Captivating cartoons

DRAWINGS with or without captions used to illustrate, tell a joke, satirise, caricature, entertain or tell a story are all considered cartoons.

Cartoonists, caricaturists, illustrators, comic strip artists, animators and digital artists, produce these pieces of artwork for newspapers, magazines, production houses and online.

Cartoons can be categorised into paper-print (those that appear in newspapers, magazines, books, advertising) and animated (as seen on television and films).

Whether cartoons are intended for print or screen media presentations, the cartoonist uses specific devices to convey information to the viewer.

Almost all cartoons intended for print are created with traditional pencil, pen and ink materials or through computer software.

Animated films and television are made using three major techniques: traditional and hand-drawn animation (Cel), stop-motion, and computer generated imagery (CGI).

Types of cartoons

A panel comic is made up of one panel. The cartoon is about an everyday event with a twist. Usually there is a punch line at the bottom off the panel. Insanity Streak by Tony Lopes is an example.

Comic strips are published in newspapers and magazines. They usually consist of drawings and speech bubbles and are a series of panels. The characters in comic strips appear regularly. Examples of comic strips are Swamp and Garfield.

* Check out the panel and strip comics in this newspaper.

Comic books are a collection of cartoons strips which continue a storyline through a series of sequential illustrations. The story may be humorous, or it may present a world of adventure, mystery or fantasy. Examples of comic books are The Amazing Spider-Man and The Phantom.

An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is a drawing containing a commentary expressing the artist's opinion or point of view on political and public affairs, something which is occurring in the news, social customs, fashions, sports events and personalities. The cartoon can be a picture, words or both providing satirical, witty or humorous comment.

Animated cartoons are those seen on television and at the cinema. To produce these, a sequence of illustrations are either hand-drawn, made form objects then photographed one frame at a time or created using computer programs. The recently released Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3 are examples.