If you are not new to drawing you already know that the real fun begins when you start drawing characters. Drawing props can be interesting but that is no match to character drawing. And drawing cartoon characters can be even more interesting. But let me tell you at the outset, character drawing is more fun because it is more challenging. You need to have right techniques in your bag. Apart from that you will need to practice a lot before you start making decent cartoon characters.
To be successful in character drawing you need to keep in mind the difference between a prop and a character. In one line it can be said that a character normally communicates something to the viewer through facial expression, gesture or body language, whereas a prop just remains there in the scene. So your main task as a character artist is to let your creation communicate with the watcher. You will need to learn the basics of expression. Fortunately the fundamentals of drawing expressive characters are same no matter if your character is a man, a cat or a tree.
There may be times when facial expression or body language may not be sufficient for your character to express itself. For such situations you can represent your characters speech or thought using speech balloon or thought bubbles as you can find in various comic books. If your character is in motion you can use motion lines to represent that. Trailing straight lines can not only show if the motion is slow or fast it can also show the direction of the motion.
Proper use of shadows is also very important. The shadows can show the time of the day, weather. Detailed shadow will take lot of drawing effort, if you do not want to spend much time for drawing shadow you can use small patches to represent shadow which is much better than using no shadow at all in your creation. Use right kind of props to compose your scene. The props can set the mood of the scene. So be selective about the props. The right types of props can add to the expressiveness of your character.