Character Design Archives | Freelance cartoonist and illustrator

Dinosaur cartoons

Really Nick, more dinosaurs?!

I recently completed a series of 30 (yes, 30!) dinosaur cartoons as part of Jurassic June, an online celebration of all things dinosaur and what better excuse to draw a series of dinosaur cartoons? A little bit of a ‘mammoth’ task, you might say… a new dinosaur every day?!

I wanted to create a set of dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes, and hopefully all recognisable. So we’ve teeth, horns, sails, crests, four-legs, two-legs and everything in between!

I did complete a small run of cartoon dinosaurs last year for Jurassic June and have included a couple of them in this collection too.

Would you like some dinosaur cartoons?

If you’d like some dinosaurs of your own, get in touch with me!

Get yourself some dinosaurs

Ankylosaurus

Baryonyx

Brachiosaurus

Carnotaurus

Cetiosaurus

Chasmosaurus

Dilophosaurus

Euoplocephalus

Gallimimus

Hypsilophodon

Iguanodon

Jeholosaurus

Kentrosaurus

Lambeosaurus

Mamenchisaurus

Megalosaurus

Oviraptor

Pachycephalosaurus

Parasaurolophus

Polacanthus

Procompsognathus

Spinosaurus

Stegosaurus

Styracosaurus

Triceratops

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Udanoceratops

Velociraptor

Wuerhosaurus

Zuniceratops

Would you like some cartoon dinosaurs of your own?

Get in touch with me today and let’s discuss your illustration needs!

Draw me some dinosaurs!

How do you draw cartoon dinosaurs?

You may have noticed that I have an unhealthy interest in dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. When I meet people at networking events, one of the questions I always get asked is ‘how do you draw cartoon dinosaurs’?

Of course, my usual response is ‘I don’t know, it just kinda happens’! So let’s take a closer look at how I actually do it!

So why draw cartoon dinosaurs?

That’s a really good question – I mean, let’s face it, dinosaurs are just AWESOME! From a young age, I found them absolutely fascinating and I always remember seeing a picture of the Age of Reptiles mural in a school book and recreating my own versions in biro on giant lengths of wallpaper!

The best thing about drawing cartoon dinosaurs is that they’re timeless – everyone has loved dinosaurs at some point or another in their lives (or thirty-something years in my case!)

How do you start when you draw cartoon dinosaurs?

I usually begin by selecting a cartoon dinosaur that I’ve not drawn before – for the challenge, but also to keep things fresh for me.

Luckily for me, there is a whole host of dinosaurs to choose from, so there’s no shortage of inspiration!

And you can have so much fun with them too! You’ve some with spikes, some with horns, some with fins – and even some with all of the above!

1. The initial dinosaur sketch

Each dinosaur starts out as a series of rough shapes, just to get everything in place. I then join up the shapes with other pencils to give us our rough dinosaur shape.

I don’t worry too much about scientific accuracy, but I do make sure they’re recognisable as a certain species.

2. Tightening up the sketch

Once I have the shapes as I want them and looking quite good, I’ll tighten up the composition and make sure everything is where it should be.

Then I go over everything again with an outline in pencil – this will serve as the guide for the next stage – digitisation!

3. Digital outlines

The next stage when creating a cartoon dinosaur is adding in the digital outlines. For this purpose, I tend to use Adobe Illustrator and create as a vector.

The vector has the advantage of being much crisper when increased in size (which suits the style of my artwork, as it’s very much solid colour) and is very easy to edit as I go if some last minute adjustments are required.

I use the pen tool for the majority, but also have a series of pressure sensitive brushes that I like to use too.

4. Adding some prehistoric magic

Next, I go about adding in some solid colours. I have certain palettes that I tend to stick to when colouring my cartoons.

I use the pen tool in illustrator to create the larger areas of colour and then the blob brush tool to fill in smaller areas, such as teeth and horns (as these tend to be more numerous).

5. Final touches and details

Once all of the base colours are in, I will go about adding some shades and highlights on my characters. More often than not, I have the light-source directly above the dinosaur. This means the majority of the shading is underneath and the highlights are on top.

For these, I tend to use a shade of the main colour, but about 20% lighter for highlights and 20% darker for the shading, but this is subject to change depending on what I’m working on.

Adding shading and details to my cartoon dinosaur

Can I draw you some cartoon dinosaurs?

If you feel my cartoon dinosaurs could aid your business or project, please get in touch!

Let’s draw something roarsome!

Prehistoric animals

You’ve probably already seen my cartoon Woolly Mammoth and Sabre-tooth tiger, but have you seen any of my other recent prehistoric animals? These were great fun to do – take a look below for yourself!

Ceratogaulus

This was my first real encounter with this critter – Ceratogaulus was basically a prehistoric rodent with a pair of small horns jutting out of it’s nose.

I’m not sure on exact food he would have eaten, but the thought of him throttling a cartoon worm was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Just to complete this composition, and because he’s rather small, I chose to place him on a set of small boulders.

Glyptodon

Another childhood favourite of mine is the armadillo-like glyptodon.

A hairy mammal with a solid, egg-like shell and thick spikey tail – reminds me of a pineapple!

This particular cartoon Glyptodon has a cheeky offspring riding on his back!

I experimented a little here also with the scaley shell pattern – creating a swatch and then repeating across the shell.

Woolly Rhino

This character was immense fun to do, with all of his fur and oversized features allowed for a lot of scope as a cartoon!

I wanted a stark contrast between the body and the face/limbs, so as with the mammoth, I opted for a pale grey.

I then had fun with a custom brush to make the hair look extra shaggy.

Orohippus

Prehistoric horses were very different to those we have today. For starters, they were only about the size of your average domestic dog!

As they are only small, I thought I’d have a pair of them playing together, racing through some foliage.

The most unusual thing I think about the prehistoric horses is that they had toes instead of hooves – those came later!

Paraphysornis

You may have heard the phrase used in Jurassic Park about the Velociraptor being a six-foot turkey? Well, Paraphysornis was exactly this… and then some!

Literally a massive beak on legs, this prehistoric bird chased smaller mammals around Brazil some 23 million years ago.

This one is pictured chasing a rather terrified prehistoric horse for his dinner!

What do you think of these cartoon Prehistoric animals?

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on these cartoon critters and if you’d like some of yuor own, please get in touch!

contact me

Shark Logo

I’ve recently completed the design of a shark logo for a client who runs a fishing channel, The Lawless Tide!

The brief

My brief was to create a dynamic and eye-catching shark logo for a fishing channel. The shark needed to be leaping out of the waves, pulling a fishing rod behind him – snatched from a shoreline fisherman!

Sketches and ideas

As always, my first port of call is a few quick sketches to get a feel for the piece. I’ve drawn several cartoon sharks in the past so already had a feel for how he might look.

I wanted to make sure he looked very energetic and mischievous, with lots of emphasis on his sharp teeth! I had to ensure that the fishing rod was also very easy and clear to see, being such a slender object.

There was also the requirement for some waves that the shark was ploughing through.

Experimenting with composition

Once I had a look for my shark logo and an idea of the composition, I experimented with the placement of the elements.

As this was to be used as a channel logo/avatar I also needed to ensure it would fit within a square. I also toyed with the idea of whether the waves would be contained within the circle, or spilling out.

Creating the shark logo

Once the pencil sketches and composition were approved by the client, it was time to digitise the outlines.

This was all done in Illustrator as a vector artwork – the main advantage to this being the artwork can be easily amended. It also has the advantage of being able to be scaled to any size without any loss of quality.

Once all outlines were completed, base colours were added, followed by all shading and highlights.

Shark logo text

As with the existing videos on The Lawless Tide channel, I needed a typeface that would suit the feel of the logo.

This needed to be fairly loose and relaxed, but also bold enough to be viewed at a small size. The request was that it would also need to be yellow to match the existing channel lettering.

Once I’d played with the letterforms and arranged them into a looser format, I bulked up their appearance. After that, more wave-like shapes were added behind to help give more impact to the text against the busy shark.

Parasaurolophus cartoon

Parasaurolophus was a large herbivore from the late Cretaceous period and belonged to a group known as the Hadrosaurs.

This particular dinosaur is known for its large, elaborate head crest, which forms a long curved tube projecting upwards and back from the skull.

Parasaurolophus was such a distinctive creature I just had(rosaur) to draw it (did I get away with that awful pun?)

My Parasaurolophus cartoon

When I looked back at the other dinosaur cartoons I’d created in my portfolio, I realised we needed more bipedal characters.

Although not the first dinosaur people think of, It’s the head-crest that really makes him stand out.

I went about creating a pencil sketch initially. Once I had something I liked, I took the sketch and digitised all of the outlines.

In terms of colour, I wanted to use something vivid, yet friendly to convey the gentle nature of this dinosaur.

I went for a nice orange shade in the end and feel this works very well, not only on its own but also when placed next to the others.

What were the Hadrosaurs?

The Hadrosaurs were a group of dinosaurs that lived during the late Cretaceous period. They had a stiff tail (most likely for balance), bumpy skin and hoof-like feet. Ok, maybe my version isn’t scientifically accurate, but hey, it’s a cartoon!

They were also characterised by many of them sporting a distinctive head crest. These head crests would vary in size and shape on each species.

They’d travel in large herds across the plains of North America and would’ve provided a prime food source for hungry predators, such as Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor!

Additional Hadrosaur cartoons

I’m so pleased with this Parasaurolophus that I think I shall add to the ranks in due time.

Who knows, we could even draw enough of them for a mini Hadrosaur party – what do you think?

Cartoon Pterodactyl

As we’re rumbling through Jurassic June, I felt we needed to add some variation to our dinosaurs with a cartoon Pterodactyl.

Why choose to do a cartoon pterodactyl?

Not strictly a dinosaur, but is synonymous with what we have in mind when we think of prehistoric times. This particular pterodactyl is actually based on one of the larger species, known as Pteranodon.

Pteranodon had a wingspan of over 6 metres and due to a large toothless beak, fed on fish. They lived primarily in North America during the late Cretaceous period.

Other types of Pterosaur

There were many varieties of pterosaur that roamed the skies of the Mesozoic era. I’ve included a few more for you below!

Feilongus

Another giant of the prehistoric skies was the Feilongus.

Feilongus basically translates as ‘flying dragon’ – quite apt when you consider his appearance!

This Pterosaur had two crests on it’s skull – one long and low one in the middle of it’s snout and a second projecting from the rear of its head.

Quetzalcoatlus

With a wingspan the width of a small aircraft, Quetzalcoatlus must have been an impressive sight some 70 million years ago!

This Pterosaur had an unusually long, stiffened neck. Its name comes from the Mesoamerican feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl.

Do you need any cartoon dinosaurs or prehistoric creatures?

These are always great fun to draw and I’d be more than happy to draw some for you!

contact me

Cartoon Ankylosaurus

Talk about a living tank – this cartoon Ankylosaurus is that and then some! Even his eyelids were armoured!

What was the Ankylosaurus?

An armoured giant from the late Cretaceous period, Ankylosaurus was more than a match for even the biggest Tyrannosaur!

Its name means ‘fused lizard’ from all of the tightly fused armour plates on its body.

It was a gentle herbivore, reaching lengths of up to 7 metres and covered in bony armour plates and dozens of sharp spines.

It had a wide, low skull, with two horns pointing backwards from the back of the head, and two horns below these that pointed backwards and down.

The end of the tail was formed into an enormous bony club, which would have been swung at predators for defence.

Why a cartoon Ankylosaurus?

Ankylosaurus has always been a popular favourite, both of mine and popular culture.

This particular dinosaur was created firstly as a pencil sketch. I then fully digitised the artwork in Adobe Illustrator.

I’m particularly pleased with how the armour came out – almost like a giant, purple corn on the cob!

The contrast between the light and dark shades of purple also work well and helps to distinguish him from my other dinosaur cartoons.

Fun fact…

The fused plates that make up the Ankylosaur’s armour are called ‘Osteoderms’. These are only found in extinct animals, as well as crocodiles and some amphibians.

Cartoon Brachiosaurus

With his towering neck and mighty shoulders, here’s the next entry for my dinosaur series – a cartoon Brachiosaurus!

A little bit about the Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus was a sauropod from the late Jurassic period (155-140 million years ago) and first discovered in 1903.

His name means ‘arm reptile’ due to the oversized front legs, probably to help him graze from taller trees

Why choose a cartoon brachiosaurus?

Ever since a child and seeing him in one of the opening sequences to the wonderful Jurassic Park, I knew I had to create a cartoon Brachiosaurus.

He was another cartoon that began life as a pencil sketch, with emphasis on the large body and small head.

I wanted to add a dopey, yet gentle expression on his face. He’s then topped off with a long neck, but relatively shorter tail.

I chose a subtle blue tone to colour this cartoon dinosaur, as I felt this not only mirrored his personality but also contrasts well with the other dinosaurs.

Being a gentle herbivore, he’ll be quite at home amongst my other cartoon dinosaurs, Stegosaurus and Triceratops.