Brent Anderson Art - Original Comic Art For Sale

March 27th 2006

Cali parent starts cartooning class with teacher

Comic book artist Brent Anderson worked with Aida Herrera to start class

By PETE MORTENSEN
News Editor

Stephanie Rosas hadn't even begun to sketch yet on Friday afternoon, but she knew all about the new cartoon character soon to appear on the page.

"She's a girl who likes wearing soccer shorts and regular t-shirts and singing and dance and a lot of movies," said Rosas a 10-year-old fourth-grader at Cali Calmécac Charter School. "She wears Converse and her favorite cars are convertibles. She's from Italy and lives in France."

Close scrutiny of the character reveals some part of Rosas's personality. But that's part of the point. She's listed the personal traits for her sketch as an exercise in an after-school cartooning class at Cali she's been attending for about a month.

Like a lot of other students in the optional class, she said drawing is a release. Her tablemate and best friend, Stephanie Godinez, another 10-year-old 4th-grader, said art is important emotionally. Her character was a girl from Mexico who now lived in San Francisco, loved Adidas and Ferraris, as well as the color purple.

"I think it's a great class," she said. "It has nice people in it, and you can be yourself. Your feelings come out on paper."

The class was begun this year by comic book artist Brent Anderson, a Windsor resident and the father of 10-year-old Bryce Anderston, a Cali fifth-grader. Anderson began teaching cartooning a few years ago through the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa and Sonoma State University's Extended Education Program. Those classes reached young students as well, but Anderson decided to become more involved with his son's school by volunteering at Cali on Friday afternoons in the classroom of Aida Herrera, who was Bryce's third-grade teacher.

He said the students bring a variety of experiences to the drawing board.

"Most don't have much experience on their own," he said, noting that Cali doesn't have a formal art curriculum.

Anderson has enjoyed long runs on such series as "Rising Stars" and "Astro City," which he was worked on for the past 10 years, drawing panels and pages in pencil before finishing the artwork in black ink. In the latter series in particular, he has designed dozens of characters to populate a vast metropolis of super-powered characters.

His lesson Friday focused on such skills, showing how to delineate a character verbally as well as visually by discovering, "Who is your character?" To deliver the message to the dozen students aged 9 to 13, Anderson quickly sketched a short caricature in a stocking cap with sunglasses. The students quickly identified the figure as being "from the 'hood" and possibly a criminal.

But as the students described the figure more carefully, Anderson sprinkled in additional details to the drawing to change his personality and motivations, including stylized hearts on his clothing and hat, a police badge, a lizard's tail and bat wings.

"A bat-crocodile lover police officer who dresses like a homie," Anderson said. "That's a great character. He can have his own comic strips as far as I'm concerned."

After the quick lecture, Anderson guided the class through the creation of their own characters, answering questions and helping with more difficult drawing techniques.

The results varied wildly. At the more imaginative end of the question was Bryce himself, who showed the creativity that has helped him create several characters that have appeared in his father's drawings in "Astro City." Though Bryce had sketched out several new monsters in marker during the lesson, including The Squild from Another Planet ("A squild is a combination of an alien and a squid," Bryce explained), Crocodile King and the Shrouded Thing of Misty Isle, his new character for the afternoon was Chainface, a supervillain whose scarred visage conceals poisonous chains that ooze out of slits to strike his enemies with fishhooks, killing them instantly.

"It's always easier to come up with villains than heroes," Bryce said.

Also in the less-grounded realm was the work of 9-year-old Adelaide Sarasi, a fourth-grader. She used markers to put the finishing touches on a half-horse/half-dragon who lived in Dragontopia. Horse hybrids are a frequent sketch-subject of hers, including a "lizard-horse thing" she invented awhile back.

"If I get an idea, I have to draw it right then or my brain gets blocked up," said Adelaide, who was only attending her third class despite a lifelong love of drawing.

Herrera helps Anderson, who is an artist rather than a teacher by training, with such skills as classroom management. She said the children involved are getting a lot from the program.

"They love it, absolutely," she said. "The classes are always full. The kids are always excited to participate. He offers a variety of techniques at the same time and gives the kids an independence to express themselves in other ways."

Slightly more grounded, or at least historical, was the draughtsmanship of Jesus Cardiel, a 9-year-old fourth grader. He drew a dark knight from a castle, who loves fighting for the dark and only likes his friends, not his enemies. The drawing was impressively detailed, with each finger delineated on the hilt of the sword. Jesus drew before coming to the class, but he said he's improved significantly.

"I was just, like, beginning, drawing stick people," he said.

Having an outlet to draw makes a difference, said Marisa Herrera-Keehn, a 13-year-old seventh-grader and Herrera's daughter.

"I draw when I express myself," she said. "When I'm angry, I draw with piercing colors, red or whatever, and when I'm happy, I draw in light, vivid colors."

Anderson will be teaching cartooning to non-Cali students next month. Through Sonoma State University's EXCEL Spring 2006 program, students in grades four to six can register for a course from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. He will also offer an advanced cartooning course for students in grades six to nine on April 29. For more information, visit www.sonoma.edu/exed/EXCEL/default.html.


Photo © PETE MORTENSEN A SLIGHT REVISION - Naiomi Cisneros, 10, listens to advice from instructor Brent Anderson on how to make SpongeBob SquarePants's nose look more three-dimensional during an after-school cartooning class at Cali Calmécac Charter School. Anderson is a professional comic book artist and the father of Bryce Anderston, a Cali fifth-grader.	Photo © PETE MORTENSEN SUBTLE CHANGE - Anderson adds hearts to his thug cartoon character to show his students that the figure was a lover rather than a fighter.	Photo © PETE MORTENSEN AT WORK - Stephanies Rosas and Godinez, both 10-year-old fourth-graders at Cali, work on their character sheets during an after-school cartooning class.