The thing I have always struggled with is ideas. To be a cartoonist being able to draw a funny looking person or thing is only part of the equation, and is probably the least important element. The main thing is the idea, without a funny idea a cartoon is nothing. A genuinely good idea, a funny line will survive a pretty scrappy, sketchy, stick-man drawing. There are plenty of cartoonists who have built a career with very simplistic, naïve or scribbly drawings, by ensuring the ideas behind them are genuinely funny. By contrast the most fantastic, detailed, beautifully crafted cartoon will mean nothing if it is not funny. I really admire those cartoonists that can turn in a genuinely funny gag with a beautifully crafted picture. One of my favourites in this line is Mike Williams, who consistently produces cartoons that you'd be happy to hang on any wall, whether they were funny or not, but the bonus is they are invariably very funny indeed. My personal favourite is this one:
...any way, back to where I started, getting these 'killer' ideas is the really tricky bit (in fact for me, getting any ideas at all is a bit of a problem). But whilst browsing round the local 'Oxfam' book shop I came across a book, entitled 'cartoon workshop: How to create humour'- which seemed to be the answer. Its not a book about how to draw cartoons, I have shelf full of those, but about how to generate funny ideas. So I invested my £2.49 and I plan to work my way through it and see if it works. as a bonus it contains some really funny examples of cartoons including some classic Mike Williams - result!
No comments:
Post a Comment