Turn Me Into An Anime Cartoon

In learning to draw yourself into an anime cartoon, two of the things you need to learn are that of lines and halftone processes. If, however, you're looking for a site to turn your image into an anime cartoon, your best bet would have to be Cartoony.Me!

Unlike paintings, cartoons are created specifically to be reproduced. The originals are likely to show scars where the cartoonist has scraped away unwanted lines with a razor blade. Or there may be patches of paper or white paint over which the cartoonist has redrawn a face or corrected some lettering. No matter. The camera used in the reproduction process does not notice.

That is, it doesn’t notice unless the cartoon is to be reproduced by the halftone process. In that case, scratches and patches will show. Cartoons that require the halftone reproduction process include wash drawings; paintings in either transparent or opaque mediums; some pencil drawings; and photographs of three-dimensional art.

Cartoons that can take line reproduction include pen or brush and ink drawings, with or without Craftint, Grafix, Ben Day, or Zipatone shading; grease-crayon drawings; scratchboard drawings; and prints from woodblocks or linoleum blocks.

A word about Craftint and its present equivalent: Grafix. These are drawing papers or boards into which is built a pattern of fine, perfectly parallel (single-tone) or cross-hatched (double-tone) lines that give the cartoon the illusion of grays. The pattern doesn’t show until the cartoonist brings it out by brushing on a chemical solution. Crane made the most of the technique in the early years.

When the cartoonist wants to stay in command of where the shading is to go in a cartoon destined for line reproduction, he uses Zipatone or any of several other brands of shading sheets. These transparent sheets come with any number of patterns: dots, parallel lines, crosshatched lines, herringbones, etc. The reverse sides of these sheets are lightly waxed to make them sticky enough to attach themselves to the drawing. The cartoonist cuts away unwanted parts of the shading with a single-edged razor blade or knife.

Grease crayon drawingts start out as pen or brush and ink drawings on rough textured paper. The shading is applied with a grease crayon that deposits pigment on the unrecessed parts of the paper.

The advantage of line reproduction to the cartoonist is that he knows ahead of time exactly what the cartoon will look like when it is reproduced, even if the work is reduced or enlarged.