Editorial cartoons offer a touch of comic relief to the serious issues being publicized.
Editorial cartoons offer comic relief to serious news stories and have appeared in newspaper publications since the early days of print. Cartoonists have created satirical cartoon strips to ridicule the weak traits of prominent people in society by turning them into caricatures, while commenting with sardonic wit and humor upon the social and political condition of the times. If you are considering submitting editorial cartoons to newspaper publications, you need to read into current affairs to find the inspirational news stories to turn into a funny cartoon picture or strip.
Instructions
1. Observe cartoons made by editorial cartoonists in a range of newspapers from early newspaper editions to modern day. Notice the similarities and differences between the drawing styles of the various cartoonists. Note what makes the cartoon funny to the reader. Look closely at how the drawing in itself is just as amusing as the words contained within the comic strip and notice how the drawings are simple but exaggerated while the dialogue is brief and witty.
2. Read newspapers to research what news is current and what stories are more talked about, or look for a story which offers the most scope for humorous ridicule. Note any news stories, events or characters within the news which inspire you.
3. Pick out a current news topic from your possible news stories. Find a funny perspective to create your editorial cartoon. Keep your idea for your funny scenario simple and short, as you do not have the scope to make a full comic strip for a newspaper publication. Your cartoon needs to be told in 1 to 5 frames on average. Focus on something absurd happening in your scenario, or an unusual or an obvious observation, or some kind of conflict to spark off a short chain of events.
4. Sketch your funny cartoon scenario within a sequence of 1 to 5 boxed frames into your sketchbook with a pencil. Use a pencil and ruler to draw a row of boxed frames. Look at a photo of a well known figure to help you to make the subject's distinctive features more exaggerated in the drawing of your caricature. Comedy is about heightening reality.
5. Draw the basic shape of the person's head but make the head bigger in relation to the length of the body. Draw in the exaggerated facial features. Exaggerate the body shape by making a thin person look thinner, a fat person fatter, a tall person taller and a short person smaller. Don't forget to make the clothes suit the character. For instance, if you regard a female figure as having loose morals, give her a very mini shirt; or if your male character is getting too big for his breeches then make his trousers look too short for him.
6. Draw in other characters, objects and background. Don't make the sketch too complicated. Emphasize on what is visually necessary and funny in the illustration.
7. Draw a speech balloon or a caption which should clarify and expand on the visual humor by saying something witty or to make a jokey comment about a topical subject; the person may be in the exaggerated midst of what is being talked about in order to support the humor.
8. Draw over the pencil lines in black pen, since editorial cartoons are generally drawn as black and white line drawings. Erase any pencil lines to complete.
