School visit-CCA Picture Book Workshop 2
Alright so I must be lucky or highly favored or something because I’ve been invited to give a workshop to young artists at one of the most prestigious art schools in the Bay; California College of the Arts. And, they allowed me to come in and speak about a format of art that i LOVE. Picture books!!!!!
I’ve taken classes about making picture books. I have literally read hundreds of them. I’ve illustrated them, and written a few. I love making them, reading them, studying them, and I have enjoyed sharing what I know about the mechanics of picture books as I understand them.
OG artist, Papa, cartoonist, and professor Fred Noland invited me to speak and I began by talking about my non linear path to a career in the arts. I laid out a series of picture books for the students to check out. Some really old, some from the last twenty years, some new ones, and some of my own.
On the table is a series of picture books by creators that also worked in comics.
In this workshop I focused on:
- Character
- Story taglines
- Synopsis
- Thumbnails
- Picture book spread
I asked the students to go through the process of coming up with a picture book story as an exercise and they DID! We used original and existing characters to achieve this. Then we shared them so they could see each others work.
I started doing a similar method of exercise that I began doing 20 years ago teaching while teaching graffiti lettering to young people all over the Bay Area and NYC. Its a way for me to teach but also for them to learn from their peers who inevitably have a different take on it.
All in all, one of my favorite things about being a visiting artist for high school or college undergrads is being able to give no bullshit answers about what its like to make your living doing this. Sometimes the answers are dreamy and sometimes they’re more blunt. Fred’s class had great energy and questions. I feel like I learned from them too.
Dig this? Check out these other visits to colleges.
