When I joined the course I hoped I would be able to learn to draw some basic stuff, maybe an occasional cartoon for use on my website.
I'd already seen the work of others who had done the original course so I knew what was possible. Even so I was doubtful that I would achieve the same level of competence.
The first part of the course seemed a little odd initially.
A week drawing circles appeared a bit bizarre. However having done other Psychotactics courses I knew there was a purpose in what we were doing even if I couldn't see it to start with.
The purpose quickly became apparent as we graduated from random circles into real drawings of teddy bears and Snoopy.
It all started to fall into place as each week built on the previous week's work as we learned the basics of cartooning. I liked this approach as it meant I learned to do something thoroughly before moving onto a new concept.
Learning to draw stick figures appeared rather late in the course and to begin with I felt this should have come pretty much at the beginning.
However stick figures turned out to be a lot more difficult to draw than I imagined. I now see why it makes sense to leave them this late in the course.
I decided to take the second part of the course as I had learnt so much in the first part I wanted to build on my new found skills.
And it has been very useful continuing. Effectively it's enabled me to go from being a competent cartoonist to being a more professional one. I've enjoyed learning the little things that make a big difference to a cartoon.
Things like line thickness variation, perspective, big and small, foreground, middle and background, colours, contrast and shadows all helped me make my cartoons come alive.
Things like shadows which had always been something of a mystery suddenly started to make sense.
My main fear tended to be about what to draw.
However I found the best way to solve this was just to search on Google images for inspiration. This served two purposes. First it overcame the fear of not knowing what to draw. And second I often learnt great techniques by observing how other professional cartoonists had drawn something.
Just as I did with the Article Writing Course course, I didn't leave things until too late in the day.
Although I did most of my drawing in the afternoon rather than in the morning due to business commitments.
I typically set aside an hour for cartooning,sometimes it takes longer and occasionally less than an hour.
I found both the feedback from group members and learning from their work was motivational. I also learned a lot of things by observing others' work and was able to incorporate them into my own drawings.
The group involvement works very well, particularly when struggling with something. Encouraging comments soon get you back on track.
Before starting the course about the only thing I could draw was a conclusion.
There wasn't a single participant who didn't learn how to draw decent cartoons.
It really is as Sean says: anyone can learn to draw cartoons provided you follow the assignments.
Some people pick up techniques quicker than others, nonetheless anybody will become a competent cartoonist by just doing the work and learning from mistakes made along the way.
I would recommend the cartooning course to anybody that wants to learn to draw competently. Provided you can set aside an hour a day and complete the lessons you will be drawing great cartoons in under six months.
Whilst I can't think of a specific incident family and friends have been pretty amazed at some of the cartoons I've drawn. And so have I!
It has been and continues to be immense fun. Drawing each day is a habit I intend to continue for a long time to come.
