Top 16 'Character-Creating' Cartoon Art Styles to Explore with Kids for Designing Their First Comic Book - Goh Ling Yong
There's a special kind of magic that sparks when a child decides to create their first comic book. It’s a universe of their own making, a world where their ideas, characters, and stories come to life on paper. As a parent, educator, or creative mentor, one of the most exciting first steps you can guide them through is choosing an art style. This isn't about creating a masterpiece; it's about finding a visual language that feels fun, expressive, and achievable for them.
The right art style can be a powerful confidence booster. It gives a child a set of simple "rules" or visual cues to follow, which can make the blank page feel less intimidating. It helps them transform the amazing characters in their head into tangible drawings they can be proud of. The goal is to unlock their creativity, not to replicate a famous artist perfectly. Think of these styles as creative launchpads, not restrictive boxes.
In this guide, we'll explore 16 fantastic and distinct cartoon art styles that are perfect for kids designing their first comic book characters. From the bendy limbs of 1930s animation to the simple, expressive faces of modern TV shows, there’s a style here for every young storyteller. Let's dive in and find the perfect fit for your child's first big comic adventure!
1. The Classic Rubber Hose Style
This is the style that started it all! Think of the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons, Betty Boop, and the recent video game sensation Cuphead. The "rubber hose" style is defined by its fluid, loopy, and bouncy characters. Limbs bend like they have no bones, characters are often drawn with simple circles, and everything feels energetic and alive.
This style is fantastic for beginners because it completely ignores realistic anatomy. There's no need to worry about where elbows and knees should be! The focus is on movement, expression, and fun. The simple shapes—like circular heads and bodies—make the characters easy to construct.
Tips for Kids:
- Draw arms and legs like pieces of cooked spaghetti. Let them curve and wiggle!
- Use "pie-cut" eyes (a circle with a triangular wedge taken out) for that classic vintage look.
- Keep your characters' accessories simple, like white gloves and big, clunky shoes.
2. The Anime / Chibi Style
Hugely popular around the world, the Anime style is known for its expressive and often dramatic features. For kids, the most accessible version of this is "Chibi," which means "short" in Japanese. Chibi characters are cute, simplified versions of their regular anime counterparts, with oversized heads, large, sparkling eyes, and tiny bodies.
This style is perfect for stories that are heavy on emotion. Those giant eyes can convey a huge range of feelings, from ecstatic joy to deep sadness, with just a few simple lines. The simplified bodies mean kids can focus on the face and expression, which is often the most important part of a character's appeal.
Tips for Kids:
- Start with a big circle for the head. The body should only be about one or one-and-a-half heads tall.
- The eyes are the star! Make them big and detailed with highlights (white dots) to make them look shiny and full of life.
- Keep the nose and mouth very small and simple—sometimes just a dot or a small curve is enough.
3. The "CalArts" Style
If your child watches modern cartoons, they've seen this style. Named after the California Institute of the Arts, where many modern animators trained, this style is seen in shows like Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and The Amazing World of Gumball. It's characterized by thin, consistent line work, bean-shaped heads, and simple, rounded features.
The appeal of the CalArts style is its simplicity and expressiveness. It's clean, modern, and incredibly versatile, working for comedy, adventure, and heartfelt stories. The lack of sharp angles makes the characters feel friendly and approachable, which is perfect for a child's first hero.
Tips for Kids:
- Try drawing your character's head as a slightly squashed circle or a bean shape.
- Give them a "noodle-like" body with soft, simple limbs.
- The mouth is often very simple and round, looking like a "3" on its side when open and smiling.
4. The Peanuts Style
Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts is a masterclass in minimalist character design. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the gang are instantly recognizable because of their simple, powerful designs. The style uses huge, round heads, small bodies, and incredibly expressive linework for faces.
This is a wonderful style for kids who want to focus on storytelling and emotion over complex drawings. A few simple squiggles can show anxiety, a single tear can show deep sadness, and a wide-open mouth can show pure joy. It teaches kids that you don't need a lot of detail to tell a powerful story.
Tips for Kids:
- Make the head the biggest part of your character.
- Use dots for eyes and simple curves and squiggles for the mouth and eyebrows. See how many emotions you can make!
- Characters often have short, stubby arms and feet.
5. The Dr. Seuss Style
For the kid with a wild imagination, there's no better inspiration than Dr. Seuss. This style is all about breaking the rules. Buildings droop, creatures are a mishmash of different animals, and everything feels wonderfully weird and whimsical. It's defined by its curvy lines, strange proportions, and fuzzy textures.
The Dr. Seuss style is liberating. It tells kids that their drawings don't have to look "real" to be amazing. A character can have three arms, a long, curvy neck, and be covered in purple fur. It's all about creativity and inventing something brand new.
Tips for Kids:
- Avoid straight lines! Try to make everything—from trees to noses—a little bit curvy or wiggly.
- Combine different animals to create a new creature. What if you mixed an elephant with a fish?
- Use a fine-liner pen to add little sketchy, hairy lines to give your characters that classic fuzzy Seuss texture.
6. The Abstract Shapes Style
Think of the characters from Uglydolls or the simple but lovable creatures in many preschool shows. This style isn't about drawing people or animals accurately; it's about creating characters from basic shapes like blobs, squares, and triangles.
This is arguably the most accessible style for very young children or those who feel they "can't draw." It removes all the pressure of anatomy and perspective. A lopsided circle with three eyes and a stitched-on smile can have just as much personality as a complex anime hero. It's pure, imaginative fun.
Tips for Kids:
- Just draw a blob! Don't think about what it is, just make a shape you like.
- Now, give it a face. Where would the eyes go? Does it have one eye or five? Is its mouth crooked?
- Add details like buttons for eyes, stitched lines, or different colored patches.
7. The Hanna-Barbera Style
The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons—the Hanna-Barbera look defined a generation of television cartoons. This style was designed for efficient animation, so it relies on strong, simple shapes, thick black outlines, and flat colors. A key feature is the "collar," which separated the head from the body, allowing animators to just redraw the mouth without redrawing the whole character.
This is a great style for creating bold, classic-looking characters. The thick outlines make the characters pop off the page, and the simple color schemes are easy for kids to manage with markers or crayons.
Tips for Kids:
- Use a thick black marker for all your outlines.
- Break your character down into simple shapes: a trapezoid for the torso, tubes for the arms, etc.
- Give your character a collar, a scarf, or a necklace. This is a fun tribute to the animation shortcut!
8. The Adventure Time Style
The land of Ooo is home to one of the most creatively freeing art styles in modern cartoons. Adventure Time's style is characterized by its "noodly" or "wiggly" limbs, simple dot eyes, and incredibly imaginative character designs. Finn's arms and legs bend and stretch in impossible ways, and characters can be anything from a talking gumball machine to a rain-unicorn.
Like the Dr. Seuss style, this one encourages kids to let their imaginations run wild. The dot eyes are incredibly easy to draw and surprisingly expressive, and the flexible limbs make action poses fun and dynamic without worrying about anatomy.
Tips for Kids:
- Give your characters super long, bendy arms and legs with no clear elbows or knees.
- Use simple dots for eyes. Try placing them far apart or close together to change the character's look.
- Don't be afraid to make your character weird! What if your hero is a walking, talking slice of pizza? Go for it!
9. The Doodle / Sketchbook Style
Popularized by book series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries, this style mimics the look of a kid's own personal sketchbook. The characters are simple stick-figure-like drawings, the linework is intentionally a bit messy, and the focus is on humor and relatability.
This is the ultimate confidence-building style. It celebrates imperfection and proves that a compelling story and funny jokes are more important than polished artwork. As we often discuss on the Goh Ling Yong blog, embracing a child's natural way of drawing is key to fostering a lifelong love for art. This style does exactly that.
Tips for Kids:
- Draw your characters like advanced stick figures—a circle head, a simple body, and stick arms and legs.
- Don't worry about making your lines perfect. It's supposed to look like a quick sketch!
- Draw big, expressive mouths and simple cartoon hands (maybe just three fingers and a thumb).
10. The Simpsons Style
Instantly recognizable, Matt Groening's style for The Simpsons is iconic. It features characters with a noticeable overbite, large, round eyes that don't have pupils (just black dots in the center), and a very specific yellow skin tone.
Drawing in this style can be a fun challenge for slightly older kids. It has a clear set of rules that, once learned, can be applied to create any character, from themselves to their family pet, in the Simpsons' universe. It's like learning a fun secret code.
Tips for Kids:
- Remember the overbite! The upper lip should stick out over the lower lip.
- The characters' eyes are just two circles right next to each other with a dot in the middle. They don't have eyelids in the traditional sense.
- Don't draw chins! The head flows directly into the neck area.
11. The "Ligne Claire" (Tintin) Style
"Ligne Claire" is French for "clear line," and it's the style perfected by Hergé in The Adventures of Tintin. It uses crisp, strong, uniform lines for everything. There's no shading or hatching; shadows are shown with solid black, and colors are flat. The backgrounds are often just as detailed as the characters.
This is a more advanced style, perfect for the meticulous child who loves clean, precise drawings. It’s a fantastic way to practice steady linework and teaches the importance of clear visual storytelling. Every object on the page is given equal importance by the consistent line weight.
Tips for Kids:
- Use a good quality fine-liner pen to draw everything with a single, consistent line thickness.
- Focus on making your drawings very clear and easy to read.
- Use flat, solid colors without any shading or gradients.
12. The Moomin Style
Tove Jansson's Moomins are beloved for their gentle, philosophical stories and their charming art style. The style is soft, rounded, and has a storybook quality. It uses simple linework, often with ink and watercolor, to create a world that feels cozy and a little bit melancholic. The characters are simple, hippo-like creatures with minimalist faces.
This is a wonderful style for introspective kids or for telling gentle, heartwarming stories. It’s calming to draw and focuses on atmosphere and mood. It teaches that characters don’t need flashy designs to be full of personality.
Tips for Kids:
- Draw your characters with soft, round bodies. Think pear shapes and ovals.
- Keep faces very simple. The Moomins themselves only have two dots for eyes!
- Try outlining in ink and then filling in with soft watercolor washes or colored pencils.
13. The South Park (Construction Paper) Style
This style is the ultimate proof that you don't need fancy art skills to create a successful show. The characters in South Park look like they were made from simple construction paper cut-outs, with basic circle heads, simple shapes for bodies, and very limited animation.
For kids, this is incredibly empowering. It shows that the humor, the dialogue, and the story are the most important things. It’s a great way to get a comic done fast and focus on writing jokes and creating a fun plot.
Tips for Kids:
- Draw your characters using only simple shapes: circles, squares, rectangles.
- Give them huge, wide-set circular eyes.
- Color them with flat, bold colors as if you were using real construction paper.
14. The Pixel Art Style
A throwback to classic video games, pixel art is created on a grid, with each square representing a "pixel." This style is structured, mathematical, and perfect for kids who love games like Minecraft or Stardew Valley.
Creating pixel art characters can be a fun and methodical process. It forces kids to simplify shapes and think about how to create a recognizable character with a limited number of squares. It’s a fantastic bridge between traditional art and digital design.
Tips for Kids:
- Use graph paper! This is the easiest way to get started.
- Start with a low resolution, like a 16x16 or 32x32 grid, for your character's head.
- Think in blocks. How can you make a curve using just squares? It's a fun puzzle!
15. The Tim Burton Style
For kids who enjoy a touch of the spooky and strange, the style of Tim Burton is a perfect fit. His characters are often lanky and spindly, with huge, expressive eyes, pale skin, and a gothic, melancholic feel. Think The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride.
This style encourages exaggeration. Kids can play with making characters incredibly tall and thin or short and round. It's a great way to explore character design that is less about being "cute" and more about being unique and atmospheric.
Tips for Kids:
- Draw your characters with very long, thin arms and legs and tiny feet.
- Give them huge, sad-looking eyes that take up a lot of their face.
- Use a limited color palette with lots of black, white, and gray, with maybe one splash of color.
16. The Claymation Aesthetic
While not a drawing style in itself, the look of claymation characters like Wallace & Gromit or Shaun the Sheep is a fantastic inspiration. These characters feel tangible, soft, and slightly imperfect. Their defining features are often thumbprints left in the "clay," soft rounded edges, and wide, expressive mouths.
Kids can replicate this style on paper by drawing characters with very soft, rounded outlines and simple, solid shapes. The key is to make them look three-dimensional and handmade. Goh Ling Yong often speaks about the importance of texture in art, and this style is a perfect way to explore that concept.
Tips for Kids:
- Avoid sharp corners. Make all the edges of your character soft and rounded.
- Draw the mouth as a separate, expressive shape, almost like it was stuck on.
- When coloring, try to add subtle shading to one side to make the character look round and 3D.
Your Story, Your Style
There you have it—16 unique gateways into the world of character design. The most important step now is to let your child experiment. Show them these examples, watch a few cartoon clips, and see what sparks their interest. Encourage them to mix and match! What happens if you draw a Chibi character with Tim Burton’s lanky limbs? Or a Peanuts-style character in a pixel art world?
The goal isn't to master a single style but to use them as tools to bring their own unique ideas to life. The best art style is the one that makes your child excited to pick up a pencil and start creating.
Now we'd love to hear from you! Which of these styles do you think your child would enjoy the most? Have they already created their first comic book character? Share your stories and creations in the comments below
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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