Tips for the aspiring cartoonist to enter the field of cartooning. Advice from published cartoonists.

1. Entering The World of
Cartooning

2. Build Up Your Skillset
It’s important to acknowledge
that although you may already
be a great artist, you must
continue to practice and
improve your craft.
The world of cartooning is
more than just pen(or pencil)
and paper these days.
It would be advantageous for
you to learn some of the major
cartooning and animation
software.
Credit: Mark Litzler & Joe Vanilla

3. Keep up with Current
Events
Make sure that stay
abreast of what’s going on
the world.
Your cartoons are required
to not only be witty and
well drawn, but they need
to be relevant also.

4. Work on Your Portfolio
Nothing is more important than
building up a portfolio.
Make sure that you have a wide
variety of work that shows the
development of your style and
the range of work that you are
capable of.
Look for freelance work. Do
one-off jobs that will allow you
to prove that you can work
based on the specifications of
multiple publications.

5. Know the Business
Terry LaBan, an accomplished
cartoonist made this excellent point in
his article here. “Time and time again,
I’ve seen cartoonists with mediocre
creative abilities and excellent business
skills do far better than those who were
merely artistic geniuses.”
There are less and less opportunities for
syndicated strips.
Being a cartoonist these days is
undoubtedly an entrepreneurial lifestyle
and being able to negotiate and act as a
business person as well as an artist will
often times take you so much farther
than just artistic abilities on their own.

6. http://marklitzler.org/