shapes you just drew into five different body types. Sketch out the face, arms, legs. Etc. Bring them to life! Add details and give them names.

Sketch 3: Now that you have an awesome cast of characters, it’s time to show them off in a comic strip! Sketch a rough idea for a 4-5 panel comic strip that includes your unusual cast of characters that you invented in Sketch 1 and 2.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 11: Due Friday May 8th

Sketches 1-4(make 4 drawings in other words)

Copy FOUR cartoon characters from the following list. Search online and copy the characters for practice. If you feel the need to be a little more creative with the assignment, go ahead and add background or change the style/technique of the original artist.

The Simpsons, The Flintstones, Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo, Sponge-Bob, Family Guy, South Park, Adventure Time,
Animaniacs, Archer, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Beavis and Butt-Head, Bob's Burgers, Daria, Futurama, George of the Jungle
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Jem and the Holograms, The Jetsons, King of the Hill
Mighty Mouse, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Phineas and Ferb, Pinky and the Brain, Popeye the Sailor, Ren & Stimpy
The Smurfs, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tom and Jerry, ThunderCats, Woody Woodpecker

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 12: Due Friday May 15th

Sketch 1: Sketch one of your favorite superhero characters.

Sketch 2: Draw your own idea for your own superhero character. Start with a wire framed stick figure and then go from there with added details.

Sketch 3: Write out a short backstory about your invented superhero. Think about the classic superheroes like Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man, The Hulk etc. What do they all have in common? Strong identities, strong costumes and great backstory that included their creation story.

Sketch 4: Every hero needs a villain or a nemesis! Draw your own villain, but think about your hero as you design this character. Who would be the opposite of your hero? Why would your hero need to protect the world from the villain?

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 13: Due Friday May 22nd

Manga. Let’s take a moment and travel to Japan. Post World War II Japanese comics became the most popular form of comics in the world. Look online and study the Manga style.

Sketch 1: Manga characters tend to have thin bodies, with long arms and legs. Start by copying one of the Manga characters you found online.

Sketch 2: Draw a manga style face. Unlike oval face shapes of American comics, the general shape of a manga face is a large circle. Draw circular face shape. The horizontal line doesn’t go through the center of the face instead it should go about two-thirds down from the top of the head. This is to give enough room for the large, iconic manga eyes. Also, the noses are often very small.

Sketch 3: Attempt to turn a well known American cartoon character into a Manga style character.

Sketch 4: Chibi. In Manga, a certain type of character drawing is known as the chibi. A chibi is a shortened of the main character and it often looks like a child. Chibi are used to show extreme emotions and for comic relief. Look at some chibi online and try your own version of one.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 14: Due Friday May 29th

Sketches 1-4: Draw whatever you like, what you enjoy or what interests you. In other words, this is a free week. Make something creative or if you just want to practice some techniques, go for it! You could also paint or collage, or use whatever materials you have on hand. Make sure to make FOUR DRAWINGS or Use up FOUR Pages.

Cartooning Sketchbook Assignment 15: Due Friday June 5th

Optional Extra Credit Sketchbook Assignment 16 Week: Due Friday June 12th

FOUR DRAWINGS: Continue to draw an original superhero concept in four different panel designs. Your character could be doing different things and in different locations in each separate panel. You will need to develop it past a thumbnail sketch.