Freelance Cartooning & Illustrating

Expand your hobby or turn professional.

For those with a talent for drawing, cartooning and illustration offers a fascinating hobby with plenty of career potential.

The Cengage Education Freelance Cartooning & Illustrating course teaches students the essentials of how to professionalise their drawing and illustration talents and turn it into a career. With the help of an industry professional as your tutor, you’ll learn how to produce saleable drawings and illustrations, and where and how to market your work.

The course is equally suitable for both those with professional aspirations and those simply looking to take their talents to another level.

On completion of your course:

Upon completion of this course you will receive a Cengage Education Freelance Cartooning & Illustrating Certificate.

In addition to this, you will receive a FREE one year subscription to the Australian Cartoonists Associations and a FREE one year Media Pass.

Freelance Cartooning and Illustration - Extra learning materialsKey areas of learning:

  • Introduction to your course
  • Drawing: proportion and perspective
  • About the marketplace: how to draw people and animals
  • Drawing: expression, action and balance
  • Character style design: caricature, Manga art and animation
  • Cartooning: comic books, comic strips and press art
  • Illustrating: books, magazines and covers
  • Style: shading, lettering, texture, backgrounds
  • Copywriting, philosophy and tabloids
  • Computer technology applied
  • Merchandising: greeting cards, calendars and posters
  • Freelancing: your portfolio
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Course Number 89500
Course Type Correspondence
Course Duration Max 18 months
Study Hours Approx 180 hrs
Qualification Cengage Certificate

Prerequisites

No previous knowledge or experience is required to take this course.

Learning periods

This course is divided into 3 learning periods.

Computer requirements

To complete this course you will need access to:

  • A computer with Windows® 95/98 or higher
  • CD-ROM drive.

Assessment details

  • 8 written assessments

Extra learning materials included

  • The Stanley's Year Book
  • Cartooning and Illustrating GIF Animator CD

Subjects You’ll Cover

Introduction to your course

  • Drawing equipment
  • The freelance road
  • Illustration that pays
  • Getting started with cartooning and illustrating
  • Drawing anatomy in three dimension

Drawing: proportion and perspective

  • Practice
  • Improving your work
  • Scripting your work
  • Applying proportion
  • Keeping everything in persepctive
  • Lettering
  • Creating ideas for cartoons and illustrations

About the marketplace: how to draw people and animals

  • You, drawing and the marketplace
  • Taking care of business
  • Marketing your cartoon and illustration
  • Taking an illustrative brief
  • Managing client expectations
  • Making the freelance sale
  • Drawing people: men, women, children, the elderly
  • Drawing animals
  • Comparative anatomy

Drawing: expression, action and balance

  • Bringing it to life
  • Making it happen
  • Exaggerate
  • I'm really a cartoonist!
  • Watch your spelling
  • Expression
  • Action and balance
  • Wrinkles and folds

Character style design: caricature, Manga art and animation

  • Drawing politicians and celebrities
  • The Manga way
  • The digital age
  • Computer animation
  • Selling your work
  • Drawing caricatures

Cartooning: comic books, comic strips and press art

  • Comic books versus comic strips
  • How to self-publish
  • Working for comic books - who does what
  • Press Art - the newspaper cartoon
  • Code for editorial matter
  • Onomatopoeia
  • Anthropomorphism
  • Inventing characters
  • Montages

Illustrating: books, magazines and covers

  • Illustrating for books and covers
  • Tips from professional illustrators
  • Starting out in magazines

Style: shading, lettering, texture, backgrounds

  • Introduction to texture and shading
  • Enrich your drawings
  • Texture
  • Shading
  • Methods
  • Inking
  • Scraper board
  • Special effects
  • Backgrounds

Copywriting, philosophy and tabloids

  • Copywriting secrets
  • Spelling
  • Working with a publication in mind
  • Syndicating without conflict
  • Tabloid humour
  • Proportion revisited
  • Strip plan
  • Scriptwriting
  • Layout
  • Finishing off

Computer technology applied

  • Studio technology
  • Digital imaging
  • File formats
  • Transporting illustrations
  • Digital printing
  • Digital imaging glossary
  • How to draw with a computer
  • Drawing electronically
  • Types of graphics applications
  • Cartooning exercises

Merchandising: greeting cards, calendars and posters

  • Market demand
  • Filler gags
  • Greeting cards, calendars and posters
  • How to sell your work
  • Cartoons on greeting cards and other merchandise

Freelancing: your portfolio

  • Your portfolio
  • Skills revision
  • Methods revision
  • Comic strips
  • The true cost of freelancing
  • Improving your portfolio
  • Income goals
  • Keys to selling your work
  • Staying abreast of the industry