Hello buddies, this is the second post of my series improve your drawing skills spending just 30 min a day. This week we have 3 funny and short exercises that I´m sure you will enjoy.
Basic shapes
Exercise: choose an cartoon character you like. Your goal is finding the basic shapes of cartoon characters.
Have a look at this example from Alddin, the Dinsney movie:
Image and characters propierty of Disney.
What do we learn?: this exercise is very useful if you want to learn how to draw cartoons because it help you to "understand" the basic shapes behind complex characters, once you understand the basic shape you will move the character more easily. The outcome will be more dinamic and consistent.
Basic shapes II
Another good exercise is the opposite process, building a character using different basic shapes. Realize how simple and effective are he following characters:
Image courtesy of Cedric´s Blog
What do we learn?: same as the previous exercise, simple and effective cartoons are made with very basic shapes.
Action lines
Exercise: choose an image of a cartoon character you like. Your task is finding the action line.
Some of the characters I designed from SOSFactory
What do we learn?: We learn to find the action lines that liven up the characters. With some practise, we’ll make our drawings more dinamic, and sketching will be easier too.
Do you want to share your exercises?
If you do just email me your images or contact me trough the contact form. I will update this post with some of your exercises, we can also give you tips to improve your skills.
1 October 2009 at 6:36 AM
Hello from Belarus! Thank you man for your great work! It’s a quite amazing site. I couldn’t sleep last night while reading all of the posts of this one:)
1 October 2009 at 8:46 AM
al final me ha gustado mucho tu blog, gracias por tu tiempo para compartir lo que sabes
1 October 2009 at 10:06 PM
gracias de nuevo muy buen trabao muy buenos ejercicios.
saludos
4 October 2009 at 1:22 AM
Muchas gracias amiguetes, me alegro que os gusten estos ejercicios. No dudeis en mandar vuestros dibujos.
6 October 2009 at 11:58 AM
Keep the tips coming on improving your drawing skills. I can not return to college but POST like yours help me to improve my design and drawing skills.
Thanks!!!!
7 October 2009 at 10:49 PM
felicitaciones seguistes mi consejo y que bueno que le dediques tiempo para enseñar tecnicas de dibujo aunque sabes me gustaria que pusieras un tutorial de como realizar pies y zapatos porfa gracias sigue con tu web que esta super¡¡
1 November 2009 at 3:58 AM
Muchas gracias por los ejercicios, me ayudan a practicar mantienen inspirada. No puedo esperar por el otro. Gracias
2 November 2009 at 2:55 PM
Supongo que no soy el primero en decirtelo, pero acabo de conocer tu pagina,y no puedo para de mirarla. Te queria hacer una pregunta, ya se que sin practicar todos los dias no se puede llegar a ese nivel, nos podrias recomendar algun libro o pagina que te haya ayudado en tus comienzos??
Muhcas gracias, y espero tu tercera entrega
3 November 2009 at 9:05 PM
Se lo preguntas a Sergio
, pero en lo personal te recomiendo que practiques con el libro de animación de Preston Blair 
tengo un pdf si quieres te lo paso por email, David.
4 November 2009 at 9:30 AM
A quien se lo preguntara es lo de menos, todo el mundo necesita comenzar por cualquier sitio, y cualquier ayuda es bien recibida. Si me gustaria ver ese pdf, te lo agradeceria davidarenzana@gmail.com
Un saludo
9 November 2009 at 6:46 AM
Hey, Sergi, queremos la parte III
10 November 2009 at 4:07 AM
Hola, David, te envié el pdf, me avisas si lo recibiste, he tenido problemas para entrar a gmail :S
10 November 2009 at 11:24 AM
Si me llego bien, muchas gracias Diana.
1 December 2009 at 12:21 AM
Like this very much and the first one as well
Can you please tell me is there going to be a third one? Or some videos where you actually talk of your work? Me and my friends find this all very inspiring and most helpful so please don’t stop making these articles and videos
Best regards
1 December 2009 at 10:46 AM
Hello Milana, I´m glad you like it.
There will be more tutorials and videos, I really would like to talk of my work but my English is very limited
1 December 2009 at 1:00 PM
Haha I have listened to your video, and believe me, it’s great
15 December 2009 at 1:24 AM
Hahaha,,nomurO uno sergio. it’s very basic for illustrator but mostly forgotten. Once again tqu.
15 January 2010 at 4:13 PM
Hola Sergio!! tenia tiempo sin pasar por tu blog, y dejame decirte q cada vez q lo leo, me anima un poco mas a seguir por este camino, y estos ejercicios son excelentes!! Espero ver los proximos
Cuando ya tenga los mios hechos vere si te los mando jeje, saludos!! Y q este año este lleno de mucha creatividad y buenos trabajos xD