November 13, 2002
Cartoonist brings characters to life
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
With a few strokes of the pen, cartoonist Dick Evans brings to life a character that conveys action and expresses emotion.
During three, 30-minute seminars Sunday afternoon at the Great Lakes Children's Museum, Evans led his audience step-by-step through the process. Selecting eyes, ears, mouths, hair and noses from a booklet of choices Evans provided, the children created sketches of a cartoon face.
Many who attended the program were avid drawers already, who left not only with Evans' sketchbook but with new ideas and confidence.
"I like drawing cartoons because it doesn't matter if it's real or not," said Connor McGraw, 7, who attended the seminar with his brother, Ian, 9. "It can be a fish you made up, part fish and part dog or part fish and part skunk."
Ellisha Crosby, 11, attended the seminar with her brother and sister. Describing herself as someone who likes to draw everything, Crosby said she learned a lot from the presentation.
"I liked how he explained it, he was fun," said Crosby. "I plan to work with the booklet."
In Evans' world of cartoons, everybody is a winner. His number one rule is that there is no wrong way to do cartoons.
He illustrated this by first leading the group through a sketching exercise where everybody used the same facial components. After everyone completed the sketch - including adding extras such as glasses, facial hair and a hat - he told them to look around and notice how each drawing had a distinct style even though they all drew the same features.
"That's the beauty of cartooning, you're all seeing it a little bit differently," said Evans, a Traverse City resident and owner of Art on the Rocks. "That's where the individuality comes out."
The cartooning seminar was part of the Great Lakes Children's Museum ongoing Funday Sunday series. Every other Sunday afternoon, the museum offers an educational program for children, rotating among visual artists, performance artists and other topics. These weekend events, which run from the fall through spring, exemplify the museum's mission, said executive director John Noonan.
"A lot of our mission is providing programs that expand the child's world and give them confidence," he noted. "That is really part of Dick's program."
Evans is a lifelong cartoonist, starting sketching at an early age. Now a retired insurance agent working part time, he continues his own drawing and enjoys introducing others to cartooning. He especially enjoys working with children, believing that teaching young kids cartooning will inoculate them from the 'I cant's' about art that many hit in upper elementary.
"Over the years I've seen kids by the fifth and sixth grades who already don't want to try, who are already concerned with doing it right," said Evans, who has been teaching cartooning for 15 years to people all ages, including adults.
Diving in and just putting pencil to paper, without hesitation or analysis, is the key to cartooning.
"Cartooning is something you draw quickly, don't get all hung up on details because that allows you to have more freedom," he told the students.