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Summer toon-up

Daron Letts
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 19/05) - Characters with googly eyes, toothy grins and wild hair make their way into the margins of many students' notebooks in the run of an average school day.



Design consultant Bill Reid will present a two-day children's cartooning workshop in the lead-up to next Friday's Festival of the Midnight Sun. The two-hour workshops run at the St. Pat's Annex on Monday and Wednesday evenings for children aged 11 and under.


Architectural design consultant and substitute math teacher Bill Reid is helping young cartoonists bridge the gap between idle doodling and cartoon artistry with two evening workshops next week.

"When architecture becomes a joke, you take up cartooning," he said.

Aside from his professional work, Reid is a musician, storyteller, humourist and sketch artist.

He's written monologues for CBC radio, appeared as a comic on various stages and published a 96-page book of his cartoons.

He walks his young students through the cartoon basics, encouraging them to use their imaginations to tell a cartoon story about an elephant squishing into a phone booth and a helicopter custom-made for an octopus.

"I drop ideas on the kids like pebbles in a pond," he said.

Reid sees the educational value in cartooning.

He is developing a 25-step lesson plan on CD rom for teachers to use in the classroom.

It covers drawing techniques, character development, storytelling and opportunities to cartoon for publications, film and television.

Reid has taught cartooning to children for more than 20 years, including six years at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Unlimited talent

In Yellowknife, he teaches as part of the City of Yellowknife's community programming and for special events like the Festival of the Midnight Sun.

"There's lots of talent among Yellowknife kids," he said.

"I'm very happy that they enjoy cartooning so much."

Reid will also present adult workshops in humour writing and calligraphy as part of the festival program next week.