Claudio Roddaro is seen here enjoying a drink at a cafe with a friend in beautiful sunny Monte Carlo.
Nothing particularly unusual about that, until you notice the racing car parked outside the cafe in the background. Or former racing car, as it has now been registered for road use in Monte Carlo. Sounds a bit insane, but in the exotic world of Monte Carlo, where Ferraris and other supercars are two-a-penny, it takes something special to stand out like Claudio.
The Porsche 917 was designed to win the win the Le Mans 24 hour race which it did so, and was never intended to be driven on the road. However, after deciding that your average sports car was just too plain vanilla, Claudio set about working to make the Porsche road legal.
Picture credit: motoringresearch.com
It was another picture of the same car in action that caught my eye and instantly got me pondering how I could use it in a cartoon. There was something about the incongruity of the sleek racing car and the vans in the background.
In this article we’re going to look at how you can use photos to get ideas for cartoons.
Here’s what we’re going to cover
1. Using mindmaps
2. Borrowing ideas
3. Putting two ideas together
Mind Maps
I put the photo in the middle of a blank page and then started brainstorming idea associated with it. I liked the idea of the racing driver having changed careers and it was then the delivery business struck me. I liked the absurdity of the totally impractical racing car being using to cart things around.
2. Borrowing Ideas
I then started thinking about if there were any ideas that I could borrow from the world around me. I started looking around the house, the neighborhood. It suddenly struck that a friend of mine has an occasional removals business, so what about the absurd idea of using. A racing car to help people shift house?
3. Putting Two Ideas Together
I liked the contrast between the usual way of moving furniture compared to using a racing car to do so. And of course the sheer silliness helped, so I decided to put to the two ideas together.
Here’s the finished cartoon.
Isn’t this cheating?
Remember that there is nothing new under the sun, and that most ideas have been tried out before in some shape or form.
Over To You:
Try this idea-generating technique out with a photo that catches your eye. As you write down possible ideas, don’t pause to think about them - just write whatever pops into your mind. You can even pose some questions about the picture as well, like I did in the above example.
What’s next?
I have a Cartoon Newsletter that I put out seven days a week. Add your name and address to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.