Drawing ‘No Bottom’

I drew this cartoon as part of a series of images to go with the Modern Wisdom podcast episode - Adam Alter - ‘The Psychology Of Tech And Phone Addiction’.

In this article I’m going to breakdown the steps in drawing the cartoon.

Initial Sketch

To go with the caption on the cartoon at the top of the page, I needed a to show a bottomless pit. Here’s the outline sketch.

Colouring The Pit

I’ve started to apply watercolour washes to the sketch, setting the brush at 20% opacity and slowly building up the depth.

The Pit Is Completed

The pit is now completed. I knew that I wanted to drawn a bottomless pit, however, I wasn’t sure what context I would put it in. So I put the drawing to one side to do a few other illustrations in the set. Soon a fishing theme started to link the pictures together, so I returned to the pit and thought I’d add it to the river and have the water draining into it.

Adding The River

The fisherwoman appeared in a couple of other illustrations, so I thought I’d add her to the cartoon. I’ve now started to colour in the river, this time I’m using a turpentine brush instead of watercolour as I like the flowing water effect I can create with it.

Adding Energy To The Water

The water is now getting a lot more dynamic, gradually laying on the strokes of colour. I’ve also added the second character - the stork.

Colouring The Characters

Almost finished now. I’ve coloured the characters and I just have to add a few touches and the caption.

The Finished Cartoon

And that’s the cartoon completed.

Are you interested in drawing cartoon dogs?

If so, just type “woof!” In the subject line below and send me a message. I’ll send you details of the ‘Cartooning Canines - How To Draw Cartoon Dogs’ Course.