Tag: Workshop

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One Day Workshop at the Institute 10 May 2014

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There were some fantastically skilled kids in my workshop at The Institute in North London on Saturday.  Warming up with a bit of quick character doodling…Institute-Day-Workshop-01 Then designing characters hinting at their personality and backstory…
Institute-Day-Workshop-02 Institute-Day-Workshop-03 Institute-Day-Workshop-04 They came up with some fantastic possible endings to a three panel strip...Institute-Day-Workshop-05 Institute-Day-Workshop-06Then came the point in the workshop where I asked them what they’d like me to draw peeping over the top of a box.  “A not very well drawn tiger-cub!” they all cried.  Nailed it.Institute-Day-Workshop-07I like to use my collaborator’s work as samples of comic making.  Here are some early Rosie and Jacinda designs by the great Zarina Liew…Institute-Day-Workshop-08The kids picked up ideas of character design, story crafting and thumbnailing really well…Institute-Day-Workshop-09 Institute-Day-Workshop-10 Institute-Day-Workshop-11 Institute-Day-Workshop-13And finished up the day making some fantastic comics…Institute-Day-Workshop-12 Institute-Day-Workshop-14So happy when the kids really get into their work!

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Secret Agent Fun at Discover Children’s Story Centre

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I had such a great day on Saturday taking part in a comic making workshop as part of the Secret Agent Themed Season at Discover Children’s Story Centre in Stratford, East London on Saturday.

Sunday would see the skills of Sarah McIntyre, Gary Northfield and Alex Milway assisting any kids up to the mission of making fantastic comics and characters.  Saturday however, the crack team of agents consisted of (left – right) myself, David O’Connell (who organised the day perfectly and created some brilliant worksheets), Laura Ellen Anderson and Jamie Littler.Discover01Discover02David (above) drew a fantastically evil scientist (below).  My secret agent was called upon to sort him out! Discover03 Here’s Laura wowing kids with her drawing talents…
Discover04 This was definitely a highlight of the day for me – Laura and David having an improptu Tadpole Attack Squad draw off.  It was a fierce battle!
Discover05 When I heard that Laura had an octopus character in her Phoenix comic strip Evil Emperor Penguin, we had to have an Octopus draw off too!  Was amazed at Laura’s unplanned linework – so good!
Discover06 Some more Secret Agent themed art by Laura, myself and visitors to Discover…
Discover07 Jamie did a mind-blowingly good take on the evil inventor including a Laser Shark!
Discover08 Discover09 Hmmm… Well, you try drawing Scooby-Doo without any reference then!  I had to explain to the girl who asked for this who Scrappy-Doo is.  Kids today, eh?!
Discover10 Finally here’s a secret message, written using David O’Connell’s secret code!
Discover11So good to work with David, Laura and Jamie and especially at such a special place as Discover!

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Showing 165 kids the fun of making comics

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Earlier this week I had an intense but fun day running six comic workshops for children at Cranmer School in Surrey.

All in all, 165 kids worked to produce comic strips with some serious talent on display…

First I wowed them with my mastery of zoological form…Cranmer1 Cranmer2Then they warmed up finishing off one of my strips…Cranmer3 Cranmer4Finally, they were let loose making their own comic strips from scratch!Cranmer5 Cranmer6 Cranmer7 Cranmer8 Cranmer9 Cranmer10 Cranmer12 Cranmer13 Cranmer14 Cranmer15Some great work was produced and featuring robots, dog people, living goalposts and all sorts!

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Workshop Round Up: 2 Schools, 2 Libraries and a Museum!

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It’s been a busy but fun time lately running loads of comic workshops.

I’ve started a project through Apples and Snakes.  Poet and writer Inua Ellams and I are working with pupils of City of London Academy and Highbury Fields School, both in Islington. We’re developing a poem and a story that will be visualised and turned into a printed booklet.
We’ve got a few sessions to go and so far the children’s work looks extremely promising…

Here’s some great characters designed as a warm up for the City of London Academy kids..

CityIs2 CityIs1Next up was last Tuesday’s half term holiday workshop at Walthamstow Library.  Here’s some more character designs from them…Walthamstow1 Walthamstow2 Walthamstow3 Walthamstow4That last one also includes a happy cat character I asked the kids to create, alongside some other possibilities…Walthamstow5 Walthamstow6 Walthamstow7 Walthamstow8 Walthamstow9Next up, was a fabulous visit to the lovely Higham Hill Library…
Higham1 Higham2 Higham3These children learnt how to craft comics and told some fantastic stories…
Higham4 Higham5 Higham6 Higham7 Higham8Finally I made a return visit to the fantastic Cartoon Museum,  which has this wonderful space to teach…
CartoonMuseum1Visiting the museum on the day were the Crystal Palace Community Development Trust (Art Group).  The teenagers had lots of emerging talent which they used in my Manga workshop…
CartoonMuseum2 CartoonMuseum3 CartoonMuseum4 CartoonMuseum5Phew!  Lots more workshops to come soon…

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Purley Manga Club – Comics Writing Workshop

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I had a great time on Saturday, meeting kids at the Manga Club in Purley Library and running a workshop there on writing comics.

I’d heard good things about the club as my friends Chie Kutsuwada, Inko and Karen Rubins have all run workshops there before.  It’s enthusiastically run by Jayson Arago.  He’s created a perfect fun environment for kids to meet and talk about their passion for Manga, Anime, Cosplay and gaming.

Here’s the space ready to go….

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How many libraries offer folders full of Manga reference material, eh?!

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I wanted to talk about developing original ideas for stories.  The kids had fun using their skills to write six different endings for the same newspaper strip.

There were a lot of Pokemon references (no bad thing in my book)…

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The pic below illustrated the obstacles characters must face in their stories, and how finding solutions makes the story!
One boy in the group added the Health Points bars – nice touch!

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To end the workshop, the children all made their own comic pages.  The stories were based on their own Saturday mornings, often with a few fantasy elements thrown in…
They had a really good grasp of visual language.  I love the tummy rumbling here, an effective way to show the character’s wants and needs.

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This story below was a beautiful poetic take on not having enough time to get things done…

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There were some great Mangaka in the group…

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Thanks Purley Manga Club!  Stop on by at my table when I’m at a con some time!

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Christmas Comic Workshop in Blackheath

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I was up 5am this morning to head out into the frost and make my way to Blackheath.  A chai latte and pecan muffin woke me up in Greenwich and I was ready to roll, running two comic workshops at Blackheath Bluecoat Secondary School.

I was met by the school’s fantastic librarian Caroline Fielding who helped me guide the school’s Year 9 through a speedy two hour workshop on making comics.

We looked at…

  • Idea development
  • How even the simplest drawings can communicate ideas
  • How placing an image in a different context can change its meaning
  • Editing stories and picking key moments to depict in comic panels
  • Creating characters based on ourselves, but not necessarily looking like us

Despite some of the kids’ insistence that they couldn’t draw, everyone did some wonderful comic work…

After group-developing some Christmas themed ideas, each participant drew their own series of images, creating a fabulous Christmas atmosphere on the page…

XmasComic01 XmasComic02 XmasComic03 XmasComic04

For the record, the image above does not show Lucy the Octopus but instead shows a derpy squid.

Next up, the talented Year Niners developed their own narratives based on what they think they might be doing on Christmas morning.

Some great work here.  You can tell which kids have a Manga influence…

XmasComic05 XmasComic06 XmasComic07 XmasComic08 XmasComic09 XmasComic10 XmasComic11 XmasComic12

It was a fascinating insight into the psychology of each of the students, seeing how they chose to depict themselves, from stick people to animals to floating eyeballs with tentacles and a bow!

After the workshop, Caroline created a fantastic display of some of the amazing work done…
XmasComic13Thanks very much Blackheath Bluecoat Secondary School – you did some excellent comics!

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Water Colour Presentation at Process

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I’m looking forward to doing some live watercolours tomorrow and talking through the process at, appropriately enough, Process at Gosh Comics  tomorrow evening…

Process
Gosh Comics
1 Berwick Street, London W1F 0DR
Wednesday 6th November 2013, 7pm

8-WatercoloursCome along to this fantastic free event.  As well as my presentation you can listen to Andy Poyiadgi talking through putting together his exhibition for The Lakes comics festival and Lorenzo Fiorini will be talking about an instructional essay on storytelling visually that he was given by Eduardo Risso (100 Bullets, Batman: Noir).

9-Watercolours-1st-Layer11-Watercolours-3Watercolour Life Painting 15.11.11Watercolour and Ink Life Painting 7.2.12LucyWatercolour09LucyWatercolour13

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Comic Workshops: The Cartoon Museum and Barking Library

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I had a busy but fun couple of days at the end of last week, doing 3 comics workshops at the Cartoon Museum on Friday and one at Barking Library on Saturday.  Both were really enjoyable with nice kids producing fantastic work…

The Cartoon Museum is a great place to run workshops, or to visit for that matter.  The place has an original Charles Schulz Peanuts strip in it for a start!
My workshops were based on making newspaper style comic strips, with a focus on the fine art of drawing silly expressions!  Meanwhile the great Steve Marchant (writer, artist and co-founder of Cartoon Classroom) was imparting his vast knowledge of comic creation to another group of lucky children who had travelled down from Leicester.

cartoon-museum-11Oct2013-1Check out the skills of one of the children laying down some facial expressions.
“Smug” is not so easy to pull off but she managed it.

cartoon-museum-11Oct2013-4We worked on different ways to resolve a set-up in a three panel comic strip…
cartoon-museum-11Oct2013-2 cartoon-museum-11Oct2013-3And then the kids got working on their own panels, with some great punchlines.
cartoon-museum-11Oct2013-5cartoon-museum-11Oct2013-A cartoon-museum-11Oct2013-6 cartoon-museum-11Oct2013-7 cartoon-museum-11Oct2013-8The next day I had a good time running a Character Creation workshop as part of the Get Barking and Dangenham Reading festival. Barking library is huge, wacky looking and had some great kids inside really into learning about comics.
I got my own poster and everything!

barking-library-12Oct2013-1All the kids were really into comics and cartoons and manga and had a hundred fantastic questions for me.

They also proved they could draw amazing characters, picking up key points from character descriptions and visualising them.barking-library-12Oct2013-2 barking-library-12Oct2013-3They even wrote their own back stories of characters based on pictures and portraits.

barking-library-12Oct2013-4 barking-library-12Oct2013-5All in all a successful couple of days other than this terrible picture of a man in a suit and stilettos with a mohwak, a parrot on his shoulder and a sword in his hand.  Good characters can come from bad drawings though!