Filling a notebook with ideas from your daily activities and writing down random thoughts are all ways to begin formulating a cartoon. Organize that material using the following suggested methods to narrow your focus. In doing so, you will discover even more new ideas.
Steps
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Use free writing. Does the blank page scare you? If so, try free writing. It's exactly what it says - writing freely. To do it, sit for a specified time, seven to ten minutes and write by hand. Write whatever comes to mind. If you draw a blank, look around you and write what you see or describe what you are wearing. The goal is to write furiously and fast, so punctuation, spelling and neatness aren't important. Fill a minimum of two pages with a steady stream of writing. This isn't for show, so don't edit or refine. If you dry up, write "Dear Friend" and keep going, or bemoan your writer's block. Patience, discipline and writing will be rewarded. It will get easier to fill two pages. Save the pages, set them aside and look at them much later. Highlight good parts.
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Use clustering. This is a form of free association used by many who want to explore a single word. Draw a circle in the middle of a piece of paper, circle it and write the word in the circle. Look at the word and other related words will come. Make another circle and write the related words in the circle. Keep going back to the central word and when you run dry, keep going. Go back later and, by distancing yourself, you will be able to add more words. Scan the page, make connections, and write ideas at the bottom of the page.Advertisement
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Use speech and thought balloons. Obtain six pictures, snapshots, or magazine photos of people or animals. Study body language, facial expressions, and the settings. Put cartoon balloons over their heads and write their thoughts or speech in the balloons. You can purchase blank bubbles in stores that sell scrapbooking supplies or make your own. Keep the results in your notebook.
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Caption a random picture. Use any picture or go online to sites offering pictures to caption, print one out and make up and write a caption for it. Even if the captions are way off-base, or wrong, keep them, and do another beneath it. Practice and this gets easier.
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Make a chart about your subject. If you like orderly columns, this is an ideal thing to try. Pick a word you want to explore, such as "dog", "shoes," "cars," "vacation," etc. Write the primary word at the top and make columns titled, Person, Place, Thing, Words and Phrases, and begin to fill them in. You will be able to associate things that you might not have thought of by having all the words organized in such a manner. When you run dry, try to keep going or take a break and go back later, more and more words will come.
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Draw inspiration from the gifts all around you. Look for things seen in daily life that are incongruous or surprising. For example, a highway worker, drinking coffee, leaning against a sign that says, "Your Tax Dollars at Work." When you see something, organize it so that the punchline comes last, for greatest impact. The more you discover, the more you will begin to discover.
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Take words from the street. We are inundated with words: signs, advertisements, slogans, directions, store and street names, cautions, bumper stickers, notices of sales, specials, even bits of paper on the ground or blown up against a wall or fence. Take note of these cosmic messages, write them down in your notebook, whether they immediately make sense or not. Jot them down or you will surely forget the exact wording.
- Online, you can find sites offering bizarre signs. How about: EXIT 5/10 MILE ahead?
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Use index cards. You may have outlined on index cards in school, one idea to a card. You can shuffle them and lay them out randomly, or divide them into categories: themes, characters, captions, etc. This visual approach is good because the layouts can be left out to view at various times, in various moods, and they might even catch your eye as you pass by, so take note.
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Listen to children. Kids are blunt and haven't yet developed a filter for their thoughts. Pay attention to their stark observations, and material might emerge for a cartoon. Study kid's books for brevity, directness and how to hone words and pictures for maximum impact. They will help you aim high.
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Rework old sayings. Write out old sayings, enough to fill a page, but change the endings. Start a train down the track, but derail it for laughs. "A stitch in time saves going shopping for new clothes," "Cleanliness is overrated," "Who would watch a pot when the microwave is faster." Get the words and phrases to substitute from ones you've collected and put in a jar for this purpose.
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Study the comics pages. Analyze cartoons as if you were using them as a textbook for cartooning. What makes them funny, or not? Do you need background information to "get" the joke? How is the message conveyed; drawing, facial expressions, body language or a combination? What first captures your attention and why? How is your eye led through the piece, side to side, up and down or in a circle? Study the art work. How is the piece composed? What type of line is used; fine, even, brush quality, sketchy, etc.? How is shading used? Look at the foreground, middle and background, is perspective used? Perhaps there is no attempt at depth and the image is flat. How is speech conveyed, balloons, captions through signs on the walls, etc.? Cut out and put favorites in your notebook as work to inspire you.Advertisement
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Tips
- Keep thinking, writing and sketching, then, think some more. Once things are in your mind, your subconscious will work on them, so keep at it.Thanks
- Use colored index cards to keep your ideas in order.Thanks
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