Ok, pretty random question but I am designing a website for a local charity that helps a friend of mine. I want something a bit different and fun to try and capture peoples minds (overall we want them to help out, donate etc.) and have a design which i have roughly sketched out. It is going to be bold in a kind of 'animated' / 'cartoonish' way with grass, trees, people etc. etc. but I am wondering how I can actually produce this electronically?

 

Do I need to produce it by hand and then scan etc?

Do people sketch direct electronic?

Use and manipulate royalty free images?

What programs are commonly used?

Is it going to be do hard? (I am not the best artist beyond random sketches of sites and ideas)

 

Any help is greatly appreciated, I have tried to include a couple of random examples which are not similar but the kind of 'fun' look I want.

 

http://www.getmefast.com/ - Bold, bright people I like

http://www.divvoted.com/ - Sketch / Cartoon

http://www.pojeta.cz/ - Same as above

http://www.answerjam.com/ - Same as above

 

Also how would you define these sites beyond colorful?! If I search for animated it seems to be more 'moving'

 

Any ideas and thoughts greatly appreciated on this folks.

You can scketch then scan and colour in illustrator/photoshop with the pen tool etc.

 

You can use a graphics tablet/pen mouse to sketch digitally onto the computer.

 

Alternativly you can illustrate with the pentool directly.