Suggestions for improving my cartoon drawing?

When I took a course in college which was called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain it taught us that the brain views things as they are and if you want to draw better then try this.

If you take a drawing/picture and practice drawing it upside down the results will amaze you. One side of the brain interprets things as they are and the other side is the creative one. If you put the drawing you want to copy upside down then the brain does not look at the drawing as it is and the other side of the brain can then create it almost identical. If you have a chair the brain interprets what a chair is and you try to create it that way but if you turn it upside down the brain doesn’t know it as a chair and your creative side kicks in. If you practice this form of drawing it will become a skill that will amaze how well you draw.

@Summum thank you! That is exactly the kind of tip I was looking for. I’ll try that!
Am I supposed to actually draw it upside down, or just look at something upside down, and draw it right side up?

Draw it upside down and you will see it looks almost identical to the drawing you are copying. Good Luck

YouTube has many great tutorials on cartoon drawing by many great artists. I learned alot of good techniques and tips from there.

Although drawing is a gift, it can also be developed on your own. I began drawing when I was a little boy. I remember I used to draw cartoons that appeared on TV back then. Since then I have developed a good skill for drawing and I had never taken a class in drawing. However, a few years ago I took a drawing class in Junior College just for fun.At thsi class I learn how newbies learn to draw. I would suggest you start doing the same. Do the following: 1) Place a plastic with small squares numbered across from 1 to whatever number is needed and letters down from A to Z and more if u need to. Make sure the plastic covers the entire original drawing, then place a plastic with biger squares in front of you and over it place a piece of paper where you will draw at a bigget scale the original drawing. 2) Draw and copy the lines as they appear in the original drawing onto your blank piece of paper. As you gain a bit of practice, try to continue the drawing without looking at your new drawing, just focus on the original and estimate the drawing location of where the new lines will fit in. You should look at what you are drawing from time to time to see where you need to make adjustments on. 3) Once you get a handle of drawing without the need to use these plastic guides with squares, you can start drawing free hand without really looking at what your hand is drawing. 4) Next put two or three different drawings of cartoons in front of you and take turns from to another to draw the different features of each cartoon at the same time. 5) The drawing result you will get will be kinda crazy but at the same time it will begin by opening your creaive channels in your left brain (the artistic side) so you begin to see the various possibilities you can create with three different cartoons. The bottom line is that at first you need to emulate what others have done before you and once you get the knack for making your own cartoons from collages of cartoons put together, you will be on your way to start coming up with your own ideas. Don’t dismay if your ideas don’t come out as you wish, keep on mixing lines of different cartoons. If you do this consistently, you will even find your ideal cartoon in your dreams. I have done some furniture designs and I have gotten some ideas from dreams I had had in the past.

@JmacOroni I’m a pretty good self-taught artist. If you are looking for the basics on how to make your doodles look more professional, start with baby steps.

I learned most of my baby steps better on TV/Web than I did from books or art class. I highly recommend Mark Kistler’s TV show, Website and books

Since he teaches to kids, the ideas are simple. Yet, he teaches all of the skills you’ll need in every TV episode shown, so as an adult you’ll quickly grasp the how’s & why’s behind making a simple drawing turn extraordinary.

Thanks for the tips. I’ve never had any professional training, never taken art classes outside of highschool, it has always just been a hobby and natural talent of mine.
Simple is good. Drawings for children are good, too. I think as I’ve gotten older I’ve lost track of how to see things in a different light, rather than translating exactly what I see in front of me onto paper.
All great suggestions.. thanks very much!

Practice. (I have this same problem. I was actually really into being a cartoonist a couple of years ago, but became disenchanted by my obvious handicap for drawing anything that isn’t right in front of me.) Look for cartoonists whose work you admire and fins a panel you would like to try and copy. Practice copying their drawing. This is how students learn the masters’ strokes and techniques.

I have found the secret, and although I should charge you $100,000, I’m going to give it to you for free.
Draw it once, you don’t like it, draw it again. You don’t like it? draw it again. Is it a hard one? then just concentrate on 1 part. Draw the nose, you don’t like it? draw it again, you don’t like it, draw it again.

Do this until you are happy with the whole figure/object/drawing. Also, you can use this technique for anything else in life!

P.S. I don’t know what you’re trying to draw/achieve exactly but since you used the word cartoon, I have one tip, Exaggerate! Forget everything you’ve learned in your life drawing class. Now that you know/learned the rules, you can break them. Forget proportions and measurements. Try exaggerating different features on a character.