Fine Arts Guild members enjoy an afternoon of silly cartooning

Nancy Friedman

On the last Wednesday in August you could find some fun cartoons being drawn by participants in the Fine Arts Guild sponsored cartooning class taught by JoAnn Bunyea and Kathy Arend. The art of drawing all starts with simple shapes which can be further refined to make beautiful drawings or stopped at the simple shapes to make cartoons. Examples of how simple cartoons were used in commercial business, art and newspapers were displayed. Each student was given examples of easy to draw eyes and mouths plus some illustrations of completed cartoon figures with captions. The first task in the class was to draw a combination of eyes, noses and mouths on a circle or oval to make a few cartoon faces. The participants then added hats, arms, hands, legs, shoes and a variety of other props. Some colored pencils and markers were used to add color. All students were asked to draw a unique cartoon. After which, everyone had to observe each other’s cartoon and add a caption. For example: two saguaro cactus characters with hats, serapes and a guitar were captioned the “Prickly Pair.” Two US Postal stamped postcards plus a greeting card and envelope were given to each student with the encouragement to draw a cartoon card to mail to a friend or family member. This class was just a fun way to get the participants to start drawing with hopes to increase everyone’s love of sketching and to use a journal. Art Boren picked the right seat to win a sketching journal donated by Kathy. Both Kathy and JoAnn have been drawing since they were young children and have degrees in art. Kathy taught art in Alaska for numerous years.

If you have any interest in dabbling in the Arts, come visit us in our new room which is at the east end of the Creative Arts Center. More information can be obtained about the Fine Arts Guild by contacting any of our officers who are Co-Presidents: Jillian Moon and Melanie Douglas; Treasurer: Janet Buckingham; Secretary: Nancy Friedman; and Member-at-Large: Bob Smith. Contact information for all officers can be found in your Source Book™ or on RRAZHOA website.