The second week of the Summer session at WAM Has Rung Down the Curtain and Joined the Choir Invisible...

Both my first two sessions for 8 to 10 year olds both ran this year and it looks like at least the first week of the August Workshops will run as well with the second one still up in the air.

I've definitely noticed that this has been kind of a crabbier Summer Session for students and instructors alike. Which I think is because it's been a particularly hotter than average Summer. July especially.

And here I was worried that we would have the type of Summer we had in New England a couple years ago where it was rainy and didn't get past 60 degrees until the last week of August.

THAT has not been a problem this year to say the least. This has been a scorcher and so naturally temperatures never getting below 99 degrees does have a tendency to bring out a bit of crabbiness in everyone.

But it hasn't been a bad Summer at WAM. I've gotten the opportunity to try a new project with the students which I had them do a comic called The Adventures of Turtleboy and Larry.

Think The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack meets Adventuretime type of characters. Turtleboy is a wannabe pirate with his friend who is a flying turtle named Larry. And they travel the world in their ship the SS Boat which is a bathtub.

They had a new sculpture up in the American Art wing with Cupid sitting on top of this turtle. So naturally the first thing I thought of was our famous Turtleboy sculpture near the Worcester Public Library and that's how I came up with that project.

I may try the project next week and see how receptive my 11 to 13 year old students are.

I should mention I was able to use my good friend and fellow cartoonist Brian Nelson's strip Laurel as an example of how to do a one panel gag strip. Sort of like Ziggy or the Far Side type of comic. Brian's comic is hanging on Honee Hess's office door at WAM so I was able to dyop by outside her office and point out what makes a one panel gag strip effective.

I'm kind of amazed how fast the first two sessions have flown by. Oh well. Onto the first week of the August Session...