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Cartoon Cool: How to Draw New Retro-Style Characters
Love that Sponge Bob? Always lurking in Dexter's lab? Wishing for Fairly Odd Parents? Millions of fans watch these shows avidly, often solely for their zingy, stylized look and hip visual jokes. Now there's a drawing book just right for everyone who admires that quirky style: Cartoon Cool. Top-selling author Christopher Hart shows beginning cartoonists, retro fans, and all other hipsters how to get that almost-1950s look in their drawings. His trademark step-by-step drawings and crystal-clear text are sure to make Saturday mornings more creative!
- GenresArtDrawingNonfiction
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
19 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Hart
155 books203 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
I started drawing character designs and storyboards for a small animation studio in while in High School. Cartooning and animation was a magical experience to me. I try to bring that experience, as well as art tips, to my readers. Their enthusiasm also motivates me.
Early in my career, my cartoon work got noticed by Watson-Guptill, a premier publisher of art books. They asked me to do a book for them on drawing cartoons. It sold 200,000 copies, which is a healthy number. So we kept going. I discovered that I enjoyed the art of creating books, which has its own special requirements. I also worked as an author for Random House, Quarto and Soho Publishing. In total, I have had 8 million books sold, and have been translated into 20 languages.
My book, "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates" has sold over half a million copies to date and is still very actively in print. An earlier book of mine, "Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics:" reached the number one art book in the country, according to Bookscan.
I've also been a cover story on the industry trade magazine, "Publisher's Weekly." And if you've read this far into my Bio, then I'm more impressed with you than you are with me!
Thank you so very much for letting me offer some inspiration to you in your art adventures.
Christopher Hart
I started drawing character designs and storyboards for a small animation studio in while in High School. Cartooning and animation was a magical experience to me. I try to bring that experience, as well as art tips, to my readers. Their enthusiasm also motivates me.
Early in my career, my cartoon work got noticed by Watson-Guptill, a premier publisher of art books. They asked me to do a book for them on drawing cartoons. It sold 200,000 copies, which is a healthy number. So we kept going. I discovered that I enjoyed the art of creating books, which has its own special requirements. I also worked as an author for Random House, Quarto and Soho Publishing. In total, I have had 8 million books sold, and have been translated into 20 languages.
My book, "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates" has sold over half a million copies to date and is still very actively in print. An earlier book of mine, "Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics:" reached the number one art book in the country, according to Bookscan.
I've also been a cover story on the industry trade magazine, "Publisher's Weekly." And if you've read this far into my Bio, then I'm more impressed with you than you are with me!
Thank you so very much for letting me offer some inspiration to you in your art adventures.
Christopher Hart
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 10, 2016
It is hard to find good reviews of drawing books so I'm going to try and let you know what this book is like and who it is for in my review. Christopher Hart has written a lot of cartooning books and I own a number of them or have flipped through the vast majority of the ones I don't own while trying to decide whether I want to buy it or not. This is definitely one of my favorites because it focuses on a unique style and covers it pretty well. There are not many books out there about retro 70's style cartoons and even shows like Fairly Odd Parents or Dexter's Laboratory use this style so it is great for a cartoonist to know and understand it.
In the opening section, Chris covers how retro is different from regular cartoons, some basics like how to draw heads, body shapes, hands, feet, etc. These sections are pretty helpful especially if you want to start developing your own drawings later on.
The largest part of the book is how-to tutorials and character designs. A heavy focus is on families so you have several pages on moms, dads, sons, and daughters. I think this fits the subject matter since so many retro cartoons are about families and he gives a nice variety of designs too. Shortly after that, even pets get some pages and the designs are quite cute and definitely gives you some decent designs if you want to add them to your retro family. After that, there is a section about how to draw teenagers which is fairly good and followed by a somewhat lackluster section (or at least I find the designs to be that way) on how to draw pretty women. Finally, there is a section with a couple of scenes you can draw which is the only color section in the book. For whatever reason, I didn't like this section even though I love to draw scenes normally. I think it is possibly because all of the scenes seemed heavily inspired by existing cartoons (one is clearly Scooby-Doo inspired for example) and the coloring is a little too basic for my taste. Shading and coloring are not covered in any detail in this book which is somewhat uncommon for a cartooning book and might be disappointing to some.
Ultimately, you get a lot of tutorials and characters to draw in a cool style. This book has inspired some drawings and some doodling on my part and I hope to doodle more in the future. It covers basic character designs well. I only wish there was a section on hairstyles and a bit more about posing or action poses in the book. These are minor complaints and I think this book would appeal to all skill levels since the designs are simple and it gives a lot of inspiration and ideas for those who want to experiment. I think this book is better than other cartooning books because it takes one style or type and covers it fairly well. There are not many lackluster designs here either which cannot be said of other drawing books. Best of all, this book is easy to get online and cheap which is always a good thing. If you'd like to see a couple of drawings I did from this book, take a look at the links below:
Two Kids Waiting For The Bus
Angry, Spoiled Rotten Cheerleader
In the opening section, Chris covers how retro is different from regular cartoons, some basics like how to draw heads, body shapes, hands, feet, etc. These sections are pretty helpful especially if you want to start developing your own drawings later on.
The largest part of the book is how-to tutorials and character designs. A heavy focus is on families so you have several pages on moms, dads, sons, and daughters. I think this fits the subject matter since so many retro cartoons are about families and he gives a nice variety of designs too. Shortly after that, even pets get some pages and the designs are quite cute and definitely gives you some decent designs if you want to add them to your retro family. After that, there is a section about how to draw teenagers which is fairly good and followed by a somewhat lackluster section (or at least I find the designs to be that way) on how to draw pretty women. Finally, there is a section with a couple of scenes you can draw which is the only color section in the book. For whatever reason, I didn't like this section even though I love to draw scenes normally. I think it is possibly because all of the scenes seemed heavily inspired by existing cartoons (one is clearly Scooby-Doo inspired for example) and the coloring is a little too basic for my taste. Shading and coloring are not covered in any detail in this book which is somewhat uncommon for a cartooning book and might be disappointing to some.
Ultimately, you get a lot of tutorials and characters to draw in a cool style. This book has inspired some drawings and some doodling on my part and I hope to doodle more in the future. It covers basic character designs well. I only wish there was a section on hairstyles and a bit more about posing or action poses in the book. These are minor complaints and I think this book would appeal to all skill levels since the designs are simple and it gives a lot of inspiration and ideas for those who want to experiment. I think this book is better than other cartooning books because it takes one style or type and covers it fairly well. There are not many lackluster designs here either which cannot be said of other drawing books. Best of all, this book is easy to get online and cheap which is always a good thing. If you'd like to see a couple of drawings I did from this book, take a look at the links below:
Two Kids Waiting For The Bus
Angry, Spoiled Rotten Cheerleader
June 8, 2010
Chris Hart writes a lot of cartoon drawing books. The directions here are clear; it's not a bad book. But I really do think it's "just OK." It's a broad look at "retro" cartoons (think Scooby Doo, The Jetsons, and the more recent Power Puff Girls).
So I wouldn't use this book as a general "how to draw" book because it is so stylized and simplified.
So I wouldn't use this book as a general "how to draw" book because it is so stylized and simplified.
February 24, 2011
Easy guide to drawing cartoon.
January 7, 2013
So far, this has been my favorite Christopher Hart 'how to' book in cartooning. I love the style.
August 28, 2022
A fun book for aspiring cartoonists, this time focusing on retro-look cartoons.
June 11, 2019
This is a book about simple cartoon drawings. Nothing special.
New review: on a second read, this does not seem to be worth 5 stars. Down to 2 stars. After all, "Retro" means for Hart a rip off Hanna-Barbera Productions. 1970s, early 1980s. Probably the original Batman is Antique, and Lil Abner is Babylonian.
New review: on a second read, this does not seem to be worth 5 stars. Down to 2 stars. After all, "Retro" means for Hart a rip off Hanna-Barbera Productions. 1970s, early 1980s. Probably the original Batman is Antique, and Lil Abner is Babylonian.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews