Cartooning styles...

Hello, Nic,

Sorry to take so long to answer: I wasn't familiar with Daria and needed some time to investigate. (Also, I'm a Harry Potter addict and the new book just camne out--sorry!)

It looks to me like the art style of Daria would be best replicated by using a vector drawing program, such as Adobe Illustrator or Freehand. In these programs, the lines and curves and points in them are mathematical objects, and you can set them to specific widths and styles for a very smooth and slick look. The animation program, Flash, uses a simple version of vector drawing, and most paint or photo-editing programs will at least have basic vector drawing tools.

Vector drawing does take a certain amount of learning and practice: drawing with bezier curves is not as natural and intuitive as simply drawing normally. But it can be done, and a lot of commercial art and professional graphics are done this way. A few tutorials from the user's manual or a library how-to book should help you learn the basics you would need for simple cartooning.

What graphics program are you using or planning to use at the moment?

As to recommending a style, only you can decide what you like and what your own style is, and what matches the mood and characters of your strip best. :) All I would advise on that is to look at as many styles as you can find and develop your individual style from what you see and learn and how you draw naturally.

Cheerio!

Inkwolf