Our company, Digital Anarchy, creates a terrific ‘toon’ product called Toonit! Photo. This Adobe Photoshop cartooning plugin lets you turn photographs into a cartoon look very easily and quickly, and generally without changing the default settings.

But suppose you want to make a cartoon the old fashioned way? By hand! Or rather, by hand in the computer. Well, there are a few websites that I’ve been hanging around for inspiration. They are Drawn!, Deviant Art and MyToons.

The Drawn! Blog, www.drawn.ca From their About page: “Drawn! is a multi-author blog devoted to illustration, art, cartooning and drawing. Its purpose is to inspire creativity by sharing links and resources. Albert Einstein said, ‘The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources,’ but what the hell did he know anyway? The links and posts on Drawn! are written by a small group of professional illustrators, designers, and cartoonists.”

Deviant Art forum/community, www.deviantart.com From their Facebook profile: “DeviantART aims to provide a place for any artist to exhibit and discuss his or her works… DeviantART features many forms of creative expression, organized in a comprehensive category structure. The artwork on display includes photography, digital art, traditional art, literature, Flash, filmmaking and skins for applications. The site also has extensive downloadable resources for use by creators such as tutorials and stock photography.”

MyToons community, www.mytoons.com From their front page: “MyToons.com is the world’s greatest online animation community. It’s also one of the most cutting-edge animation websites available. MyToons is the place where people who really love animation – from seasoned industry pros to rabid animation fans – can upload and share their creations and animated favorites in HD quality with the entire world – for free! With all the cartoons and fun stuff to see and do – it’s hard not to have fun at MyToons!”

all the best -Debbie