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Danny Byrne - Cartoons, 9 Dec 2008 Visit him at http://www.cartoonistsguild.com/danny.htm
Danny ran quickly through his career to date, literally scattering examples of his work, hints on selling cartoons (e.g. "Give them FREE to papers and magazines until they start asking for more") and a string of almost true stories which got everybody giggling.	Calendars, books, greetings cards and jigsaws probably fill enough of his time but he could almost moonlight as a stand-up comic.
He then attacked an A2 (?) sketch pad. I say "attacked" because sheets were being torn off and discarded below the easel before you really had time to see what he had done.
The first phase of any of his cartoons is to start with " Pencil Roughs" - he may do perhaps ten before he is satisfied. For cartoons, you can forget all your worries about proportion and perspective. He starts heads, of people or animals, with a circle (which may be drastically distorted), an oval (ditto) for the nose and two smaller circles with dots in, just above the nose, for the eyes. Try making these features tiny for babies. Ears are then tacked on. The mouth can be almost any mark. Eyebrows, almost as much as the mouth, define emotions.	Then into the real thing with ink (black felt pen, here), using the pencil lines only as a very rough guide. Ear shapes, a healthy black nose(?) and appropriate fur and whiskers are all that you need to make it an animal head instead of a human one.
You don't HAVE to use circles for heads - if you look at the examples above you will see that great liberties have been taken (one group of three, for example, is a pencil, ruler and rubber). You would normally attach very under-sized bodies and limbs to the head with a thin neck. Arms and legs are rough cylinders with hands and feet sticking out. Each artist will have a style and practice is the only way to find what's best for you. Use large sheets of paper and try all sorts of shapes until you find some that appeal to you.	Don't forget, though, that you should still collect reference material - not just so you have records of what characterises things but also because you can sometimes be criticised for technical mistakes that most people would never notice (like the wrong number of wheels on a recognisable locomotive).
	However, it is important, for humour's sake, to exaggerate important characteristics and not to forget the little dashes and speed marks to indicate motion (see the reindeer's hand above). Danny made it all look so, so easy - as if anyone could do it - but his technical skill came through in the last few minutes when he did a caricature of . . . . . . well you don't really need telling it's Don Lowey. A super evening - and Danny even stayed afterwards to enjoy the mulled wine and mince pies etc that made up the second half. Sam Dauncey

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