Cast of Characters

School is busy and so are the activities. But still some goodies in H.'s and A.'s sketchbook. A working chipmunk, a couple of classics, and a poor little dog who's climbed to the top of the diving board only to find no diving is allowed.

I spy: The Sleep Over

(click the image to make it bigger)

I spy the stars down low and the sun up high,
Three bears, a soccer ball and clouds in the sky,
A picture by Rupert and brushes side by side,
A pointy-eared dog and drips not dry.

Some Character Sketches

A group of mischievous characters, include some suspected of stealing peanuts.

Storytime: The Bird and the Eraser

Here's a funny story from H. about birds being tormented by erasers:

A.'s 2 years of Pokemon

When A. was around 6 years old Pokemon were his muse. He'd play as much Gameboy as we'd allow, and then read his Pokeman handbook and then just draw. For 2 years he drew nothing but Pokemon. We're past that phase now, but he's still extremely loyal to anything Nintendo. Here are some drawings of Zapdos, Polywhirl and Polywrath, Snorlax and Chickorea.

Quick Sketches

Here are some quick sketches from H., from last week when she was sick. A big nose rabbit, a cowgirl, a fluffy cat and fluffy bunny.

More Characters

H. goes back to school tomorrow. There were lots of characters this week including a Porcupine, a Threadbare Astronaut and "Teddy Bear Rage". A. did a drawing of Donkey Kong.

Comic Strips!

A. and H. are writing comics. It's a lot more work than just drawing characters. A.'s comic is about a couple of toddlers who open a casino, but first they have to break out of school.




H.'s comic is about a LITTLE BUNNY with a very hungry big brother (hmm...). Click the image to get a large view to read.

A. Technique Exploration

A.'s been exploring a variety of techniques: shading, highlights, etc.:



And a menagerie from H.:

Itchy & Scratchy

We were at a cottage this weekend. H. had a bug bite that got infected and had to go to the doctor 45 minutes away. H. was very, very itchy but wasn't allowed to scratch. Hence a bunch of drawings that summarize how she felt. Plus a few more...

Previous Mixed-Media work

Here's some work from November 2005. A. was doing some collage work. H. then 7 1/2 did some sculpy for a story about a woman and a tooth that needed to be extracted. And we all worked together on a collaborative Christmas card.

The First Post

We've been talking about scanning and blogging these sketches for a while. The tipping point was the Toronto Comic Arts Festival recently. The kids brought their sketch books and met some great artists who really took a lot of time to talk to them including, Michael Cho, Clayton Hanmer, Steve Manale, Kean Soo, Jim Zubkavich, Joey Weiser, Raina Telgemeier and more. Thanks everyone - your encouragement helped A. and especially H. to show their work. So here's the first few scans from their sketch books:







Mr. Bee, Orange Cat and Big Nose by H.; Robot Hands and Samurai by A.