Moooving on to Cartoony Fun, Onomatopoeias

By Chris Dunmire

This past Wednesday afternoon I had the distinct pleasure of facilitating one of my You Can Draw Cartoony Things! art playshops to a troop of Girl Scouts at Womanspace in Rockford, Illinois.

One of my own "testimonial" teaching points during the workshop to this group of eager 8- to 11-year-olds was to help them think ahead about how they might incorporate any of their unique cartoony character creations into other uses.

For example, I showed the group how I first devised my Tee Time characters for Nit Wits #8 ("Tee Time") and then went on to use the same characters to create poster art, a painting, greeting cards, and coloring pages. I instilled how character repetition leads to character development, and by using their characters in multiple applications they could further practice their skills and stretch their imaginations.

“Character repetition
leads to character development.”
— Chris Dunmire, Clever Quoteologist

I always practice what I preach. Launching my easy printable drawing lessons pages ala the Cartoony Things! Lessons Playbook for individuals and teachers has led me to practicing more character repetition and development. My punny Cowpyright Cow above, for example, is the same mascot from Nit Wits #27 ("Divine Bovine"). Yes, word play with the "9 Greek Moo-ses" led to even more word play with one of my pet topics, ©opyright.

And here's the wonderful serendipity part: Playing your own characters and ideas off one another eventually begins to produce continuity and themed products. Artists of all kinds can benefit from their unique lines should they decide to take their creations to the marketplace. Think of all the cartoony merchandise you've ever seen on the shelves: SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Peanuts, Looney Tunes. Lunch boxes, toys, party napkins, balloons, stuffed animals, candy, costumes (yes, Halloween is only two weeks away!).

Fostering creativity while planting seeds of potential in children is one of my life's greatest joys. When kids see tangible possibilities for their own creative expressions through art, writing, or some other medium they like, it inspires them. It models potential. It connects a real person to a reality they too can have if they're willing to work at it.

By the way, one of the funnest words that came up in during the artshop was "Onomatopoeia." An onomatopoeia [on-uh-mat-uh-pee-uh] is a word depicted in a comic that imitates the sound it's describing such as "Bang!", "Crash!", "Pow!", "Meow", or "Moo!" It's a fun word to say, but a hard word to spell. I include it here for my own reference so that I never ever forget how to say it, spell it, or explain it. Isn't learning fun? •

© 2008 Chris Dunmire www.chrisdunmire.com. All rights reserved.