Posts in cartoons
Hear Some Art

Students in Creative Art Works’ Digital Design class at PS/MS 278 took a deep dive into manipulating images and text. Students worked in Pixlr, a free software similar to Adobe Photoshop. Each project focused on a specific aspect of digital design, including collage, masking, and manipulating type. The results were beautiful, surreal, funny, and often thought-provoking. Presented within is a selection of artwork along with some recorded statements by the artists themselves.

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Finding an outlet for her creativity and her big imagination

“My art doesn’t always need to be perfect; however, it always needs to have some type of meaning behind it. I work with many types of mediums. I don’t like sticking with just one. I love using markers because they make my drawings more vibrant and colorful. I also love using watercolors because painting with them is fun and interesting to use. I take my time with each drawing. I like to include a lot of details, colors and value into each art piece. I like my art to be eye candy and to appeal to others.”

— CAW Character Design Intern Tiffany Depeña

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Everything Real Was First Imagined

A good video game or animated movie can blur the line between fantasy and reality. At the heart of many of these immersive entertainment experiences are unique characters that make us laugh, cry, cheer, and dream. If you’ve ever looked at the credits of your favorite animated feature, you already know that every character is the product of hundreds of hours of work by an army of talented artists. Recently, Creative Art Works joined forces with FunPlus, an international interactive entertainment company, to draw out some of the secrets of this fascinating process.

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The Trifecta

According to a study by the Wallace Foundation, middle school students say they want three things from an art program: they want to learn real skills from real teaching artists in a real art space. Last fall, Creative Art Works hit the trifecta at two after-school programs in The Bronx. Students at MS 45 created their own comic book characters in the Cartooning and Anatomy class, while students at IS 254 explored a variety of techniques in a formal drawing class. Both these semester-long programs were taught by CAW Teaching Artists and offered a deep dive into a single subject.

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Developing Character(s)

“Kids at this age are perfectly ready to create stories. Characters spill from their brains. These characters might be the product of an active imagination, or a response to something they read in books or saw on TV, or they may possibly be a way of processing their own personal development.”

— CAW Teaching Artist Ayla Rexroth on student-created cartoon characters in the Cartoon and Anatomy program at Hamilton Grange Middle School.

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Small Stories about Big Changes

“Kids at this age want to tell their own stories. The cartooning class gives them the skills and the opportunity to do that.”

CAW Teaching Artist Tom Palmer

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