
I’ve been drawing cartoons of various children characters and my Little Jo “Inner Child” cartoon girl for quite some time. So, at this point, cartooning children really comes quite naturally to me. For whatever reason, I also gravitate to drawing cartoon men of a certain age, height and weight…and those cartoons now flow from my pen almost effortlessly! What I haven’t done as much is cartoon portrait illustration drawings of fashionable women. To get the proportions right while simplifying (or cartoonifying) the details doesn’t feel like second nature yet. Therefore, I’m committing to lots more practice drawings of this particular demographic.
Here’s a look at my SECOND fashionable woman cartoon portrait illustration attempt (the first one ended up in the trash bin)…
As you can see, I used a “model” I know well…
(Myself!)

The Model Is Wearing…
A vintage style dress bought in New Orleans, red eel-skin peep-toe pumps and a lace shawl knit by her mother. Her black leather clutch is from Housing Works thrift store.
The Occasion?
Every once in a blue moon I actually get to dress up in formal attire other than my professional concert black. (Yah, I know, I haven’t strayed too far from black, but the polka-dots and red accents certainly wouldn’t be allowed in an orchestra setting.) In this case, I was on my way to a wedding.
Materials used in the above cartoon illustration:
- Faber-Castell f-hardness pencil
- Zebra fine line disposable brush pen
- Kuretake No. 13 fine line brush pen
- Faber-Castell watercolor pencils
- Pentel waterbrush pen
Lovely!
Thank you, my friend!
🙂 Joana
Where’s the SHAWL? I don’t see any shawl that your mother knit!!!
I know, I know…I forgot to draw THE MOST IMPORTANT part of the outfit. Sigh. 😉
xox – J