Thanks to Ros for sending me through some pics of yesterday’s arts festival event in Southampton’s Palmerston Park. In the end my stint felt a bit brief and it was a genuine shame we couldn’t have gone on for longer. We even had to turn away several families right at the end, but it seemed to be enjoyed by all those who took part. Particularly impressed with one lad who was determined to fit an A3’s worth of detail on to an A4 sheet! That boy has a future!

I'm the funny looking bloke in the hat

Me sharing some cartooning tips

The afternoon session was completely sold out with over 20 children in the room aged between 8 and 12. We spent the first hour looking at techniques and ways to cartoon, with the emphasis on that really, there wasn’t a right or wrong way, just that you approach your drawing with confidence. We had a brief visit to the Burgerman exhibition upstairs and then it was back to the room and out with the boards. Each board is a little over A3 in size, so that’s a lot of space to cover, but because cartoon doodling is all about spontaneity it’s by no means impossible. We had a good mix of age and abilities in the room, with some more relaxed about letting go and drawing than others, but there wasn’t anybody who wailed about being unable to do it - everyone had a good go at it. I can’t fit every piece of work in here, so I asked my daughter - who falls in to this age group - to choose a few to share.

A lot of work gone into this one

There's a lot going on in there...

This session featured 5 to 7-year-olds, and due to it being 3 hours long a parent was asked to stay with their child (but they got to join in too). Over the last couple of years I’ve met some astounding children in this age group who draw utterly spontaneously, at speed, and with utter confidence, and it’s rather gob-smacking to watch. One particular boy in this session managed to complete two finished pieces followed by a string of additional doodles, meaning I was struggling to think up of new challenges for him. I hope for his sake he can cling on to this positive attitude with his work as he matures as he shows a lot of potential. And that’s not to say that the others didn’t do well, working steadily and thoughtfully throughout. Enclosed below are some of the results of the doodle session.

One of the mum's work

I love the mice on this one.

Millie was aiming for a Where's Wally scenario here.

This is one of my favourites of the day - check out the footballer!

Another mum's work - I think she surprised herself

Spent a long but rewarding day yesterday at the Winchester Discovery Centre helping children to cartoon doodle to tie in to WDC’s Jon Burgerman’s Brain Drain exhibition (if you’re not familiar with Burgerman, click here).

My aim was to share some cartooning skills and encourage some spontaneous drawing to result not in a specific finished scene but a sea of inter-weaving characters and objects. None of it is planned, you just start in one corner and get drawing - and see what appears.

The morning session was aimed at younger children (5-7) while the afternoon session for older kids (8-12). I’ll post some examples from each session in second, but meanwhile, here’s one I did prior to the day to show the attendees what I had in mind.

My big doodle ready for the sessions at Winchester Discovery Centre