Collage with Peanuts Characters
Relevant Content Standard – Students will create and keep an ongoing visual record including descriptive notes to explore and develop works of digital art and design. There are many animated specials that are made for television and shown during the holidays. We look forward to watching animated specials for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. These include It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown was written and animated by Charles Shulz and first aired on television for Halloween in 1966. How the Grinch Stole Christmas is an animated adaptation of the book written by Dr. Seuss in 1957. That TV special first aired before Christmas in 1966. However, a most memorable holiday TV special is A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which first aired in November 1973. Charles Monroe Schulz (November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist who created the long-running comic strip Peanuts, which features the characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Schulz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and developed an interest in drawing while growing up in Saint Paul. Like other famous and well-known animators at that time such as Walt Disney, Max Fleischer, Leon Schlessinger, the Warner brothers, Hugh Harman, and Rudolph Ising, Schulz was inspired to create, develop and write about his Peanuts characters from events and people in his own life. The photo below is from an article in the Minneapolis Post newspaper online. The title of the article is “Charles Schulz’s first ‘Peanuts’ comic strip debuts on Oct. 2, 1950.” It was written by Yuan Ding, and it was posted online on October 2, 2023, which was the 73rd anniversary of the debut of the Peanuts comic strip. The photo caption states that it shows a young Charles Shulz (right) along with a man named Charlie Brown, who inspired the name of the main character of the strip. They are posing for a picture while holding up a drawing of the comic strip character Charlie Brown between them.
Individuals who have an interest in becoming professional cartoonists and animators should take art classes and participate in educational activities to gain the skills necessary to work in cartooning and animation. Many of the cartoon artists previously mentioned also became animation studio founders. And just about all of them began their illustrious careers as artists who drew cartoons for local newspapers. Most of them also attended art schools and took art classes to become better at their craft. The lessons that we develop and post on the CARE Now website provide you with information to help you excel in these kinds of classes. You should also know that at some point after you learn and gain some experience in drawing and animating characters, you will need to apply for employment at an animation studio. This would be the logical next step for you as you embark on your career as an animator.
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animation is extremely labor-intensive, which means that most significant works require the collaboration of several animators. It is for these reasons that animation studios employ people to work in many different positions. These positions include cell polishers, colorists, character animators, comic book artists, junior artists, scenic artists, story artists, storyboard artists, visual effects artists, inbetweeners, designers, character designers, and others.
For this activity, you will create a Thanksgiving Day collage with digital images of the Peanuts comic strip characters created by Charles M. Shulz. A collage is defined as a work of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric on to a backing. The resulting piece of art can display items according to a theme or it can be a picture made of a collection of images from different kinds of materials. You will make the collage for this activity on the computer. You will use Microsoft PowerPoint and apply digital png images to a slide to create the collage. One of the quickest ways to begin working as a cartoonist or animator at an animation studio is to already be familiar with and know how to draw (and animate) popular and well-known characters. This means that your ability to replicate what you see on paper or on the computer is very important. This activity will help you to practice learning this skill. Instructions 1. Open the MS PowerPoint program on your computer and prepare to create a new presentation. 2. Insert the png images of the Peanuts characters into your presentation. 3. Position the Peanuts characters and objects on the slide so that your collage looks the same way it does in the example document. 4. Save your presentation and then also save it as a pdf file. 5. Print the file to show to your family members and friends on Thanksgiving Day.
I can remember that I was working as a teacher at an elementary school when I heard news of Shulz death in February 2000. I decorated my entire classroom with Peanuts-themed characters in memory of his comic strip and cartoon characters that had become so popular. You can use the collage you make of the Peanuts characters that were created by Charles Schulz as wall décor for Thanksgiving, as a greeting card to send to someone for the holidays, or just as a keepsake and a reminder that one day, you have a goal to become a famous animator!