Cartoons are fun, and they're easy to create with a few basic tricks. For this Sketchbook you will go through the basics of creating your own cartoon character. You may be using this character in your animation project.

Design a character and draw it showing different poses and facial expressions.  You should try to fill at least two pages.

Cartoon Character Elements
When you see animations, you probably don't think about how they're created. You watch the story and laugh at situations and the character’s funny expressions, completely unaware of the techniques and tricks behind the art. But an animation follows several rules, which we'll explore. The basics of any cartoon character are shape, proportion, identity, and expression. Expressions, or emotions, are what make a cartoon character great. There are many different shapes that form any character. These shapes are the reason you recognize your favorite cartoon character instantly.   When you start drawing animations, you'll want your characters to look the same when viewed at different angles, so it's important that you know how your characters are put together. Even if you create a character just by doodling on a napkin one night, create a "handbook" of how it should look using shapes.

Shapes
The character below was created by combining a variety of recognizable shapers: ovals, circles, triangles and half circles. By creating shapes like these, you'll always know what the parts your characters are made of, even when its expression changes. You create the body of a cartoon character the same way, and the same method applies whether your character is an animal, human, or something entirely different. Building cartoon characters from elements is not just a method for amateurs, but very common in cartoon creation.  After designing your character, draw it from different angles and positions. The famous cartoonist Carl Barks created detailed instructions for how the various Disney characters should look and also wrote notes on what made them different from each other. This way, other cartoonists had a "manual" of Donald, Mickey, and all the other characters.

Proportion
When you've created a rough draft of a cartoon character that you're satisfied with, you can use a simple trick to help you maintain the proportions of your character.  Proportions are vital for recognizing the character and getting it right in various situations.   A simple set of "help lines," will get you going. Until you can draw your cartoon half asleep, this is a very useful trick: Divide your character into natural pieces, such as head, torso, legs, and feet.  A quick glance at this "tool" can help you discover what's wrong with a new drawing--for example, if the head's too big for the body. You can often detect whether a cartoonist has just started out by the proportion mistakes he or she makes.

 The best cartooning advice is basically to "keep it simple." If you want to create a character that is fast to work with, you need to consider a few things. The more details you create in your character, the harder it will be to get them right every time and it will take a lot of time each time you draw a new one.  There is a reason why many famous cartoon characters consist of few lines and not so many details. Look at Bart Simpson, Mickey Mouse, or other famous characters and try to imagine what it would be like to draw them repeatedly if they had big, curly hair with lots of details, a jacket with fringe, glasses, and beards. Unless you have unlimited time and/or want to create artwork such as that seen in graphic novels, keep your character simple. The fewer lines the better. Moreover, that is where the challenge lies--to create a distinctive character with just a few lines. Pay extra attention to details as well, if you use them: Three strands of hair are not the same as two, and five fingers are not the same as three. The number of buttons or the pattern on clothing is also important.

 Character Identity
When working with cartoons, it's vital that your character can be easily identified.  Think of Mickey Mouse's silhouette, with his face and ears. You instantly recognize Mickey, right?  To see if your character has a great identity, you can simply fill an outlined drawing with color.  If what you have created doesn't look like anything else, then you have created an easily recognizable figure.  Make several drawings of different views so you'll know you have it right.  You don't want your character to be seen just from behind or in profile..

Attitudes and Expressions
After you have established an identity for your character, you'll need to look at attitudes and expressions. This includes how the character walks, moves, makes gestures, and shows expressions. Because most characters are made up of very few lines, it's very important for you to have decided upon your character's persona, when starting with expressions. Minor adjustments and changes to the eyes, for example, are enough to show various expressions.   Attitude is often expressed by the cartoon character's body.  When you see watch cartoons on TV, note that various cartoon types resemble each other.  The villains and thieves are often drawn similarly.  They can be thin with a sneaky look and curved back, and they lift their knees high when walking.  These are often the "clever" bad guys. They are also drawn as big, bulky figures when they're supposed to be the dumber villains.  Many head honchos of criminal gangs are depicted as small guys, with huge "torpedoes" at their sides--at least in cartoons and movies.  You don't have to stick to this kind of simplistic view of how criminals should look, but this kind of knowledge is helpful when you want to create simple characters that your audience will recognize instantly.  Try to be brave as well, and stay away from stereotypical details.  There's no cartoon bible that you can consult that states that all characters have four fingers. Just use your imagination.