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How to draw CARTOONY HUMANS

Name: How to draw CARTOONY HUMANS
Rating: 4.7 (598 reviews)

Learn about male and female proportions and how to make them look cartoony. Find your own style in cartooning!

Created byMaria Avramova

Last updated 4/2020

English

What you'll learn

You will learn how to draw HUMAN PROPORTION and how to make humans look CARTOONY.
You will learn how to find your own style and design your own cartoony humans.
You will learn how to keep the same style of cartoonying if you are designing your book and characters for your animated movie.
You will learn how to put emotions to your characters.
You will learn how to make a character sheet - how to draw your character from different sides.
You will learn what is an Archetype and how you go about to design one.

Course content

9 sections • 38 lectures • 6h 15m total length

Introduction2:08
This is the Introduction to the course you´ve already seen. You don´t need a special introduction, besides what you´ve already heard.
All you will need is a blue and a black pencil. Choose pencils that are rather soft - not too oily, not too dry. But any pencil will do. You don´t need a special brand. The only thing is that if you choose a softer black pencil you will be able to have more definition in your final drawing, it will just look more finished.
Grab your pencils, a paper and lets start.

The proportions of the Male body and how to make them cartoony18:24
What are the anatomically correct male proportions?
How do we exaggerate those to make a character look cartoony?
Are there only one way of doing that?
In this video you will learn how to draw a male human body and how to take those features into cartooning.
Polishing The Drawings and Adding costumes and other features to the design10:24
Define your rough drawing while adding features to specify the personality of your character.

Draw unidentified shapes10:11
Draw unidentified shapes with a blue pencil. Design your first character.
Draw a character in Profile8:26
Identify characters within the shapes. Draw a character in profile.
Draw a character from a squarelike shape9:38
Each shape hides a character. Draw a character from a more squarelike shape.
Designing a more stylized character8:41
There is a different design approach to cartooning humans. Draw even some that are closer to realism than others.
Design characters that come from the same world21:09
In this lecture you will learn how to draw characters who come from the same world.

Designing a HERO8:29
What is an Archetype?
How to approach a design of a hero.
Designing a Hero - Part 24:59
What other kind of heroic types there are?
How to describe a hero?
What signifies a hero-like character design?
Designing a Hero - Part 35:57
Here is another approach of a Hero-type.
Designing a Hero - Part 4, Defining the character10:54
Define you heroic Archetypes.
What is the importance of costumes about your heroic character design?
Designing a Hero - Part 5, A different approach to a heroic character6:55
Define the idealistic heroic type.
What makes a character look heroic?
Why do we have to like the character?
What makes us like the character?
Designing a Hero - Part 6, A different type of Hero9:17
A hero is not always the best looking character, but we must sympathize with the hero. How do we design a character that is sympathetic?
Bonus- Drawing Facial Features of a Hero - Part 116:50
What are the proportions of a realistic Male Face? To be able to do a cartoon of a male face we need to know what to exaggerate. Here you will learn a simple technique on how to structure a human face.
Bonus- Draw a Cartoony Male Face of a Hero17:00
Learn how to take the male facial proportions and turn them into a cartoony heroic character.
Bonus- Experiment with Facial Proportions to design different heroic characters20:49
There is not only one approach to break down the male facial features and turn them into a nice character. Here you will learn some easy techniques how to do just that.
Designing a Villain - Part 112:25
How to approach the design of a Villain character?
Designing a Villain - Part 25:51
There are different types of Villains. How does each villain is portrayed in your character design?
Costumes and symbols, why are they important?
Designing a Villain - Part 35:47
Here is a different part of designing a Villain. The psychology and character description of your villain will give you an extra scope of who your character is.
Designing a Villain - Part 46:39
Defining your first Villain.
Who is he? The importiance of symbols and costumes for your character design.
Designing a Villain - Part 56:04
How to use generalization to add features to your Villain that are recognizable?
How to make a Villain more dislikable?
Designing a Villain - Part 65:02
Define the different type of Villain, use even bodylanguage to pose your Villain in the way that he would be untrustworthy.

Female proportions - Part 1, What are the female proportions9:06
Here you will learn about the female proportions and specific features and how to use those to exaggerate them and design a cartoony character.
Female Proportions - Part 2, How to stylize the female proportions7:30
How can you simplify the female features to easily come up with a cartoony design.
Female Proportions - Part 3, How to simplify the design5:27
Defining different characters by using costumes and personality traits.

Designing a Heroine - what to think about11:44
How to approach a specific design of a heroic female character?
How to use rough drawings, posture and costume to balance your character design?
Designing a Heroine - Defining the Character6:21
Add more details to the character with the black pencil. What to think about and how to make your character cuter, more likable and true to her personality and ideal?

How to draw simple poses8:31
Here you will learn how to roughly design poses with your character, just using shapes and a stick figure drawing.
Refining the "Stick figure" drawings into nice shapes7:43
You will be able to put yourself in your character´s shoes and draw the poses as if you feel that emotion.
How to turn the "stick figure" drawings into clean drawings and refine your character design?
Refining the poses of your Character Sheet9:11
How to draw even difficult poses?
How to use the mirror to help your character designing skills?
Using the character´s different emotions to refine her design5:22
Asking questions about your character while you drawing will help you to be a better designer.
Draw your character in motion8:06
Drawing your character in a running pose to explore her body posture and characteristics. The specifics of a running cycle.

Requirements

You need a pencil and a paper. P.S. - no eraser needed!

Description

Bring Your Dream Characters to Life: Master the Art of Drawing Cartoony Humans!

Have you ever dreaded art class—not because you didn’t love drawing, but because you loved it too much... and felt like you could never meet your own expectations?

Maybe you’ve held onto the dream of becoming an illustrator since childhood, only to discover that drawing humans—even cartoony ones—feels like the hardest thing of all.

I hear you. I was once exactly where you are now.
But after 17 years of a successful career in the animation and illustration industry, I’ve learned a powerful truth:
- The problem isn’t your hand. It’s not about "talent" either.
--The real obstacle is in your mindset.

And the good news?
When you shift the way you think, you’ll unlock a level of drawing skill and creativity you never thought possible. Anyone can learn to draw incredible characters—with the right approach.

That's exactly what I’m here to teach you.

What You'll Learn in This Course:

Understand Male and Female Proportions
Learn the key differences and how to stylize them for cartoons.

What Makes a Human Look Cartoony
Discover the core elements that turn realistic humans into playful, memorable characters.

Choosing the Right Cartooning Approach
Match your drawing style to the story or emotion you want to express.

Shape and Shadow Techniques for Character Design
Master simple yet powerful techniques to bring your cartoony humans to life.

From Generic to Specific
Learn how to transform a basic human figure into a distinct character with personality and charm.

Understanding Archetypes
Explore classic archetypes like Hero, Mentor, Villain, and Sidekick—and learn how to design them visually.

Drawing Heroes and Villains
Capture the essence of "Good" and "Evil" through character proportions, posture, and expression.

The Power of Proportions
See how slight changes in proportions can instantly change how we perceive a character.

Costuming Your Characters
Learn why clothing and accessories are critical tools for storytelling through design.

Brainstorming with Simple Shapes
Tap into your subconscious creativity to discover hidden characters within basic forms.

Bringing Characters to Life with Character Sheets
Create dynamic model sheets that show your character’s full range of emotions and poses.

Adding Emotion and Expression
Make your characters believable and relatable by mastering emotional storytelling.

Plus, Bonus Lessons:

- How to draw a classic cartoony Hero face!
- How to translate human facial proportions into cartoon exaggerations.
- How to create a variety of unique faces to fit your style and chosen archetypes.

Inside This Course, You'll Also Get:

* Insider tips from the world of professional animation and illustration
* Personal guidance as I walk you step-by-step through the creative process
* Tools to unlock your creativity, find your personal style, and become the artist you’ve always dreamed of being

This is more than just a drawing course—

It’s the start of a brand new artistic journey.

- Ready to finally draw the characters you’ve imagined for so long?
- Ready to fall in love with your art again?
Ready to make your dream of being an illustrator a reality?

Join me on the other side. Enroll today—and let’s bring your characters to life!

Reviews:

Wonderful course. Sections 3 and 5, in particular, which show you two techniques for developing characters from scratch. It's less than a week since I purchased this course and my notebook already contains a bunch of characters which I would never have discovered had it not been for this course (and those 2 sections in particular). It's like my art has been fitted with booster rockets. There's something very wrong with Udemy's search algorithms when a course of this quality doesn't have more students. Thank You so much, Maria.

-Sam Pollard

The course is great fun and has really good instructions. I am surprised that my characters already look like cartoon figures.

-Birgit Gaede

I found this course very helpful. It was exactly what I was looking for to learn to create some cartoon personalities. Thank you very much!

-Anja Kuhnert

Who this course is for:

All beginners in drawing. If you think you can only draw stick figures, if that, I´m here to prove you wrong. There is an artist in you that you are not aware of.
If you already have some experience in drawing, this course will be good for you too. You will learn a lot about character design and how to break your own bounderies to take yourself to a new level of drawing.
If you are an advanced artist, you will get some insights from a different point of view. If you´ve been drawing the same style for ages, maybe you want to try a different approach but you seem to be stuck at the same patterns of drawing. Here, you can learn some new tecniques of how to approach your drawing and explore a different side of your creativity.

How to draw CARTOONY HUMANS

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 2min

THE MALE - Proportions, cartooning and archetypes2 lectures • 29min

Designing Cartoony Characters by using Shapes and Shadows5 lectures • 58min

ARCHETYPES. The Male Character15 lectures • 2hr 23min

BRAINSTORMING SESSION - Design characters using shapes, BONUS LECTURE2 lectures • 38min

THE FEMALE - Proportions, Cartooning and Emotions3 lectures • 22min

Designing a HEROINE2 lectures • 18min

Adding personality to the character5 lectures • 39min

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS3 lectures • 26min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: