Word Thou Art

      Warriors is one of my favorite book series, and even though not many people that I know have read it, some of you might have heard of this series. It's really about a large group of wild cats that live in the forest, moor, near a river, and in a pine forest. I absolutely love to draw the cats from this series but find myself wistfully browsing through other artists' work on this subject. For years I have wanted to get specifically into the profession of drawing out cartoon animals and characters so I can illustrate my own books, but first, I started out with real-life cats. This was very hard for me, because like any over-enthusiastic artist, I just wanted to jump right into drawing cute cartoony cats instead of the boring real deal. If you have a huge problem with impatience on this subject, trust me when I say I've been there!     I also know how important it is to continue to draw from real life!     Animals are in general, much easier for me ...

      I absolutely love to draw in a cartoon style. If you don't know what a cartoon style is, the simple definition for a cartoon is this, " make a drawing of (someone) in a simplified or exaggerated way." Whether you make the eyes bigger and more beautiful or accentuate your drawing's rather angular features, you're making a cartoon when you draw something that has crazy proportions and is out of the box.      And that's where I have to stop you. Yes, drawing cartoons or fantasy art is awesome, but it also takes practice.      How do you practice drawing something that isn't real, or has features that aren't ordinary? The answer to that my friends is that you need to practice drawing in real life. This will be a two-part series that I'm going to do, and this part is for humans.      Now, honestly, I'm just starting to draw my own humans, but I have enough practice in the area of drawing fantasy animals that I can tell you the...