It's half term and therefore a bumper week for Comic Art Masterclasses. From Monday to Friday I did classes somewhere in the country, with a fair bit of travelling involved. This also being the week of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre' s first preview of their new show Superheroes, I also had lots of writing, music editing, and prop preparation to do in all the intervening moments. Yet, with so much going on, I found time to colour up the covers of the comics the kids in the classes produced. And, by golly, weren't these two from Baldock Arts & Heritage Centre a pair of corkers?
Two classes at Salisbury Art Centre were another pair of barnstormers, and earned me my first five star reviews. Admittedly only from pupils on the assessment forms that some places have them complete at the end of the session, but delightful all the same:
★★★★★ Kids really enjoyed the workshop - loved taking the comic home and have been pouring* over it all evening...
(*She means poring, but who's going to split hairs)
With sellouts at every other class this week (literally, they were turning them away everywhere from Bristol to Baldock, Salisbury to Erith) Wisbech was a slight disappointment as I found myself at the lovely Angles Theatre working with groups of only eight each time. We could have rolled them into one single group of 16 and they'd still only have been half the size of every other group this week. However it's an ill wind, and this cosy number meant I was able to devote more time to each pupil's work, and when it came to adding their doodles to the front cover, I was able to give those pride of place, as you can see with Pickle Rick. (Oh yeah, some people think the kids actually draw these covers. Of course they don't, I do. The kids come up with the titles. Then you see those small scrawls in the background of every cover? That's their bits.)
On Friday I rounded off the week with libraries in Bexleyheath and Erith, with the quickest opportunity to eat lunch on Erith pier. Who knew there was a pier sticking out into the Thames? Well there is, and pleasant enough it is too. Two more sellout classes were a fine way of rounding off a bumper week.
The week started at Zion Art & Community Centre in Bristol, which is a lovely small operation in a converted chapel on a hill. This was the only class of the week not to have a photocopier, so the kids went away with all the components, but without a finished printed comic. I did all their caricatures as per usual, then laid them out on the floor and photographed them, as you can see above. A fine record, I'm sure you'll agree.
The celebrities these nine groups chose to tread on a worm in my demonstration strip were Donald Trump (a dispiriting 6 times), Jon Bon Jovi, Johnny Depp, and Michael Jackson.
Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here.
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