Learning how to draw a minion may seem a bit specific. In fact, you may have precisely zero interest in learning how to draw a minion AT ALL, but bear with me. It won’t be more than a minute or two before you see how you can use this (or any familiar cartoon character) to grow your drawing skills.
As your drawing skills get more confident it becomes easy and fun for you to start experimenting and creating your own cartoons — and of course that is the whole point..
Getting Good at Drawing a Minion
As you get into the video down below, you may be thinking, “But the person who did these copies did a good job! I can’t see anything wrong.” And you’d be right. The initial copies are excellent so that’s not the point.
The point is, to have have a system
Getting something right first time is great, but was it a fluke, or can you do it on demand, over and over again?
To do something right, consistently, takes a system.
Here, I am introducing you to a SYSTEM that will shave months off your learning time. In time you will be able to apply it to any cartoon character to copy it quickly and accurately.
And the three components of this system are:
- sketchiness,
- circles and
- circle patterns (which I sometimes call scaffolding).
Circle patterns are the coolest thing!
I get all excited every time I see them start to emerge, because they literal give you a roadmap to get all the little details placed accurately.
Do you see how the area where the two circles overlap gives us the perfect placement of Bob the Minion’s mouth?
And how the lower curve of the ‘head’ circle gibes us a guideline to draw in the top edge of his bib + the straps?
This is what makes working with sketchy, overlapping circles effective (and so much fun)
It takes the guesswork out of drawing and as a beginner I absolutely loved that I wasn’t always guessing. Having a system is so much more empowering.
But hang on a minute
You may be wondering why I want you to draw a minion. After all, you came here to learn to cartoon — but to draw your OWN cartoons, not to copy someone else’s right?
Absolutely!
And you are right on track towards drawing your own cartoons
You see, we can’t learn to run until we know how to walk. And this copying of fun and excellent professional cartoons is part of learning how to walk.
Once you are comfortable copying, you are ready to create. In fact, you can start creating as you copy — and you will.
Stick around… !
Having watched the How to Draw a Minion video, how about a recap?
Remember…
Sketchiness is good because you don’t have to be precious about getting something the right size and shape first time.
Circles are good because they flow, so your pencil can move smoothly from place to place and scarcely need to lift off the page.
And circle patterns are good because they create precise, overlapping areas that help you to place all the little details accurately as well as being the early warning system if your circle sizes are way out of whack.
So, what’s your next step?
Get stuck in for yourself. You can right-click and download Bob the Minion from the top of this post and use him as a reference.
Copy him using sketchy circle patterns till you can get all his main parts about the right size and in the right place.
Then stand up and take a bow 🙇♀️.
You’ve taken your first steps to build your own cartooning skills.