Characters and a Visiting Artist

I did a post on my Beez In the Belfry blog a bit earlier this week about the Artsy Weekend with the Kid - I realized I wanted to show you folks some more stuff from this weekend.

I mentioned in that post that Lilah joined the Cartoon Club for kids that meets once a month at my school. I was really impressed with how many kids were there and how well the teachers (second year students) ran it. There was total silence in the beginning, then more excited voices as the kids got into their creating.

This weekend was all about creating characters and their homes. Here are a few of the cool worksheets the kids used...

I had been worried that Lilah might not stay in class or would clam up and not participate (hey, it's happened!) But she was so excited and I heard her voice a few times when kids who wanted to share their designs, were invited to come up to the front and show and tell with the projector.

She was up early on Sunday morning, but she let me sleep till 9, while she drew even MORE characters on her own!

She also has taken a liking to lettering and designing ads for our comics! (Like mother, like daughter?)

We also found time to carve a bunch of "love-y dove-y" stamps and make Valentine's Day cards!

I did some art too. When we were at Montshire Science Museum, I did some mono-prints and sketched the big stuffed moose.

I also drew this cartoon during Visiting Artist lecture yesterday. I have had a number of comments and emails from folks about my "juggling" skills and I see them as kind of funny. I do indeed have an awful lot of plates in the air! But if you could see me, I'm being pounded by the falling debris!

I drew it while listening to cartoon-journalist, Susie Cagle. She's created a new field - different from editorial cartoons - best described as comics journalism. Although the most accurate name is up for debate.

She is a journalist, who illustrates her articles with cartoons. She has work all over the place, most recently she was on staff at Al Jazeera, which recently shut down.

She has created this category and can't keep up with the demand for work! I love this idea of becoming an expert in a field - that you create! Interesting....

Susie also spoke with me after the talk about her experiences with Patreon. Patreon is an interesting online platform, a little like Kickstarter, that is very popular with cartoonists. Unlike Kickstarter, which backs an artist's Project (like this blog!), Patreon is more of an Art Patron hook up.

You can ask for backing for a project or even for an ongoing comic series or some such thing, but the main point is that your Patrons agree to back you with a monthly donation - no matter what you are doing. It can be as little as a dollar a month up to large quantities of cash.

If anyone has experience with Patreon, or has backed someone, I'd love to hear about your experiences! I'm looking into ways to fund more of my schooling as well as deal with a few legal issues.

At the moment, I'm faced with the possibility that I may not be able to finish school and, as you know from my Kickstarter project last August, I'm all about finding creative solutions!!