Cartoon Sketching: How to develop your imagination by finding eyeballs
If you have trouble stimulating your imagination, I recommend that you take online classes from Carla Sonheim and her select group of instructors.
While new classes are regularly announced on her website, Carla Sonheim Presents, if you are short of time (or money), just invest in her book, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals.
While she teaches multi-media drawing and painting, your main takeaway from this book is learning how to see (and therefore “draw”) imaginary animals that you see almost everywhere you look. The trick is to identify a pair of eyes, then let your imagination see the critter who owns them.
Look anywhere – on walls, floors, tree trunks, stone ledges, and more – to find eyeballs. Start sketching on the spot, or take photos and sketch when you get home.
The examples that follow show you how to proceed. For immediate practice, find eyeballs and even related noses and eyebrows on cliff faces in the Hudson River Palisades.
Here are a few examples of what I saw during a January 2018 stroll. Rough sketches can fill notebooks as well as inspire characters for books and illustrations.
Ever wonder how tribes across the globe came up with their symbolism? Just look into ponds of swirling water and imaginary critters emerge. It is up to you to give them life.
Links:
- Carla Sonheim Presents: Visit this website (and get on her email list) to see class announcements, free art tutorials, and interesting articles.
- Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: By Carla Sonheim. This single book will unlock imagination and help you see differently wherever you look.
- Video: Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals by Carla Sonheim: This video quickly flips through her book. Slow down its speed so you can better see its imagery.
- The topic of developing one’s imagination is of high interest to designers and artists. Google “creating imaginary animals” for many book, video, and website references.
- Hudson River Palisades: Images for your consideration.
Author:
This article was written by Karen Little as part of an ongoing series of blogs on Cartoon Sketching. Published on Littleviews.com. March 8, 2020.
Reproduction of this article is free with permission and attributes to Littleviews.com and the article’s author.
All material on Littleviews (with noted exceptions) is copyrighted on the date of publication.
Questions? Ask Karen Little at Karen@littleviews.com.
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Our mission is to help people learn how to sketch, love what they do, and share their sketches with others. It is supported by our gift center on Sketch-Views.com, with products like the one you see at the bottom of this page.
The cartoon on this cup is based on “eyeballs” Karen spotted looking out from a Hudson River Palisades cliff.
