Free Cartoon Yourself

As a follow up to your previous hub entitled Cartoon Yourself For Free Online where we discussed eyes, hands, and some expressions, this hub will present other expressions that we need to take note when doing cartoons. If, however, you're looking for a site to cartoon yourself online, you should try out Cartoony.Me!

Grief – The character holds his head in his hands, shoulders humped, with a worried look on his face and perhaps a tear or two showing. If you want your grief stricken character to cry, throw his head back, close his eyes, open the mouth, and turn it downward.

Happiness – Mouth turned up, eyes closed. To turn happiness into a laugh, throw the head back, as in the cry, open the mouth but turn it upwards. Tears are versa tile. You can use them here, too.

Impatience – The character drums his fingers and frowns.

Innocence – Eyes looking heavenward. If the innocence is feigned, the character whistles nonchalantly.

Inspiration – A light bulb is shown over the head, usually inside a balloon, with bubbles connecting the balloon to the head.

Intelligence – Deep set eyes are shown squinting and the forehead is high. There is a pipe in the mouth, for males.

Love – There is a heart over the subject’s head – or two hearts with an arrow going through. The expression on the face can be one either of stupidity or happiness, depending on your point of view.

Misery – The expression on the face combines aspects of both worry and grief.

Old age – Thin lips with short lines running into them top and bottom to suggest lack of teeth; wrinkled face; skinny neck; bags under the eyes; very little hair; loose-fitting clothing; stooped. The body often is full enough, but the limbs are like toothpicks.

Pain or injury – Stars drawn at the ends of thin line extending outward from the victim. You may include a crossed patch of adhesive tape, even though the victim has not really had time to dress his wound. Use Xs for eyes. Put a heave circle around one of the Xs.

Puzzlement – The character scratches his head and maybe looks a little worried. You could include a large question mark above his head. I’m not sure why the head scratching works in a cartoon, but it does.

Self-satisfaction – Eyes closed, brows raised, mouth slightly upturned, head thrown back in a bit. In the following strong, graceful, confident pencil sketch of a business-man for an advertisement for Time-Life Multimedia, Charles Saxon, to better show the look of self-satisfaction, utilizes for eyes and nose the space that ordinarily would be reserved for forehead.

Stupidity – If you don’t mind the unfairness of the stereotype, you can show your character with eyes half-closed, chin receding, teeth bucked, mouth partially open, forehead low.

Worry – Eyebrows drawn diagonally, slanting outward, forehead wrinkled, mouth turned down. The subject may have his finger digging his collar, pulling it away from his neck.

Those are some of the most commonly used expressions in cartoons, and how to maximize your cartoon in expressing them! Good luck!