Big Chill Cartoon Logo – $450

From time to time we have cartoon characters and logos for sale. Some of these are pre-made designs that we create just for fun. They save you time because they are ready to go right off the shelf. Other times these are designs that were abandoned or did not work out right for a client.

These images have not been used by another company and we own the rights to the design.

Our latest offer is this fun character we call Big Chill. He’s somewhat of a Bigfoot looking guy floating on a tiny iceberg. We feel he would be perfect for a shaved ice business, a sno-cone shack, ice cream stand or even a tropical styled business. If frozen treats or fun food is your business this might be the cartoon logo for you!

This guy is available with two different hand designs and a version with your company name added. The cost to purchase Big Chill is $450 for all three poses, vector art files plus multiple other files and ownership of all rights. This is a one time offer to only one company. Once he is sold he is gone.

Please email me with your company name and information and we will send you a PayPal invoice for purchase. Once we receive payment we will release the files to you and mark Big Chill as SOLD!

This character has been sold.

. . .

by Curtis D. Tucker

VIDEO #1

Do you know how a cartoon logo or character is created?
I am going to show prospective clients and newbie cartoonists the process I use to create the Curtoons cartoon logos and characters. I will accomplish this task using a series of cheesy videos. The first video is below and I apologize for the quality but I got tired of thinking about it and instead picked up my iPhone and started filming.

Eventually the quality will get better and I might even edit the darn things. At this point I just want to show the steps I take to create a funny cartoon design with 10 minute or less video tutorials.

For those that would rather not suffer threw my video I am going to type out what I was trying to tell you in the video.

If you’d like to go straight to the video just skip this additional content, watch me on film and then come back for some extra morsels of knowledge.

If you want to create a cartoon logo or purchase a cartoon logo I think you need to head to the Internet. The best designers now have top quality portfolios online and can be reached easily. This gives customers and designers the ability to work beyond their local borders.

I believe to make it in the cartooning business today you need to have your own website. Any presence online is better than nothing but if you want to create a real business and have your customers believe you I think you need your own domain name website. There are places online that will host your designs for free but you are limited on the look of your website and lack a personal domain.

How to set up a website.
Use your company name or create an available dot com name. Go to a registrar like Go Daddy and purchase the name. Cost is about $10. If you know your host set up your nameservers at that time. If you do not have a host, pick a company like Host Gator as your hosting company. Cost will be about $5 a month. You can even get your domain name through your host company these days. Once set up get into your control panel. Find the area with WordPress. Follow the instructions to set up WordPress and you are ready to go.

I use WordPress and feel it is a great way to build a website. There are zillions of WordPress tutorials online so get busy and learn them. If this is going to be your business you’ve got to put in some sweat and learning.

Create your pages, upload your best images and learn a thing or two about SEO (search engine optimization).

SEO helps people find you in the search engines. If you do not have traffic you will go broke. Use Facebook, Twitter, LinkdIn and Pinterest. Everything helps!!

Once you start getting traffic you’ll want to have a pricing structure and a quote form. When a customer fills out a request, as quickly as possible send them a fair quote. Ask for a 50% deposit. I use PayPal for online payments. I recommend opening your own PayPal account so all of your transactions can be handled online quickly. Once you receive the 50% deposit add the project to your schedule. I track my projects in a little program called Wunderlist. It’s not a job tracking program but it is the best I have found for my needs and you can install it on your computer and mobile devices which allows it to synch every time you update.

At this point you should have a good idea of what the client has in mind for their design. Come up with a sketch or two. I use everyday copy paper to draw on and use throw away mechanical pencils. One handy device I think every cartoonist needs is a light table. The light table will help with mistakes and can help speed up the drawing process.

I draw my pencil sketches to a point that they almost look like finished art. This helps when they are scanned into the computer. I can quickly darken the lines in Photoshop and it almost looks like an inked drawing.

That’s about all I have for Video #1. Starting a cartooning business does not entail a huge cost but there are going to be some dollars involved. Here’s a list of things I think a cartoonist would need to get a business started:

1. Computer (I only use Apple)
2. Software ( the industry uses Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator)
3. Light Table
4. Scanner
5. Pencils and Erasers
6. Copy Paper
7. Website & Domain Name
8. Hosting & Email Account
9. PayPal account
10. Phone Number (Clients want access to their designers)

That wraps up part one of creating a cartoon logo and getting your cartoon studio off the ground. Watch the video below and leave a comment if you’d like to make fun of me.

by Curtis D. Tucker

What are the most famous cartoon character names you can remember?

Cartoons are a huge part of my life and have been since I was a little buck-a-roo watching my favorite Saturday morning cartoons. So much so that I even turned myself into a super hero character to help market my cartooning business.

Through the years I’ve read hundreds of comic books, comic strips and seen dozens of cartoon movies and TV shows. On top of all that I’ve been exposed to countless cartoon characters used to sell me something like a bowl of cereal.

My personal favorite characters and comics have been Superman, Charlie Brown, Scooby Doo, Herman, Sad Sack and those funny Don Martin characters in MAD Magazine. Every now and then I like to remember some of those funny characters and have trouble thinking of a name or two. The list below are the names of characters I remember or have run across over the years.

I’ve seen many lists online that are either incomplete and don’t even list the most popular names to lists that name every character ever mentioned on earth whether anyone has heard of them or not. This character name list tries to balance both aspects. I wanted to compile the most popular names that most people have heard of and not worry about names that only appear in one scene of one movie.

These names come from comics, TV shows, movies, books and commercials. I’ve tried to add of few from every media. This is by no means a list of every cartoon character known to man or a list of the best characters. It is just a quick list of names to help jog your memory or bring back a forgotten favorite. This is also a great list of cartoon names in case you are in need of one for your baby.

Enjoy the list and please share it with anyone else that might be looking for fun characters names.

That is my list so far but almost every week I’ll run across a couple names that I had forgotten. I’ll keep updating the list so check back often. Please don’t steal my list by copying and pasting it to your website. Link to it and we’ll both benefit from the time I’ve put in researching these names. Thanks!

. . .

by Curtis D. Tucker
Are you afraid your designs displayed online will get ripped off?
Never fear! They will.

How does that phrase go? Imitation is the surest form of flattery. Or, in this case, being ripped off is a sure sign of flattery.

I get this question from a large percentage of artists and cartoonists I talk to about setting up an online presence. A newbies first concern is will they get ripped off. Well, the answer is yes, but not as much as the big guys like Disney, Warner Brothers and others. You most likely know you’ve made it when your designs start getting ripped off like the more well known artists.

If you allow the fear of getting ripped off keep you from showing the world your work you most likely should get into another business. But beware, just about every business out there gets ripped off in one or another just like artists do.

Please don’t mistake this post as saying every design you create will get stolen and you’ll be getting ripped off all of the time. That just isn’t the case. It happens and it will most likely happen to you if you are online long enough. Most of the time the people stealing your designs won’t be making any money from them. Most thieves steal art from online to display or use as a part of their website. They like the images and many times don’t know about copyright laws or don’t know how to ask.

One of the main reason not to worry so much about theft is that most of the designs that are highjacked are famous designs and characters. Your designs are most likely not at the top of the most wanted list. I’ve seen dozens of local companies driving around with Bugs Bunny and Disney characters on the side of their plumbing or delivery trucks. Although this is theft it is not something that would bankrupt you if it happened.

I have found my designs online on many different websites. Some people offer my designs as clip art on their website, some have used characters in their headers and one person even opened a Cafe Press store selling merchandise with one of my characters. Did any of this effect my bottom line? Nope. Did I get everyone of them to remove my designs? Yep. So, you see, even though it is very annoying it is not something that should keep you from displaying your designs online.

One way to protect a design from about 80% of the people is to watermark it. I say 80% only because 20% of Internet surfers can quickly slip a design into Photoshop and get rid of even the best watermarks. No matter what anyone tells you there is no 100% way to keep people from taking your images. If I can see your image on my computer screen, I can steal it.

The reason for this post is to inform and encourage but also relate a funny thing that happened to me recently.

I created a fun line of designs a few years back under my WeinerDuck Pop Art name. These images were colorful and fun and I sold them mainly as prints in my hometown. I also added them to my ChuckleBerry’s greeting card line.

One of my favorite designs was a cute little airplane that I decided to offer on my royalty free character website. Basically I would allow anyone to buy the design for $29 and use it to create things or promote their business. I pretty much know where and when each of my designs is sold because I personally send most of the designs to the purchaser.

Anyway, jump forward a few years to 2011 and I find myself in our local flower shop. We’re talking a small shop in Enid, Oklahoma, just about as far away from anything as you can get.

As I’m waiting to talk to the owner of the company I start browsing the shop and spot the cutest little airplane made into a plant holder. The plane had at first caught my eye because it was shaped like a vintage pedal plane which I love. As I picked it up to see the price I noticed that it looked very familiar. Upon further investigation I discovered that this cool airplane design made in China was actually a carbon copy of my pop art airplane! (photo of the airplane below)

I do know for a fact that I have never sold a design to anyone in China so I’m pretty sure the design was never purchased. I really wasn’t mad, in fact I was a bit amused that I was able to get a ceramic version of my airplane without having to dish out the cost of manufacturing. Am I getting ripped off? Most likely. Some might argue that it is not the exact airplane, but it is. Others might say that I’m only out $29 since I allow these designs to be used by entrepreneurs. Either way I’m okay.

As cartoonists we’ve just got to keep on drawing and keep on posting. As we rise to the top of our fields people will recognize our work and we’ll get full credit for it. You’ll also eventually get to a point where other cartoonists recognize your work and will let you know when they see it being ripped off. The moral to this story is to keep on keepin on!

My Cute Cartoon Airplane Design

by Curtis D. Tucker
Looking for a funny dog character for a project?
From time to time I will be creating funny characters for you to use at a much cheaper cost than having me draw one from scratch. Some of these images are rejected projects, unpaid projects or concepts. These fun designs can be purchased and used on many different graphic design formats.

One of my favorite new characters is this crazy flying dog. He’s a great looking black spotted bird dog not only flying but wearing a set of wings, a pilots helmet and airplane goggles. He’s got his trusty bird catching net and his prey is riding along on top of his head.

This design would be great for a bird pest removal company or a bird dog kennel. There are also many other things this image could be used on. A bird hunt flyer or dog training brochure come to mind.

. . .
Bird Dog Uses:
1. Logo Design
2. Newsletter Filler
3. Brochure Graphic
4. Sign Image
5. T-shirt Mascot
6. Truck Decal
7. Web Clip Art
8. Product Label
9. Website Header
10. and more!

Bird Diggity
This cartoon image is a royalty free design that can be used for multiple purposes after paying one low flat fee. This cute flying dog can be yours for use with any of your promotional projects. Although you are free to use him as part of your advertising you cannot copyright him. I retain the copyright and other clients have the rights to use him royalty free as well.

Because of his royalty free nature we are able to keep the cost of using him at a lower rate. If you would like a funny custom cartoon dog character just let me know the details and I can get you a quote and more information.

Upon purchase you will receive a vector EPS, high qulaity PDF, 300 dpi JPEG and a transparent PNG file. You can use the PayPal button below for payment.

If you have questions please let me know.

. . .
Bird Diggity
Cartoon Dog
Vector Art Files
$29.00

The purchased files
will be sent directly
to your email ASAP.
Thank you!!

I use Zazzle.com to get many of my things printed. Use any one of my royalty free characters to help promote your business or service. I used the wacky bird dog design on this black t-shirt.

If you click on the photo you’ll be taken to the design page. There you can pick your own t-shirt design or any other product. You can then add your own text or add your logo and Zazzle will print the merchandise for you.

Open a own store with your own customized products and make money or just use the promotional materials to advertise your company.

And if you really like this character page you might also like:

• Funny Character List
• Cool Boxer Design