Immerse yourself in a cartoon world
Paper plants and cardboard cut outs adorn a shop window, layers of flat cardboard and simple black lines play with your perception of space. A 2-dimensional world where any real objects seem to leap out as if they are crossing a boundary between cartoon-land and reality. In a white room in which every item of furniture has been hand drawn; a plain white box can become a bathtub, or a closet, or a rocket ship.
These bold, simple but playful icons perfectly suit the skillset of many graphic recorders and illustrators. In fact as visual workers, many of us will look at these images as reassuringly achievable.
image via cartonlab
As advancements in technology allow increasingly for hyperrealistic CGI, the classic hand drawn cartoons many of us grew up with are becoming a thing of the past. But not in the world of marketing where there is something about simple cartoon line illustrations that is drawing businesses in. An environment created with cartoon imagery is a door to a world of possibility.
“Objects can be far more than just pretty pictures. How you draw the interior of an apartment, for example can say a lot about the character who lives in it.” - Cartoonist and comic theorist Scott McCloud
The language of childhood
Drawing an environment in a cartoon style allows the creators to curate every aspect of the room, and tell a story to the viewer. Like Alice entering Wonderland, the customer steps from their reality into a world designed to delight and intrigue them, and encourage them to act. Cartoons are the language of childhood. When a brand surrounds their customer with cartoon imagery, that playfulness resurfaces. The customer becomes a character in a scene designed to entice a response; whether it’s to remember the brand, buy a product or share their experience.
Seoul Café Yeonnam-dong 239-20 via Vale
“In a cartoon world you can become a character inside a story that hasn’t been written yet.” - Graphic Change founder Cara Holland .
In a world where so much of the imagery we see is absorbed through a digital screen, being immersed in cartoon spaces invites us to imagine. The simple lines and 2-dimensional shapes leave room for our minds to fill in gaps of colour and texture.
Top Tips
If you want to have a go at your own cartoon style imagery, here are four Top Tips to help you draw in a cartoon style:
Get Out of Your Own Way!
Cartoons are supposed to be simple - their simplicity makes them great tools for communication - so if you draw a stick figure to show a person, as long as it’s communicating ‘person’ you’re drawing an effective cartoon.
2. Everything is Shapes
Look around you. That mug is just a tube with a C stuck to it. That plant? It’s a cluster of hearts on sticks coming out of bucket. Your phone? That’s a rectangle.
Break things down into the simplest shapes you can. How can squares, circles, triangles and lines be arranged into the shape of a cat, or a person, or a car? (Pro Tip: Draw a hat, basically any hat, put wheels on the bottom and you’ve drawn yourself a car. I guarantee you this works every time!)
Check out Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book: “Make A World” for inspiration on how you can turn simple shapes into any object or animal.
illustrations by Graphic Change
3. First Impressions
Thinking about descriptive words while you draw can help you to bring that impression out in your drawing. Ask yourself, is the thing you are drawing; hairy, whispy, hefty, floaty, slippery, rough, smooth, fuzzy, rounded, lumpy? Try to let the way you hold your pen imitate those words, a scratchy, jagged line will communicate a rough texture to the viewer - a seamless, rounded line communicates a softer feeling.
4. Be Bold
Use a thick black pen on a plain white paper or card. Make your outlines super bold. Cut out your bold shapes and move them around to create different scenes.
Good luck and don’t forget to have fun!
Cara : )
Share your experiments in cartoon style with me @graphicchange over on twitter or insta.
Here at Graphic Change we can draw you a cartoon room of your very own. We also offer a whole range of visual services and visual thinking training : )
We work with individuals and businesses helping them to get the benefits of working more visually.
To find out more about our online courses, head over to our Graphic Change Academy site.
Or, buy my book Draw A Better Business.
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