Since I retired, I think the most enjoyable hobby I have is drawing and painting cartoon characters.

At first I drew them directly on the canvas. It was not good to do it that way. Drawing and erasing, makes a mess and it is hard to cover with paint.

Now I draw them on tracing paper. You can erase and redo over and over and it's alright. When it is drawn, you put the tracing paper over carbon paper , and trace it on to the canvas. No mess, nothing to cover up.

I draw the disney characters, Betty Boop, Bat Man, Spider Man, Popeye, Cars, and any more. At first I used oils. They are good, but they take a long time to dry. Then I started to use acrylics. They dry so much faster. When you are just drawing the character and no background, you can use posters. They are priced very reasonably.

The acrylics are great for characters, but if you are doing background, the oils are better. They go on more evenly. The acrylics dry too fast for the background, you can't get it even and solid.. When the character done, drawn and painted, to accent the character, You can outline it with a felt pen.

Arcylics are used with water, to thin, mix, or clean up after you finish. During the holidays I use acrylic paints to paint christmas decorations on the windows. They are easy to wash off the windows after the holidays are over.

The acrylic are more affordable to use than oils. Small tubes go a long way. Plastic palats are very inexpensive,and you can just wash them after use. The only other thing good about using oils..when you are finished with the picture you can cover the palate with the remaining oil paint and put it in the freezer, to use for next time, where as with you are not able to save the left over acrylic paint. So you must use and through out the remaining paint on the palate.

In the beginning , I tried painting land scaped and sea scapes but they were not good. I tried many thing but the cartoon characters were just great fun.! I give then to people instead of cards to cheer then up. Most everyone likes them. When children are in the hospital or in foster care , Te cartoon charecters make them happy. They forget their troubles for a little while..

well, that's it for this time...See you next time?