The IGA Step-by-Step Guide to drawing your own cartoon character. Create your own Kids Club Character

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1 The IGA Step-by-Step Guide to drawing your own cartoon character Create your own Kids Club Character

2 Before putting pencil to paper... Hi fellow artists, we hope you have fun creating your own Kids club character! IGA have been creating cartoon characters for many years and thought we should write a short How to that explains how we create our own cartoon illustrations. We hope this information will help you design a winning drawing. Before you can start to draw a good character, you will need to think about the characters personality. The answers to these questions will help to imagine what your character will look like, how they dress, and how they stand or walk. Q Ask yourself the following questions: How old is you character? Are they a girl, guy or creature? Is your character nice or nasty, big or small, clever or stupid? What does your character like and dislike doing? What are they best at doing? Inter Galactic Alien - IGA for short Good at patrolling the skys for fruit invaders Space hero and good guy He is a Orange based life form Likes to eat fruit, Dislikes bad fruits Young Alien creature Dynamic, ready for action Write your answers down and then think about what this combination of characteristics may look like. Think about cartoons you watch on TV and try to remember how a nasty person would look when compared to a nice person, or how an old person may stand compared to a young person. You may know someone in real life who has the same characteristics as your creation. So think about what they dress & look like, and exaggerate these features. Think of a name that feels right for the type of personality you have created. It can help to make this person or creature more believable, you should be able to imagine what they like to eat, what they did on the weekend and who they hang around with. Keep notes in a sketch book as well as making little drawing notes.

3 Put your Ideas onto paper

4 Creating Grub & Bob We wanted to have a Kids Club character who would represent the youngest IGA Kids Club members. This character needed to be dynamic, fun, energetic, creative and friendly, and even though they may be the youngest character, they still have to be responsible and be able to think for themselves. What name suits your character? very active, always outdoors Eats a lot We thought of the name Grub as a nickname a parent or friend may have given him, because he is always eating (healthy food) to keep up his energy levels. The notes made on Grub were: He is like a little brother to the other Kids club kids, but he is old enough for the younger members to look up to. Grub is dynamic and likes to make himself look bigger than he is by taking up a lot of space. Eg. Arms waving and legs apart, to show his confidence. He s growing up fast and likes to wear his old favorite striped tee-shirt and blue shorts (they don t fit as well as they used to) Grub is Anglo-Australian with red hair, blue eyes, pale skin with freckles. He doesn t brush his hair in the mornings because he likes it just the way it is. His life is far too busy and exciting to be found watching the TV, so you will see him outdoors playing with his friends. Grub has a sidekick named Bob. Many cartoon characters have animal or alien friends. They help the main character make decisions on things. Bob the fish is like the voice of reason for the young, energetic Grub. He also helps give Grub a 2nd personality. We needed to choose a sidekick character that suited this personality. A dog was too playful, and a parrot was too noisy. We chose the goldfish because it s a sensible animal and has a good view of the world from its fishbowl. Very wise Friendly Now when we re ready to do a rough sketch of our character s pose. How will Grub hold Bob? Which way will he face? How will he stand? Do a rough sketch of your pose in pencil.

5 Facial Expressions Once we got the shape of Grub s face right, we started experimenting with expressions. What would Grub look like if he was happy, sad, worried, playful? What would his main expression be? Grub a a bit cheeky so we need a playful face. The first sketches we did weren t right. You can see he looks a bit old. that s because older people have longer faces while younger people have rounder faces and features. Look at your parents, are their faces oval or round? Look at your own face. Is it more oval or circular? If you re unsure, have a look at some comic books or at some cartoons on the internet. Simplify the shapes in your mind. Is that character s face round, or oval? Are his eyes big or small? Which way do the eyebrows go?

6 Colour him in! Now we ve got that all figured out we can start to flesh out the character. This means drawing in hands, legs, clothes, shoes and Grub s face over the stick figure we drew earlier. After that we erase all the lines that we don t need anymore. Then use a black pen or fineliner to trace over your lines. Now you can colour him in using pencils, markers, paint or even the computer. Add in the details!

7 The Finished Product!

8 Behind the Scenes Sometimes your final idea will look really different from your original idea. Here are some of our IGA charaters that have changed. If you re drawing more than one character, it s important to think about how they will look together. Do they work as a team? Is there good variation between all the characters? Can you tell the different personalities of the characters? Poppy Arty Joe + jenny Sporty Zapp Brainy Grub + Bob Playful Download this free colouring page at At first, Poppy was more of a tomboy and only wore pants. But we ve already got a tomboy Jenny so we decided to change Poppy s character by giving her a skirt and making her a bit more arty.

9 Sometimes your character will always have a prop or item that they always wear or carry around. Zapp had a skateboard. Later we took that out because it was taking up too much space on the screen. This was our very first drawing of Bob the fish. We thought he looked too old. The new Bob is much rounder, making him suit Grub much more.

10 IGA Kids Club Competition! Now that you ve learnt all the best tips on how to draw your own character, it s time for you to have a go! Don t forget to start off in pencil so you can erase any mistakes. Draw on some scrap pieces of paper if you want to practice. And remember, it s your very own IGA character, so they can look however you like. IGA is looking for one very creative entry to win the IGA Kids Club Drawing Competition. Enter by 10th May 2009 and you could win a Slim line Camera! The winning entry will also be featured on the IGA Kids Club Website AND other associated marketing material! How to Enter! Print out the form and draw in your Kids Club character. Fill in the information about your character and enter your contact details so we can contact you if you win! Post the form back by 15th May 2009 of 2009 to: IGA Kids Club Character Competition 50 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park NSW 2113 Terms and Conditions 1. Information on how to enter forms part of these terms and conditions. 2. Entries not completed in accordance with these terms and conditions are ineligible. 3. Children up to and including 12 years of age may enter this competition. 4. Entries must be received by 5pm Friday, 15th May You must be a registered IGA Kids Club member to be eligible to enter. 6. All entries will be judged on Monday, 18th June Prizes are non transferable and are not redeemable for cash. 8. The judge s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. 9. The winner will be announced on the IGA Kids Club website ( after 18th June. The winner will be contacted via phone and the prize will be mailed there after.

11 Hi! My name is Write your character s name here I like My hobby is Name: Age: Membership No: Phone No:

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