Find your inner elephant

by Andrew Joyner

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Description

Centred on the picture book Too Many Elephants in this House (written by Ursula Dubosarsky), this fun and interactive session shows students how picture books and their characters are developed - from the first lines of text and the rough drawings, storyboards and samples, through to the final 32 pages of words and pictures.

There are fun and energetic readings, insights into how I work with authors such as Ursula to create a book, and demonstrations of how having fun can actually be an artistic technique. There are several drawing demonstrations, including one in which a student gets to model for an elephant drawing.

I also talk about some of my other children’s books, especially those featuring animal characters (such as The Terrible Plop and Tim and Ed by Ursula Dubosarsky, The Swap by Jan Ormerod, and my own Boris series)

Topics covered:

From text to picture book
Imagining and creating characters
Developing characters - their body language, expression, personality - by using yourself or a classmate as a model.
Drawing a story.

Details

Audience

Primary students (the session is adapted to suit each age group)

Duration

45 mins to 60 mins (can be adapted to suit age group and school timetable)

Requirements

An easel or whiteboard which I can stick large sheets of paper to for drawing demonstrations. I will supply the paper and drawing materials for my own drawings. Students (especially those in year 2 and above) are welcome to draw within the session. They will need a few sheets of A4 (or A3 paper), graphite pencils, erasers - and a book or board to lean on if not at a table. A data projector to display a few images. I will bring this along on a USB stick saved in a variety of formats (powerpoint, keynote and pdf) so that it should work on all school systems. A microphone for larger groups (ie over 100 students).