I want to take a cartooning class in college but there doesn seem to be any. Would it be called “illustration” art or is that something different?
it would be illustration but in my experience (I have a b.s in graphic design and illustration) you really don’t touch on it too much in the sense of techniques for cartooning specifically. It is usually a small part of a larger theme in the class and I didn’t do anything near carttoning in my first year. As in most illustration classes you cover the basics year one (perspective, line, composition, depth, shading etc) It wasn’t until my 2nd or third year when we got into anatomy and human life drawing that we touched on skewing the human form for caricature and cartooning. I don’t know if you want to do this just for fun or as a career but there are plenty of good resources online and programs to purchase that teach specifically these techniques, you could buy one of them and start learning the basics.
I have a BFA in Illustration, but there were no classes in my major that were particularly geared towards cartooning. The major focused on technique, the history of Illustration, and most importantly, how to visually communicate a specific idea to the audience. Within that loose framework, there was a wide variety of approaches from everyone in the program, from traditional realism, to cartoons, to digital photomontages. You may find what you’re looking for in an animation class, or just take some drawing or illustration courses and develop your own cartooning style based on what you learn in them. The best thing you can do is to just keep working and working at cartooning. If there’s a student newspaper or local magazine, see if you can get a comic strip published. Most successful cartoonists have some formal education, but are largely self-motivated and develop their styles through constant practice and evolution of their technique and style.
