I was working through an article at the weekend based on building up a videogame scene in Photoshop, combining a realistic photographic backdrop with cartoon characters in the foreground. This was so much fun, I’ve decided I should really be able to make little cartoon people from scratch.
I haven’t really done any drawing or sketching for a really long time, but this seems like a really fun thing to get my head around. I also hadn’t really been exposed to some of the techniques you can use in producing cartoon work digitally, so I’m currently reading through Digital Manga Techniques and starting to learn. I made my first manga character last night, and it didn’t turn out to be the monster I was expecting.
As I don’t particularly have a technique yet, it seemed like I should jump straight in and learn to work directly on a PC using a tablet. I know a lot of people sketch on paper, scan the images and work from there. However it seems (to me) that it’s so much more versatile to work directly.
I think sketching with a tablet probably takes longer to get the hang of, but you can do all kinds of things like move bits of the sketch around, rework sections, undo bad strokes etc. The technique I was trying involved making a very rough sketch, taking the opacity of the layer down to about 30%, then sketching it again on a new layer. By repeating this several times you can refine the design, until it’s ready to use in creating an ink outline for the final piece.
I also love how you can go back when you’re finished, and see the image gradually building up by making each layer visible. You can also try out different colours and shading styles, and keep the alternate versions. All of this is generally much less scary than working on paper where everything you do is a little more permanent.
I know it will take a while before I get the hang of this, but I’d love to be able to produce designs that combine elements of photo realism with cartoon drawing. I’ve also decided to get a lot more serious about photography to cover the other aspect of this.
Now I just need about twice as much free time 
