Chewing Pencils

One of the best ways to generate ideas and to sell your cartoons is to focus your drawing on themes that you are interested in or passionate about. For instance, the best person to draw cartoons that appeal to the sense of humour of somebody involved in growing bonsai trees is the cartoonist who also has an interest in growing bonsai trees! If you’re into sport, then draw cartoons about your sport and submit them to any journals or magazines that write about that sport.

If you’ve been reading Chewing Pencils for a while, you’ll know that I am a part-time cartoonist by choice. I have another job that I love - I’m a minister in a Baptist Church in Melbourne, working with teenagers and young adults. I also have an interest in computers, the Internet and blogging (obviously), so producing cartoons - such as the one above - that include all of these interests has made quite a bit of money over the last few years.

Why? Quite simply, I know the world of the Pastor and I know it well. I can draw things that speak into that world in a way a non-pastor couldn’t. Plus it means a niche market is right there waiting to snap up as much work as I can produce!

So combine your passions and draw about what you know!

Notes:

1. In the above cartoon, Paul is the guy that wrote most of the New Testament part of the Bible. The Corinthians were people living in Corinth! Just in case you wondered…

2. The cartoon took me about twenty minutes to produce using a Wacom tablet, Corel Painter IX.5 (the outline and colour) and Corel PhotoPaint X3 (the text and layout).