Cartooning Techniques;

Fleshing Out The Skeleton

So before I talk about "Fleshing out" our Simplified Skeleton, I can not stress enough the importance of knowing what you're aiming for before you put your first pencil line to paper.
(Don't worry if your finished art doesn't live up to your original idea, It never will, even Van Gogh stepped back from the Mona Lisa and wished there were things he could have done better)

For this image I knew I wanted a happy guy giving the thumbs up, I also had an idea about what kind of hair and clothes I wanted him in.
Knowing all this before you start drawing the character is (Very) important, because when you begin fleshing out your character you need to think about the shape that this will give to muscles, the fall of the clothing, the curl of the hair, etc.

After thinking about ALL of this.
(And yes I even acted out the gesture first)
Then I drew my Action Line.

Then I sketched in the skeleton as my guide to placement of the hips, arms and head.

And the I began "Fleshing out" the cartoon character. This is really about giving Shape to the skeleton, giving the legs, arms, etc a bit of bulk. A knowledge of anatomy will help here, but it's not critical. Just remember the places the body narrows (waist, wrists, ankles) and the places where it widens (shoulders, hips, etc) and you'll be fine.

Anyway, I hope that's demystified some of the art of drawing cartoon characters.

Cheers,
-Kale

(Next time, some other random thoughts)