Library visit-81st Ave Library Oakland
This summer I got to do two presentations at the 81st Ave branch of the Oakland Public Library. One was about art books and one was about character design. These photos are from a huge room of students and families doing an exercise in character design.
I have done this workshop several times but never to a room this large. It was organized by Aspire Education in Oakland who provide tutoring, mentoring, and support to public school students in the Bay Area.
When I start the workshop I talk to them about “line of action” and how to make characters seem calm, or dynamic. I demonstrate figure drawing to get them to warm up, then I have them model for each other. Librarian Isaiah Hurtado brought a bunch of cool books for them to see examples of what they were learning in practice!
Here you can see kids drawing. While they’re doing that I typically talk about how character design and how its used in the media they use like films, video games, animation, and more. These kids are freaking awesome!
The topics I talked about:
- Figure drawing
- Fan Art
- Group work
- Remixing existing characters
- Film, Gaming, Animation, Theater, etc
- Art career
Aspire hit them with a double whamy of food, snacks, and lots of books so families went home with bellies full and lots of books. Hopefully some inspiration too.
I ran out of time on this one, but we still got some fan art, drawing, and group work in during the workshop before folks had to leave.
Early in the afternoon I spoke to some teen students about the power of art books. Its always hard to tell if they’re feeling the topic, but there were a few students who came forward to ask questions about careers in the arts and I definitely had fun talking about ART!!!
Dig this? Check out some photos from other visits:
- Alvarado Elementary – Union City, CA
- Sacajawea Elementary – Seattle, WA
- Black Pine School – Berkeley, CA
- Texas Book Festival – Austin, TX
