Blue Moon Blog

The last couple Fridays, I spent the afternoon with bunches of kids from K-8th grade for school Career Days, teaching cartooning. My daughter, Laura’s eXtreme Day at middle school was last week, and yesterday was Kid’s College at Emily’s elementary school.

It’s always a blast, as nearly all kids at this age love drawing, and have plenty of ideas and imagination, and most haven’t yet learned ways they shouldn’t draw. I start these sessions with a quick overview that like them, I was always drawing as a kid, and wanted to do it when I grew up. After briefly showing them some of the comics, book and projects I’ve worked on, I get them drawing, and together we come up with various ways to draw the main features of the face: eyes, nose and mouth. It’s a ton of fun to watch them piece these features together at different sizes on a variety of face shapes. Before our session’s done, they’re all character designers, with a start at creating stories for their new characters.

I’ve been doing these sessions since I began my career, at least a few times each year. It’s gratifying to pass on a little of what I’ve learned over the years, and to receive those packets afterwards with all their crazy drawings! See you in the funny pages, kids!