Picking up the fine points of cartooning

Dylan Chrislip stared intently at the large drawing tablet as cartoonist Bob Hall brought Batman and The Joker to life.

“It's a lot harder than I thought it would be,” said Chrislip while creating his own drawing.

Chrislip, an eighth-grader at Trinity Lutheran School, was among students who attended a free cartoon drawing workshop Friday as part of “A Tribute to Paul Norris” at Midland Lutheran College. Norris, who created Aquaman, didn't attend that event. Instead, Hall and fellow cartoonist Paul Fell shared their drawing skills and techniques with students.

Fell was the editorial cartoonist and staff artist at the Lincoln Journal for eight years. Now a freelance cartoonist, Fell draws three editorial cartoons a week for the newspaper. During the session, Fell showed examples of his work.

“The best cartoons don't have a lot of dialogue, although I'm a dialogue hog,” he said. “The most effective cartoons tell the whole story quickly.”

Fell also said editorial cartoonists must learn to draw caricatures. Cartoonists exaggerate their subject's prominent facial features, often accenting the eyes of female subjects and the nose or chin of males. Female caricatures tend to have smaller noses so their eyes look larger.

To illustrate his point, Fell brought an eighth-grade girl on stage at Eppley Auditorium and began drawing. The girl's caricature had big eyes, long hair and very pointed chin.

“I'll sign this so your lawyer can get ahold of me,” Fell said, laughing as he handed the girl her picture.

Hall, a freelance cartoonist for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, took his turn at the drawing easel. Hall has drawn almost every character for Marvel including Spider-Man, Dr. Doom, Conan, Thor, the Fantastic Four and Captain America, information on his Web site stated.

On Friday, he started by drawing a simple curved line which he turned into a cartoon of a kicking Batman. Hall later drew a profile of the Joker, complete with the character's evil grin.

Hall also shared tips with students.

“Storytelling is just as important as the ability to draw,” Hall said. “The writer does the words. The artist breaks what he says down into a sequence of panels.”

Hall commended legendary Marvel cartoonist Stan Lee for having writers simply compose a scenario instead of a script - and then letting the artists tell the story. Lee's concept revolutionized comics.

“For the first time, artists were free to do a lot more impressive things,” Hall said.

Hall talked about starting a drawing with an action line to get a feeling of what is going to take place in the scene. He told how cartoonists first build a drawing in pencil before inking it. That way they can erase the lines they don't want. He also said a lot of drawing involves learning the shapes of things - such as the cylindrical shape of a forearm - then putting the shapes together.

Alex Wright, one of the eighth-graders, said he learned about 10 drawing techniques while watching the artists.

Student James Plank is more a fan of the X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons, but said he enjoyed watching Hall. Plank and Wright also pointed out that children can learn a lot of things about teamwork, courage and using one's talents for good through cartoons.

Trinity instructor Loren Wilshusen saw a very practical side to the session.

“I think it's good for people to see that they (cartoonists) really do have a method and that it isn't haphazard. There are steps involved in creating art,” he said.

Fell also told students that they need to get an education, taking fine arts college classes.

“You're not going to get into it overnight,” he added. “I've been trying for 25 years to be an overnight success.”