Team India captain Virat Kohli is an example of passion backed by lots of hard work & dedication. Even for other professions, this ‘formula’ is worth following.
I receive messages from many youngsters who want to make a career in cartooning. Their passion for this art form is really touching. But beyond passion any profession needs loads of hard work and dedication. It’s important to support your passion, before getting support from cartoon lovers.
After I have started uploading short cartoon tutorials, there have been an increase in the number of queries from cartoon enthusiasts. That’s a good sign.
Though, I as a professional cartoonist work within my boundary of skills, every cartoon is a lesson and teaches me something. Same with these tutorials. While I pretend to share whatever I know through these tutorials, the truth is I learn a lot while sharing.
Coming to editorial cartooning, let me disappoint you with a harsh truth. Drawing is just one part of editorial cartooning. Rather not a very crucial part. Idea is what matters most for me in an editorial cartoon. Of course, the drawing skills should be good enough to convey the idea convincingly. Unfortunately no amount of tutorials can teach you the magic of creating fantastic ideas. It’s spontaneous, crazy and the most unpredictable!
Caricature is an important element in editorial cartoons. As characters are like actors in your cartoons, caricaturing skills will help you ‘hire’ the right characters in your cartoons.
My caricaturing skill is a work-in-progress. But I keep trying to improve this area. Still I would love to share with cartoon-enthusiasts whatever I know in this area.
This caricature tutorial is one such effort. For this tutorial I picked Virat Kohli as the subject, as I find his face very distinctive, full of prominent features.
And a little bit about the tools I use for cartooning. Earlier I used to draw with pencil and then ink with pens/ink-brush. After the inking, I used to scan the drawing to computer and color it in photoshop using mouse. Using mouse for coloring was tedious. Two years back, I bought a Wacom Cintiq and after the initial jitters, managed to get a hang of it.
Now I draw directly on photoshop using Cintiq, though I miss drawing on paper. Cintiq saves lots of time for me, it’s convenient and it gives me lots of options.
Enjoy these two videos, one on the basic structure of Virat Kohli’s caricature and the second one is the coloring part(though a different drawing)
Don’t hesitate to ask questions.
