The school term's up and running and, after a quiet month, my Comic Art Masterclasses began in earnest in the past week. The first full days in school were two days at Haberdasher's Monmouth School for Girls, prep school, the second of which threw up these, my two favourite front covers of term so far. The Year 3 class was so small I had ages to draw Winnie The Pooh demolishing a city. The Year 5 class, by contrast, was larger than I usually agree to (40 kids), but we had time enough, and the end result was grand.
The Year 6 class at Monmouth introduced me to the concept of Vsco girls, and their catchphrase "Ssskkk and I oop". No, me neither. Having researched this a bit, as the teachers had to do too, it seems to be something like the Valley Girl caricature of the 80s, and girls perform parody versions of this character on Youtube and an App I've not come across called Tik Tok. I'm sure, in years to come, my unfamiliarity with Vsco girls will make me seem as out of touch as a High Court Judge, but there we are.
The Chagford Film Festival, last week, brought me down to the wilds of far flung rural Devon where I did an afternoon class at the village school, followed by an evening class in the local hall, both of which were great fun. The evening class was a mix of kids and adults, and one of those ones where there's no photocopier so, sadly, they didn't get a comic to take away, but made all the components all the same.
Prema Arts in Gloucestershire, where I've done quite a few classes now, had decided this time to restrict the class to adults and to charge the highest ticket price yet (an eye watering £25 I believe). Probably coincidentally I had a class of just four, who made a fine end result between them. Bizarrely they all seemed way better qualified than me, with one already being a childrens book illustrator, one a costume maker for movies and TV shows, and one a model maker and animator who's worked for Aardman and is now studying illustration, so I hope my class was able to add to their wealth of knowledge. They seemed happy.
The celebrities these seven groups chose to star in my demonstration strip were Tina Turner (bizarre choice from Year 3 pupils there), Boris Johnson, Elvis Presley, Ed Sheeran (twice), Justin Bieber, and their teacher and cover star Mr B.
Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries & art centres. email for details. Facebook, Twitter. Promo video here.
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