Blog
More On Artist’s Block
Every artist, sooner or later, runs short on ideas. What to do? You could wrap a cord around your head, pull it hard, and hope to squeeze some ideas out of your brain. But that doesn’t work, and often results in a really bad case of “forehead rope burn.” The old adage, to stop working and do something to take your mind off of things, makes things worse. Stopping when the going gets hard is demoralizing. And it makes you hesitant to try again, after you’ve already given up once. [READ MORE]
Give Yourself Credit!
As artists, we’re very good at criticizing ourselves. Sometimes we compare our work unfavorably to the work of others. Or we go through slumps where we get discouraged. What we don’t always do – and the thing that’s most important to our development as artists – is to recognize the strengths that we have. Your strong points are usually the aspect of drawing that you don’t struggle with. [READ MORE]
Drawing Cute Characters
No doubt about it, “cute” is a favorite attribute of fans of cartoons and manga. It’s very important to be able to draw cute stuff. So, let’s get serious, for a moment, about cuteness! There are many techniques you can use to characters, such as drawing big eyes, big forehead, small mouths, wide cheeks, small chins, and so on. And I teach many of them in my book… [READ MORE]
Inside Publishing Scoop
I just got to look at the finished, color pages from my book, “Cartoon Faces: How to Draw Faces, Features & Expressions,” which comes out this fall. I was thrilled with what the art director and editor came up with. Anyone who tells you that they don’t need an editor or art director is simply, well, how can I put this gently…? They think a lot of their abilities and too little of others. [READ MORE]
How Important is It to Have Talent?
Many aspiring artists, who love to draw – and who yearn to improve – become somewhat pessimistic about their progress because they don’t believe they have the innate talent to become good at drawing. This is the biggest myth about drawing. Talent is an asset, to be sure. But talent alone cannot produce superior work unless it has three essential ingredients:
• The motivation to draw often [READ MORE]
How Many Copies!?
My publisher, Random House, finished doing a tally of all of my book sales, and it came to 6 million copies, with translations into 20 languages. After I picked myself up off the floor, I was struck with the feeling of enormous gratitude for the privilege of being able to draw and write for a living. I am grateful to my readers, for making it possible, and for contributing so much engaging interaction with me on social media. I am, of course, grateful to Random House for supporting my work. [READ MORE]
New Website!
My new website is now live at christopherhartbooks.com. This old chrishartbooks.com site will remain up for a time so that the old tutorials and blog posts will still be available. Some features, like the Forum, will redirect you to the new site.
TV Animation or Movie Animation?
I’m a fan of both animated TV shows, and animated movies. But I like each for different reasons. I love the weird and wacky character designs of animated TV shows, like “Adventure Time. ” But I enjoy the seeing how inventively form and structure is used to create characters in movie animation. In film animation, which is relies on computer programming, the characters must be drawn in a logical manner, or the software will not be able to turn them at various angles. [READ MORE]
What Influences Your Drawing Style?
Each of us has had different experiences that have influenced our lives, our likes and dislikes. Many of these started in childhood. For example, because I had Mrs. Southington as my homeroom teacher in 4th grade, I now hate all homeroom teachers, in addition to Mrs....
What Type of Cartoonist Are You?
There are two basic types of cartoonists. It’s not based on which subjects they draw. Or how successful they are. Or whether one cartoonist’s dad can beat up the other cartoonist’s dad. (Unless you happen to have the stronger dad.) It has to do with the originality of...