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Posted: May 12, 2007 It's okay to colour outside of the lines Mount Forest Confederate By Chris Clark Confederate Staff 2/6/2007
Practice, persevere, and never be afraid to colour outside of the lines. The students of St. Mary Catholic School learned a lot about life last week; not only how to draw it, but how to live it better as well. Chuck Temple, the skillful and successful illustrator of the "Brady Brady"series of children's books, visited the Mount Forest school and enthralled students with his talents as an illustrator, and message of empowerment. Mr. Temple talked about the Brady Brady series, and the young title character who loves to play hockey, and usually finds himself in the middle of an adventure. He read a book from the series, in which Brady Brady learns the value of teamwork, overcomes his fears, and achieves his goals in the face of adversity."If you put your mind to it, you can do anything," Mr. Temple told the students. He used his own path as a book illustrator as an example, detailing how the first book he illustrated for writer Mary Shaw was rejected over and over again by book publishers. He said every Brady Brady story starts with a big idea, evolves into a script, then into page form, and finally the illustrations are added. No illustration starts as a complete picture either. Mr. Temple begins every one of his drawings with what is known as a "gesture" drawing, a rough sketch that is eventually fine tuned into a completed full-colour illustration. "I can't be afraid to make some mistakes when I'm drawing," he said. Every step in the process refines the picture, until it is the best it can be, full of colour, depth and impact. He then demonstrated to students how, by following a few simple rules, they could create their own cartoon characters, and be able to draw almost anything. Most illustrations are based on drawing circles, and the key, the only way to truly get better, he said, is to practice, practice, practice.
When asked if he could draw characters from some of the well-known animated movies, Mr. Temple said he could, but the true value in illustration is to invent and refine your own characters. "The stuff you are creating today could be in comics, cartoons and books tomorrow. It is important to create your own characters, and not just copy what others have done." The Brady Brady character was "born" seven years ago, when Mrs. Shaw decided to write a story for her own son. Once their themes settled on hockey, the duo were offered a contract, and Brady was on a breakaway in books across Canada. Mr. Temple said his first book took six months to illustrate, but now a book takes an average of two months to illustrate, because many of the characters are established and not new with each new story. Today, Mr. Temple and Mrs. Shaw are working with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets to bring Brady Brady to a whole new audience in the United States. Plans are currently in the works to produce a collection of books in soccer, baseball and football themes for the massive U.S. market, and there is also talk of expanding Brady Brady into an animated cartoon. "Practice and never give up," he said. "If there is a wall in front of you, you can either look at it as a barrier, or overcome it by going over, around or through it."
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