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Cartoon Model Sheet
This is a model sheet. In the world of cartooning and animation, this is how all the artists learn to draw the characters the same. All the artists get a set of these to instruct them how the characters are designed. After all, there’s no one way to draw a character. It depends on what he is doing, how he is feeling, and what he is thinking, right?

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 1:
As always, start off drawing rough and loose. This allows you to not worry about little mistakes and at the same time, sort of turns off the thinking part of your brain, letting you work more by instinct and intuition.

See the frog’s body shape in your mind. He’s not perfectly round. His back is straighter, and his belly is rounder. I like to throw in the mid-line, too. It helps me see his body in three dimensions.

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 2:
Next, set his googly eyes on top. Draw one a little bigger than the other. Notice that his eyelids are curved. This helps show the roundness of the surface of his eyes. I want to make him a bit bored, so let’s put his pupils sort of halfway under his eyelids.

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 3:

Frogs have big mouths. Even little ones have big mouths. So let’s make this guy’s mouth huge! Draw his mouth all the way down his body.

Cartoon Tutorial Part 4:
Now let’s start on his legs. The back legs of frogs are large and strong. To make them an interesting shape, draw the top line almost straight and the lower line more curved, sort of like a bow and arrow. But don’t make his knee too pointy..

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 5:
He’s got big flipper feet in back, so let’s do those next. Think of the swim flippers you wear to the pool. That’s sort of what his feet look like: very narrow at the heel, very wide at the tip. Notice how I made two inward curves to indicate where his toes will go. His toes are just little circles at the points we created on his feet.

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 6:
You can go ahead and indicate his front legs, too. They are short and plump, and narrower down by his wrists.

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 7:
To draw his front feet (or hands), start off with little ovals just to get the size and general shape. Then, like we did on his back feet, scoop out the areas that will be the “fingers”.

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 8:
Finally, just add little circles to indicate his fingertips.

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 9:
Once you are happy with where your rough drawing is, take a kneaded eraser and gently roll it over your pencil lines. This will pick up your darker lines and leave a faint image for you to clean up.

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 10:
When you clean up, find a pen that you are comfortable with, one that doesn’t bleed onto the paper too much, not too thick, and not too thin. Use a pen that is waterproof, too. Or else your lines may smear when you add the color.

For the long, curved lines, don’t try and draw them all at once. Take them in short chunks. And you will find you will do a better job if you always turn your paper so that you are pulling your line towards you. It helps to make a smoother line.

Cartoon Drawing Tutorial Part 11:
I chose various shades of green for my frog. I even added a few spots on his back and knees, sort of like freckles to make him cuter. You can look up some picture of frogs and try different colors as well. Have fun with it! And maybe you might want to try drawing some of the other poses from the model sheet. You may even want to try making up your own pose, or dressing him up in a funny costume!