Sunday Mailbag- Bad Drawing?

Q: Ever had to do a convincing “bad” drawing–either for a tutorial or something like a child’s drawing? Every time I see a “bad” drawing done on purpose by a good artist, it always looks too… er… “good”… there’s good structure, good linework… it’s almost like the artist doesn’t know how to do a bad drawing anymore. How might you approach doing such a drawing?

A: Some people would say I don’t need any special approach to do a bad drawing… I just let my natural talent take over!

But, if I ever need to do something really, purposefully bad for some reason… a gag maybe or as you say a “kid’s drawing”, I do two things to attempt to get that look:

First, I try and think in visually inept terms… meaning I attempt to see objects and shapes as not only simplistic but to draw them inaccurately. A square has all four sides different lengths, and not at parallel angle, for example.

Second, I draw it with my left hand, and hold the pencil (or whatever drawing tool I am using) awkwardly with my palm up, or between my pinky and ring finger. That severe lack of coordination and control of the pencil helps a lot. Here’s an example of a recent spot illustration I did for MAD where I needed to make part of the drawing child-like and amateurish:

Sorry Dubya.

Anyway that’s how I do it when called to do it. And no, I didn’t use that approach for “Goodnight Batcave” despite how the art looks… haters.

Thanks to Chad Lehman for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!