Gabriel began by teaching them how to draw basic figures, figures which I attempted to recreate myself on the blackboard, warping the true shapes to create a vile menagerie. This evil zoo leered at the children and I do not doubt that this mockery of nature shook them to their core. Once he had done this, we leveraged the overhead to "create" a comic strip for them, to show them how the process works - that each panel has a job to do, and what kinds of jobs those are. The marvelous power one has when writing comics: to keep a secret from your readers, and then reveal it. The example strip depicted a young woman and her simian cohort, a naughty monkey indeed who had surreptitiously purchased a considerable supply of tropical produce. He tried to play the whole thing off, as though he were disinterested in the fruit and had no idea how it had gotten there, but when she suggested she might do away with them he quickly changed his tune.
Needless to say, it killed. The monkey alone, in a blank white panel, with nothing, would probably have been sufficient for this crowd.
The things they came up with were marvelous beyond words, in some cases. There was a comic where two cats saw a procession of succulent mice, talking about how they might enjoy such a feast, but when the mouse king came by they had no choice but to bow in supplication. I believe there was a comic where two bunnies, both of them named Bunny, hopped and enjoyed themselves.
It's not nice, but young people are easily manipulated. For example, if you would like to make them feel good, you can have them hold their pictures up. Once they have done so, you can look at their teacher with astonishment. "Mrs. Erickson," you will say. "I thought you told me these were third graders. These students are drawing at a fifth grade level!" and so forth.
We left a not insignificant store of strip templates (our URL carefully brushed away) in the hopes that between now and when these organisms are loosed for the summer, they can invest some period of time in the manufacture of scenarios which may potentially incorporate hideous giraffes. I haven't really communicated it, perhaps because it is beyond my ability to do so. But doing this was so unlike the activities that characterize a given day for me that the comparisons and harsh appraisals were essentially automatic.
This relatively pure experience came hot on the heels of our recent drama, and the disparity between the two scenarios helped me to understand that such things are best reserved for your mama. Tracking the fusillades from site to site, even dragging the mouse pointer from link to link eventually becomes a tremendous chore. To what end? Apologists from every conceivable side have resumed stable positions on their respective corners of the board. The community has a kind of elastic equilibrium that makes genuine dialectic progress illusory. It's like when the cuckoo emerges from the clock at the appointed time and then recedes, his vigor authentic but largely irrelevant. I would rather that comparisons between myself and mechanical birds not leap so readily to the tongue.
Also, we found a pair of magic rings that will help us protect the Earth's fragile ecosystem. So the level of positivity around here really has reached a new level.
(CW)TB out.
we're all liars
That's me up in front of the class drawing on the overhead. I've done this a couple times before back in Spokane and I have a kind of system I use. What I do is use basic shapes and letters to create simple cartoon faces. They all know how to write the letter M and the letter U and then I show them that if you put them together just right you can make lips. Then they all oooh and ahhh. I wont lie to you it feels really fucking good. The hair is always their favorite part because that involves lots of scribbling.
Growing up I used to watch Commander Mark on PBS. He had a show called the Imagination Station that was on right when I'd get home from school. He used to show kids how to draw things in 3D and I'd sit there in front of the TV with my sketchpad just eating it up. I was even a proud member of his Draw Squad.
Years later when I was just starting High School Mark did an assembly at the elementary school my mom worked at. I took my sad little portfolio over and after the assembly I stopped him and asked him to look at it. He told me I was doing really good work and he ended up asking if he could buy us dinner that night. We talked for a couple hours about how I had watched his show since I was little and how some day I wanted to be a comic book artist. then I sat there and watched the man I'd grown up idolizing chain smoke cigarettes and stuff himself with pie. It was like seeing Mr. Rogers doing lines in some filthy bathroom. This was certainly not the Commander Mark I was familiar with. At the end of the night he told me that he wanted to stay in touch with me and that he had something coming up that I'd be perfect for.
I think it was a few months later that he called me and told me about his new book coming out. It was called Mark Kistler's Imagination Station and it was a how to draw book for kids. He asked if I wanted to help him with the book and of course I said yes. He would send me rough pencils and notes for each page and using velum and pen and ink I'd tighten up all his sketches and produce the final page. Towards the end of the project he wasn't even drawing out the steps anymore. He'd just sketch something out and then leave it up to me to deconstruct it and work out the different steps. This was a huge book with tons of lessons and I ended up having to work on it at school. My art teacher let me work on it during class which was nice and my mom even let me skip school a couple times so I could meet Mark's deadline.
I can say that what he paid me for the work wasn't what it was worth. That used to make me angry. Whenever I'd look back at the situation I'd feel like he took advantage of me. Now though I feel like it was an incredible opportunity and honestly I would have done it for free. I look at it as an apprenticeship that I was fortunate to get. I learned an incredible amount from doing that book and not just about drawing. If you see Mark Kistler's Immagination Station in a book store some time flip it open and you'll see my name there in the credits. I'm not sure What Mark is doing now but I can honestly say I wouldn't be doing this had he not inspired me to "draw draw draw everyday!"
I don't know if Tycho and I inspired any of those third graders on Monday. I don't know if we lit some creative spark in one of them that will drive them to make art for the rest of their lives. I know that going there really helped me get my head right after a couple weeks of interweb bullshit. The principal of the school sat in on our lesson and afterwards she told my friend that even though we did the lesson for free that the school would pay us to come back and do it again for more students. That seems absolutely ridiculous to us. If anything we should be paying them.
-Gabe out :o:
Also I am very proud of our new Bards Tale ad over on the right side of the page (may need to refresh). I’m not sure if it’s appropriate for me to say this but I think that’s a super awesome drawing. I feel like I really captured the frothiness of the beverage.
-Gabe out :o:
