‘Rebels and Dreamers’
This was the topic for the Golden Pen annual writing competition for the Scribblers festival 2024. I tried it out but unfortunately couldn’t win 🙁
But that did not make me want to not visit the family festival on 27th Sunday. The main sessions that I attended were a drawing class by author Sheena Dempsey and an Epic Illustrator Battle between Mitch Vane and Peter Cheong.
Pablo and Splash
This fun session with Sheena Dempsey gave us an exclusive drawing class where we got to test our skills by drawing Pablo and Splash.
We got step by step instructions on how to draw both of these cute penguins and it was so amazing to do draw them with the real artist present.
Sheena also read us a few lines of Pablo and Splash’s adventures.
Epic Illustrator Battle: East Coast vs West Coast
This was an epic battle between two talented comic artists: Mitch Vane and Peter Cheong.
They were given a three round drawing battle where they had to draw the most random topics on the spot. And they had to start their drawing with a random scribble on the page drawn by the host. The tricky part was that the ideas for their art pieces were given while they completing the work.
These were the following ideas given to draw for the three rounds:
Vegetable Drama
There was a carrot that lived with other fruits and vegetables. His name was Marcus. The other vegetables and fruits in the bowl had ‘beef’ with him, especially banana. The enemies in the comic are guinea pigs who fight for guinea pig rights.
Both the artists interpreted the story in their own way. Mitch Vane Made her setting to be inside a fruit and veggie bowl and the guinea pigs eating the grapes. Peter Cheong made Marcus the carrot a singer with an Elvis impersonation and the guinea pigs fighting for equal rights in the music industry.
This was my favorite round from all three as it was quirky and funny.
Rollercoaster Beef
Bob the beef goes on a roller coaster ride. The roller coaster ideas was proposed by the parents present when asked about how to describe parenting in one word. ‘Parenting is a roller coaster ride’, according to grown ups. They also had two draw one character from their comics involved in the scene as well. Mitch drew a character from her comic ‘Little lunch’. And Peter Cheong drew Felix a wolf, from his book ‘Every Night at Midnight’.
Exotic Birds
This round was a fully imaginative round. They were told to create a creature that is straight out of a fairy tale. The only criteria was that to represent their state/territory: Mitch for Melbourne and Peter for Perth.
Both artist used their imagination to create unique and cool looking birds.
Mitch drew a ‘Perry (Booty) Penguin’. This bird is fully equipped for the rain in Melbourne by having a naturally evolved boots for feet and an umbrella for its head. It also has its morning coffee in hand to grind through the gloomy weather.
Peter drew an exotic two headed swan (probably taking inspiration from the black swan which is the symbolic bird of Western Australia). Its seen surfing through the waves and even barking at the nearby Koala (that attention to detail was so nice).
This challenge was the final event to end the Scribblers 2024 Festival on Sunday. I was soo happy to end the festival with this fun challenge as I had lots of fun watching and cheering them on. I feel like both of them are truly amazing as I couldn’t pick a clear winner.