Animated Character Drawing

To start off the year, my colleague and dept. chair Mrs. Murray suggested this really great idea that developed from a question she asked her son. Mrs. Pabellon and I agreed that creating these animated character drawings would be something fun to get the kids thinking and sketching right away.

We jumped in at our department meeting, started making examples, and worked out the logistics of materials, paper size, folding, and differentiation.

6" x 12" paper.
1. Fold Bottom up.
2. Fold Top down.

The concept is simple: Fold your paper. Draw a character. Unfold your paper. Fill in the rest of the character.

The possibilities are endless, and we have the option of expanding the lesson by creating animations or .gif's of the final product.

Here's my example:

I asked my 6 year old son Iggy to make one too:)

As I was preparing my presentation for the kids, I decided to take a risk on an idea to try something new. I used a minimalist approach to get my classes thinking, and engage in the creative process.

Here is the presentation I came up with. I only read the large words out loud. I asked them to read the small words to themselves. This is where it all began.

As an art department, we created several prefolded pieces of paper with simple shapes for anyone that might find themselves struggling to get started. We presented the project, shared examples, and gave time on day one to simply to develop their concept and character.

It was a blast seeing what the kids started to come up with. There's such an energy that you can feed off of in order to support and nudge kids to do their best. But let's be real, not everything runs so smoothly for every student. As an art educator, you're called on to problem solve on the fly for those who need a little more support in generating an idea. One of the challenges I face is trying to lead kids to an idea, rather than giving it to them. You can plan for some of this, but ultimately you can't plan for all of this.

Here are some examples of the finished product.

Sonia G - Grade 8

Wilson K - Grade 7

Violet A - Grade 8

Ava B - Grade 8

Anne S - Grade 8

I didn't know where this project would take us when it started, but that's honestly been the best part of it. I took a risk, and am hoping that my Ss remember that fact as we continue through this school year. Creativity Takes Courage. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. 

-Mr. Leban