Ideas
Talk, Talk, Talk to People!
Talk about your CERtoon ideas to your friends, co-workers, tutors, anyone! Great ideas always happen or get even better when we talk to other people, and talking about your ideas will help you to understand what is funny and effective! Remember, team entries are allowed, so if you think you're a lousy artist but have a great idea - or vice versa - find friends to work with! Talk to friends or use e-mail lists and facebook to find people with whom you can collaborate.
You have total creative control here!
All you have to do is keep in mind our topic for this year—Harvard's Greenhouse Gas Goal.
Variations on the topic:
- Achieving the Goal: How is Harvard going reach its ambitious goal (maybe some silly suggestions will help people take it seriously)?
- Carbon Offsets: Reforestation, renewable energy purchases. Harvard is trying to avoid using these.
- Collective Action: what can we do as a group? what are our collective impacts?
- Global Environmental Problems: climate change, hurricanes, floods, droughts, biodevirsity loss, etc. Harvard is just part of the whole world.
- Individual Action: what can “I” do to reduce emissions in my room, office, on campus, in the lab?
- Green Buildings: How can we make our new buildings, like the ones in Allston as energy efficient as possible?
- Labs: what are the biggest energy hogs in labs and what can be done about them?
- Renewable Energy: Solar, geothermal, wind: challenges, benefits, on campus possibilities?
- Technical Upgrades: What are the biggest energy inefficiencies in our buildings that could be addressed through retrofits and renovations? (lighting, heating, ventilation, cooling)
- What it will take to tackle environmental problems on a local and global level?: What obstacles will we be facing? How can we overcome them? How can we inspire everyone (students, faculty, staff, FAS administration) to work together towards reaching this goal?
Focus on what's important to you!
Inspiration
See our past finalists
Union of Concerned Scientists: Science Idol cartoons
See what students created for the Citizens for Global Solutions Flash Movie contest.
See what Harvard alumni are doing in the world of cartooning. Larry Gonick (B.A., '67 and M.A., '69) won the 2003 Harvey Award for his "Cartoon History of the Universe III" and Kal Kallaugher is a cartoonist for the Baltimore Sun and the Economist. Also, read about Doug Martlette, a Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist who was a Harvard Neimann Fellow.
Cartoonist Bruce Blitz offers a few drawing tips.
Cartooning with Blitz
Check out Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Homepage for examples of editorial cartoons.
Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index
See the results of EditorialCartoon.net's 2002 "Best Of" competition. Editorialcartoons.net Database Updates
See environmental cartoons by Steve Greenberg.
The Editorial Cartoons of Steve Greenberg
Browse through these environmental 'toons.
ENVIRONMENT Cartoons by Chris Madden
Conservation cartoons by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist "Ding" Darling.
Ding Darling Conservation Cartoons
Sometimes a cartoon's message can be conveyed with few or no words as in these cartoons by John Pritchett.
"Global Warming" illustration for Environment Hawaii
"This is your world on CO2." illustration for Environment Hawaii
Check out these energy conservation cartoons from Grantland.
Cartoons on Energy Conservation
A few Flash animations dealing with energy and environmental issues: Mark Fiore's "Whiner Take All" and "Clean Air."
The Grinning Planet ("Saving the Planet One Joke at a Time") has lots of cartoons and animations plus links to other sites.
Technical Assistance
Step-by-step instructions on how to conceive and draw your own editorial cartoon:Artswork's "Political Cartooning," lesson 3
Consult Ka-BOOM! The Dictionary of Comicbook Words and BZZURKK!! The Thesaurus of Champions for all your cartoon language needs.
Ka-BOOM! A Dictionary of Comicbook Words on Historical Principles
BZZURKK! The Thesaurus of Champions
Comic Colors tutorials andresources link:
Comic Color
"Create a Creature" drawing tips:
Create A Creature by Aaron Riddle
Caricature Zone has a huge gallery of caricatures of famous people as well as other tools to help you draw your characters' faces:
All the caricatures of Caricature zone
Balloon Tales has an interesting article about comic lettering, although the focus is on digitally generated fonts. A free font is available for those of you who wish to go the digital route. If you prefer hand lettering, read the article for style tips and then peruse ComCrafts fonts for ideas.
Balloon Tales: The Comicraft Guide to Comic Book Lettering and Production
