Comic Book I helped a bunch of Kids make

[Masato]

Hey all

So every Saturday morning I teach a comic book class to kids... we just finished the last session and I wanted to share what the kids made.

I've taught comic classes many times before, but this was the first time I attempted to make a group-comic. I was nervous because so much could go wrong, but everything went right; these kids were awesome (they are all about 9-10 years old).

They wrote the whole thing themselves, no one argued over the story or jokes, they just all worked together positively it was amazing. They also drew everything, designed all the characters, came up with all the jokes, and picked all the color direction (I let them color a few images themselves on my computer, then I just followed their direction and finished the rest of the coloring.)

I just came back from the print shop where I printed the whole thing out and stapled/folded it together like a real comic. Tomorrow morning we're gonna have a little party and I'm gonna bring each kid their own copy, I'm super stoked about it, I think they're gonna love it.

Anyways, I think it's hilarious. Hope you do too.

WAR BARBO!!
lol

[Masato]

[Edge Guerrero]

- Better art than Rob Lyfield, and better story than Savage Dragon.
I would give you all a A.

[johnkilo]

Dude that's awesome. I love kids artwork. For a few years I entered this contest to get my artwork into a calender. I won, but then they changed the rules to what I didn't like. Now I pick up the calendar every year just to see the children's group artwork. Always brings a smile to my face. When I was a kid I would draw my own comics. I didn't give a shit how perfect anything looked, I just had a lot of fun doing it. I wish I could still draw carefree like I did then.

[Masato]

Dude that's awesome. I love kids artwork. For a few years I entered this contest to get my artwork into a calender. I won, but then they changed the rules to what I didn't like. Now I pick up the calendar every year just to see the children's group artwork. Always brings a smile to my face. When I was a kid I would draw my own comics. I didn't give a shit how perfect anything looked, I just had a lot of fun doing it. I wish I could still draw carefree like I did then.

that's cool man, congrats on winning!! :)

Indeed kids have a different energy about drawing that seems to get squashed as they get better. IMO a person can only gain that back once they achieve a high level again where their lack of ability doesn't restrict their imagination. Its a weird 'full-circle' kind of process that few achieve (I certainly haven't)

Ironically that is what was so weird about this particular group; usually I try to focus on helping improve their drawing skills as the main focus of the class. I teach techniques etc - but this group is young and just wanted to go go go.

So for this session I kind of abandoned worrying about skill development and just focussed on the experience of working as a group and completing a project within the time we had. And they loved it!

I am still not sure how to balance these 2 sides of teaching; the fun of just telling stories and making jokes vs slowing down and teaching proper drawing techniques.

Not sure at all how I will structure the next session. I guess it depends on the kids. I am always hoping for older kids so I can really teach them, but I keep getting the younger ones who just want to have fun and draw funny ideas.

[Luigi]

The lavatory humour caught me off guard and I lol'd.

[Masato]

Hey all

Here are some results from the latest session of classes (less kids, less ability) - but we had fun and they were really happy with the work!







This kid could barely draw at all, he learned a LOT and now draws freely:

[johnkilo]

Awesome.

[Edge Guerrero]

- i like the Skbee and the bear.
And BLT is cute, like a character from Foster home for imaginary friends.

[Masato]

Heres a few from the last session I did. This round was mostly a lot of exercises, teaching how to draw rather than working on specific finished pieces.

But I like them all to have some time in Photoshop, so here are some of the ones they were made:

This girl is maybe 11 or 12, she is learning to draw really fast. Really getting it, every drawing she does is way better than the previous. This is a drawing from earlier in the class. Her creatures are great, good structure. Its funny how drawing human characters often messes kids up though. Even as a trained professional I still find the proper human proportions strangely difficult to find. You'd think it would be natural to us but somehow it's not.
I wish I had scanned some of her sketchbook pages, she did some nice ones recently.



This kid is a genius. You'd think maybe he had some troubles from the images he makes but I don't think so. He is very cool and has a really clear and original style in his imagination. He just likes creepy stuff. He makes amazing creatures and aliens etc. Today he drew this creature skeleton, it was badass. He would be a great director I think one day or something like that.


This kid learned Photoshop FAST. He did all these building textures in about 40 minutes, 1st time learning the technique:



Next session starts in January, we'll see what kind of kids I get.