Yellowknife (Sep 12/03) - A pencil in a child's hand will turn any piece of paper into a work of art.

It may not be great art, but it's worth much more than a Picasso or a Monet to some people.

Bill Reid would rather think children could become the next Charles Schultz, the creator of Charlie Brown and his bunch of friends in Peanuts.

Reid is a cartoonist, and teaches children and adults this art form.

He's offering classes this fall to both adults and youths.

On Tuesday evening about 12 youths, between eight and 14 showed up at St. Patrick high school for the first of three classes on cartooning.

"I really suck at drawing so I want to get better," Jacob Paquette, 10, said bluntly.

Other children were in the St. Pat's classroom to hopefully pick up a few pointers to improve their already evident talent.

Justin Carr, 14, was busy drawing right from the start. He's a fan of Japanese animation, and he has ambitions of going into computer animation.

Carr said he got hooked on this art form from scholastics.

"I'm hoping he'll help me out," said Carr rather shyly. However, for Samantha Hefford, 10, it was more of "the next best thing."

"I'm more into sketching, but there wasn't any classes for that, so I took this one," admitted Hefford.

For whatever reason the children took his class, Reid was more than happy to share his love and passion for the cartoon.

Reid, who's been living in Yellowknife for the past 13 years isn't in his first foray in teaching how to draw cartoons. He's taught the art in Winnipeg before moving to the North.

Reid, an elderly gentleman, begins the class by showing different facial expressions that convey how characters feel. He shows how the characters are usually exaggerated, how you can work with that.

He reminds his class that they only have three, two hour sessions, and that spread over three weeks.

It takes more than that to become a cartoonist, Reid told the class.