So what do we all like to draw?

[Amy Mebberson]

Let's get to know each other a little better, since some of us here don't have any artwork on-site just yet. What are your roots? What made you want to draw? What do you love drawing?

I've been drawing since I was 18 months old. It's just something I've always done. I loved watching Saturday morning cartoons and I drew a lot of cute little animal characters up until about 1990, when Beauty and the Beast came out and Belle just blew me away. THAT was what I wanted to do - draw for Disney.
I've always loved the history of fashion and costume, so I love drawing girls of all styles and fancy or interesting costuming. I hate the way most superhero women are drawn these days - the art has absolutely no warmth or humour to it at all!
I also love the 50's style and am a big retro nut (Shane Glines FTW!).
I discovered manga and anime in the mid-90's and went on a HUGE Sailormoon kick for a while. A manga hint still pervades my style, but when I joined Disney and started frequenting art blogs more, my tastes shifted back to a more solid Western animation style.

I have my fandoms(Disney, Dr Who, old TV cartoons) and draw fanart to relax, but I try to do things that are different - funny or interesting character takes that people might not have thought of before.

[Sharvonique]

Our backgrounds are sort of similar!

I also drew since I was very young and always knew that I would be some sort of artist. I watched cartoons ALL THE TIME and loved them, with one of my favorites being Jem and the Holograms. I didn't know what an animator was at the time, but knew that I wanted to make something like all the shows I enjoyed watching. Cartoons just made me so happy.

I remember catching an episode of an old Disney show that aired Sunday evenings. Disney, in his "Uncle Walt" voice, was explaining the process of animation and being an animator. I finally had a name for what I wanted to do and I've been following it ever since. That also made me want to animate for Disney, especially when I saw the Little Mermaid.
But things changed in the early 90's when I got hooked on anime. Up until that point, I limited animation and cartoons to kid stuff. Anime just opened my eyes to animation being so much more. I was also a huge Sailor Moon fan!

Nowadays, I like to create a mix between the two styles, but I tend to experiment a lot and haven't quite settled on my own look. I think curvy lines and bright colors are pretty common in my work, and I prefer to draw women. I just need to draw more!

[Joanna Davidovich]

I always loved cartoons...well, I always loved Warner Brothers cartoons. Disney shorts always bored me as a kid. But man, did I love Bugs Bunny. When the Spielberg/Warner Bros. tv cartoon phenom happenned, I was all over it. Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Freakazoid...I love those shows to peices.

I decided to become an animator about five minutes after I decided to become a voice actor. My logic ran like this: The credits seemed to list people for several things... names like Sherri Stoner and Paul Rugg stuck out at me because they were involved with story development as well as voice acting. So the way to become a voice actor, I concluded, is to have your own cartoon.

I had always liked to draw as a kid, but it wasn't until a friend gave me an Animaniacs t-shirt that I started drawing cartoon characters, really studying the lines and trying to get them to look right. I enjoyed the drawing so much that I kept at it even after I realized that my voice acting logic was completely wrong. I began to look at all animation with appreciation, even Disney! (My mother to this day hesitates when she speaks the words "Mickey Mouse" because she's afraid I might throw a fit)

So now I'm an adult, and I love cartoons more than ever. I still want to be a voice actor, but thats a dream for the "if I won the lottery" line of fantasy. Although if truth be told, my actual career choice isn't too far removed from that fantasy dream world. Hey, wasn't there some guy with a tiny mustache talking about dreams and wishes a few years back...?

[Amy Mebberson]

Hey, Brad Bird, Joe Ranft, Chris Sanders, Tony Anselmo... all artists AND voice actors.

I think with the first three, the trick is to get into pre-production. Character development, storyboarding, that sort of thing. When you do storyboard pitches, you tend to 'act out' the characters, so there comes the chance to break out the amusing voices. The Pixar guys do it all the time. ;)

As for Tony Anselmo.. well, SOMEONE had to take over Clarence Nash, why not a lowly Inbetweener who can do one of the trickest voices in cartoons? ;)

[Joanna Davidovich]

So all I have to do to become a voice actor is to get into Pixar story development and character design! Easy as pie. ;o)

[Joanie Michelle Rich]

LOL! Yes, pie FTW!

You should totally bring them a pie. I mean they're Pixar, they gotta love pie. :)

And hey, if you wanna do some Voice-overs, hook up with some local talent. That's what I did when I wanted to pursue animation writing, I wrote to one of my favorite writers. <3 He gave me some really solid advice.

What Katie said all the way! If you can dream it, you can do it.

[Joanna Davidovich]

"This thread is about what we like to draw."

Oh crap- you're right. I completely forgot to talk about that.

Oh and I agree with you about the Goofy as Everyman cartoons- those were the only Disney cartoons I liked. I still have vivid memories of watching Goofy trying to teach himself how to dance with a seamstress dummy, I loved that. But those cartoons seemed to get less air than the sweet, cuddly adorable Disney cartoons that bored me.

[Christine]

All I draw is pretty much fanart of Danny Phantom and Yugioh... >_<;;

That and i drew stuff for my art classes in high school that I still have (its when I came up with the most original stuff)

[Joanie Michelle Rich]

I'm just the same! I grew up with my eyes glued to the boob tube watching anything animated I could get my cute little fingers on and slip into the VCR.

The first movie that really affected me was Oliver and Company, which I saw when I was very very very young. (Born in 83 so you do the math ;D) I totally flipped out when they brought it back to theatres. So I was a perfect age when the Disney Musical Renaissance came into being, just one hit after another: Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin - and the king of them all, The Lion King ---- my absolute favorite movie in the entire universe. Seeing that film was the moment I knew this was what I wanted to do. I loved the Don Bluth films too, especially An American Tail and The Land Before Time. I also was exposed to anime at an early age (Enchanted Journey FTW!) and cartoons from all over the world.

As for TV, Disney Afternoon was my life. I saw the beginning and (sadly) the end of it as well and loved mostly everything that was on there from Gummi Bears and Duck Tales to Gargoyles and the Mighty Ducks. Sesame Street made me fall in love with short films.... Saturday mornings I was glued to Fox Kids (got the magazine every month!), ABC Kids, WB Kids and (Old School) Nickelodeon. My absolute favorite show of all time is the syndicated show: Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (A DiC toon) and close runner up with it's half-brother, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM to the fans) which ran alongside it (in production and airtime) on the weekends. They shaped me into who I am today. (And yes, I'm a Sonic gamer too :3 Yes, I'm a very sad little obsessed Sonic fangirl -- and proud of it! XD)

Now my tastes have shifted slightly, but I still wake up Saturday mornings to see what's on. :) But my favorite stuff is on CN (especially Adult Swim). My current favorites are: Xiaolin Showdown, Avatar, Samurai Jack, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

So yeah... I draw a lot of Sonic (can't help it!) and his friends, but I also draw fanart for a lot of other shows as well - and I love designing original characters for those shows that fit into the style. For example, I did an experiment design for Lilo and Stitch the Series.

But I also draw a lot of my own characters, especially Lambent the Crow, my muse and conscience... and comics as well. :) (I need to catch up, I'm so behind...)

[Temris]

Hello everyone! New member of the Toon Chicks group here. First of all, thanks for creating the group! Great idea! XD

Well my roots are similar to others around here. As a kid, I loved Disney movies, (The Lion King still being my fav, too, Joanie!), but for some reason I was never compelled to draw from them. I was more interested in drawing from comic books, probably because that's what I saw my big brother and sister being interested in. I mostly drew my own characters and from my own head, which caused me to develop my creativity when designing characters but I had very little knowledge of accurate proportions and such. I drew a lot of fantasy characters, dragons, and other cool creatures in middle school, too (my geeky tendencies still being prominant in adult life). Then I discovered anime. I never really drew fanart of anime, but it really made an influence on my style. Now I like to draw all sorts of styles, but mostly I draw either a sort of comic-book/anime style or I'll draw really cartoony stuff. Strange how, when I was a kid I never wanted to draw childish cartoony stuff, but now that I'm an adult I have more interest. I still dont draw a lot of pre-designed characters. It all comes right from my head, otherwise I tend to get bored! Unless I'm drawing my cat when he's looking particularly cute or I find a photo of a really interesting-looking person online or something.

That's what I like to draw.

[Wired]

My mom still saves some of my first draws and when I look at them I really can´t understan myself... I think I started drawing, like the real stuff when I met one of my mom´s friends, who used to draw and paint insede the national theatre of Guatemala...
I really love to watch cartoons at any time of day, even that I actually hate to watch tv, I believe Betty Boop´s one of my favorites, mighty mouse, popey, of course Disney´s never missing.
I know it sounds kind of stupid, but today, what I think I really want to do is work for cocacola company...
The style that definds me the most at drawing, it´s kind of eclectic... I have one manga tattoo on my torso, but I don´t draw manga, I like cyberpunk a lot [I think we all have our dark side, I guess that´s mine], sometimes I take my insidekid to draw and draw sticks and silly things, but mostly I think I draw and add circles to averything...
Something I do before drawing... I usually watch a movie, any kind, or cartoons, sometimes I take a look at an amazing graffiti book I have with all the greatest creative ladies inside... drink tons of water, and get started!

[roxythekiller]

I was born in Germany, where I drew out of boredom. I moved to the US at age 5, and became very lonely. Luckily, I had drawing utensils. My kindergarten teacher taught me how to make my own books with folded pieces of paper, and I began to draw a bunch of ghost stories and mystery adventures. I grew up with anime and comic books, and I would faithfully trudge out to the library to read manga or flip through Batman artbooks. I'd stay up at strange hours to watch shows like Serial Experiments Lain and Neon Genesis Evangelion--- and when I discovered communities on the net, I became even more obsessed with not just storylines, but the art. Then puberty hit and I discovered yaoi and slash. I'd always suspected couplings, but I didn't talk about it.
So I started to write and draw that.
Still am.

[Wired]

I watch serial exteriments lain and evangelion too... think it´s part of my inspiration too...