Visiting Artist Dave McDonald Shares Cartoon Techniques

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On Thursday, December 4, second grade art students had a chance to work in a medium that most children love: cartoons. Artist Dave McDonald visited Lower School art teacher Marilyn Mullinax’s classroom to share his drawing and writing methods from his award-winning book, The Secret Adventures of Hamster Sam: Attack of the Evil Boll Weevils!

Students began by observing McDonald as he drew characters from his book. He broke the drawings down into simple shapes which, to the delight of the students, quickly became amusing creatures when completed.

The young artists were soon ready to put pen to paper and try it for themselves. The classroom was quiet as students first duplicated McDonald’s drawings, and then rose to the challenge of creating their own characters.

Once the new cartoon characters emerged, McDonald gave the students worksheets to help them begin a story to go along with the drawings. Funny and exciting scenarios and locations were the topic of conversation until the end of class. The young cartoonists left the art room having thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and excited to work on comic books of their own in the coming weeks.