How to Draw and Sell Digital Cartoons

by Leo Hartas

In recent years, the computer has become an all-important cartoonist's medium, and this practical, hands-on guide shows how to create professional quality digital cartoons. The author opens with advice on setting up a digital studio and gives tips on how to work smart, work fast, and keep operating expenses low. He follows with advice on transform-ing good graphic ideas into finished work, training the imagination, striving for original-ity, and developing the technique of self-criticism. Other details covered include planning and writing scripts, writing captions for single-frame cartoons, storyboarding, making preliminary sketches on the computer, and mastering line art, color, and 3D techniques. Finally, he offers detailed advice on how to get one's digital art seen by potential buyers, how to get it published, how to set fees, and the importance of time management and meeting deadlines. Here is a textbook and reference volume for today's cartoonist, with information and advice that will remain pertinent for years to come. Approximately 400 illustrations in both color and black and white.

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2004

Reviews

[Candy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is visually stunning and technically informative, but the topics, techniques, and technologies are so beyond my experiences with hand-drawn traditional cartooning, and that is frustrating. Not to diminish from the high quality of this book, but styles such as realism, sci-fi, fantasy, 3D animation-style renderings, and superhero comics dominate, so the title is somewhat deceiving for an artist trying to recreate their traditional strip cartoons in the digital age.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting tips re: brainstorming and the digitization of comics (pixels and vectors and bitmaps, oh my!)