Artist Jeff DeGrandis is putting pen to paper - well, crayon to paper - at this special one-day camp for kids in the Conejo Valley.
Each of the 1st through 5th Grade students here are getting a chance to participate in a hands-on masterclass from this professional animator who has brought to life some of our favorite hand-drawn stars of the screen.
"This gives me a chance to come eye to eye instead of drawing and putting him on TV," DeGrandis told KCLU. "The whole thing is mutual inspiration. So this is a really, really unique experience."
"I had a chance to work on some of the SpongeBob, and The Patrick Star Show and Kamp Koral. I enjoyed working on Steven Spielberg's Toonsylvania and Animaniacs. And then I did Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz at Warner Brothers. That was my favorite," said the modest animator, who is also responsible for the animation of Dora the Explorer and many others.
They’re taking part in what’s called Peace Day Camp which is put together by the Rotary Club of Westlake Village, the Conejo Recreation and Park District, and an arts group called Art Trek. It’s giving these youngsters the chance to engage in a number of activities – including cartoon-drawing, and hopefully be inspired – says Maricel from Art Trek.
"It's beautiful to watch because kids at this age, I feel they're the most creative, so they're literally living rainbows. They spill everything onto a page, and it's always beautiful to see what they put onto paper. When you get older, some people lose that creativity with productivity. It's always a joy seeing that they actually want to create art," she said.
De Grandis says this workshop is not just a fun activity, but one where the kids can learn the confidence to commit to their choices.
"When they go right to the drawing with a black crayon, that's true conviction of putting down lines to create art. And I'm very proud of them because it takes a lot of courage to do that. It's intimidating. And I think they're very, very surprised at themselves of what they've done. And all the work came out just so beautiful," said DeGrandis.
"To me, it's fun to draw crayons when I draw cartoons because there's a texture and there's a feel to it. There's nothing like the feel of a good pencil or crayon or conti crayon on good paper. Or in this case, I just use newsprint," he said.
"Cartoons are real. They're real characters. They're real people and real animals. Even though they're drawn, they have personalities and we're friends of theirs. And we feel bad for them. And we cry and we laugh with them. We act everything out and we feel the way they feel," said the animator.
And for the kids here, having the guy who actually draws the shows they watch gets a big thumbs up!
"He gives out good details about the characters and how to draw them," enthused one.
And it’s hoped the skills they don’t even realize they’re learning, like conflict resolution and acceptance, are ones which they can use in real life.
