“There is no better training one can receive in the business of cartoon illustration than actually working side by side with an established artist. To succeed in this business requires much more than drawing skills. How does one actually get work? Once the assignments arrive, what can the cartoonist expect from the Art Director? How do I professionally submit a comic strip and where do I send it? How much do you charge? Thankfully and with a lot of patience, Guy Gilchrist showed me how I could succeed as a humorous illustrator. To this day I still use many of the techniques I learned while working as an apprentice for Guy.” - Mark Brewer >> Click on picture for full sized images

"My name is Samantha and I am an artist who is 15 years old. I have been taking classes at Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy since the day it opened, three years ago. My classes have been in Anatomy, Figure Drawing, Painting and Color, Comics, Graphic Storytelling,Writing, Character Design, and PhotoShop, as well as others. Last summer I was accepted into the Apprenticeship Studies Program. I'm the youngest assistant Guy's ever had! I learned so much that month, and I will never let go of all that I learned! Because of my years of study, I was able to focus on painting and composing in Photoshop. My goal that I worked on with Guy was to complete an entire art calendar in one month! That is because I want to be a professional fantasy illustrator. Guy told me I would BE one if I could create a product that people buy, so I created a calendar called The Faerie Realm. I worked everyday with George Sellas on the computer, but everything I drew and painted was all my own work. Guy went over each and every part of the project from beginning to end, and now I am selling this calendar on the web, and in stores and offices of friends and storeowners. I also took night classes that month, and helped work with the younger kids at Guy's Camp. It was really fun! What I learned in the apprenticeship is helping me greatly with my studies at my school, Oliver Wolcott Technical Regional Vocational High School where I am a freshman taking the trade of Graphic Design and Technology. Learning Photoshop in detail especially helped me with the trade." - Samantha Volovski >> Click on picture for full sized images

"In the summer of 2007 I was introduced to the thought of an apprenticeship in cartooning. At the time I had been discussing that art with Greg Cravens, of “The Buckets”. Through my conversations with him, he knew I was looking to improve my ability to produce a comic strip. He put me in touch with Brian Walker of “Hi & Lois” fame, who recommended I get in touch with Guy Gilchrist. Mr. Gilchrist had an academy in nearby Connecticut, and might be willing to work with me. So began a journey, the outcome of which I could little suspect. After meeting with Guy and reviewing my work I began an apprenticeship at his “Comic Bullpen”. I had anticipated being challenged to draw better. What I got was my entire approach to cartoons tested to the core! Drawing, layout, writing even who and what my characters were was called to task. For one intensive month I drew, redrew and rethought my strip. I knew I needed to learn a great deal before, but how little I knew how little I knew! Guy guided me, usually starting each day with a lesson, which I then applied to my work. Through the daily regimen I watched as my art improved. At times I had the privilege of working on his strip, “Nancy”. Over this, all too short, a period I gleaned much from a professional. The effects of which I will feel for a long time. I also had the pleasure of working with Guys’ two assistants, George and Scott. Excellent creators in their own right, they helped keep me on track. They are talented and fun to be around. The conversations between them, myself and Guy really got the creative juices flowing! The input they gave me goes beyond invaluable. I only wish I could have spend more time at the academy. The experience has changed me, and my art, forever!" - Jerry Shippee >> Click on picture for full sized images

"My daily routine at the Academy. During my stay at the academy, I went in at 9:00 and left after the last night class was over from Monday to Friday during the month of June 2007. Some of the tasks that Guy had me do included inking in some parts of the Nancy strip, preparing future daily templates, organizing and storing artwork, and any other task that may come up throughout the normal workweek that he felt I could handle. What did I want to get out of it? In the apprenticeship program, I wanted to be able to develop a comic strip idea that I have been working on from something that seemed novice to something that could be published and appreciated by a wide audience. Also, I wanted to be able to improve my overall artistic skills to be able to enhance my creative talents for a possible future in the field of graphic design. What I got out of the program. The program was everything that I wanted and more. First, Guy gave my one on one guidance on my comic strip to be able to turn it from amateur to professional. He first taught me how to draw an effective character by developing mannerisms, movement, and emotions to help carry affect in the strip. Guy, with his team, also helped me understand how a frame is set up by using diagonals with lights and darks to bring what was important to the foreground. Most importantly, Guy helped me to understand the importance of blacks and whites to develop the artistic presentation of a comic strip. With all of this help, I have been able to put together a comic strip that works effectively. But wait, there's more. Guy allowed me to go to his evening classes. In those classes, we continued to work on techniques that could improve my comic strip, but I also learned how to create logos. This was awesome. The lessons on logos were very beneficial to what I hope to do in the future with graphic arts. But wait, yep, still more. Guy gave me the opportunity to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop from George Sellas. Photoshop is one of the most important things that I learned while at the Academy. It gave me the ability to manipulate my drawings in a way that would not be possible otherwise. Photoshop also allows me to provide creations in a format that can be used by publishers, web designers, apparel companies, and anyone else that may want to use my creations. It is fantastic. Results so far. Well at this moment, I have a comic strip that is being published on my school district's website. My future ambitions are to take the concept to a wider audience, but the reaction to it has been more than I could have expected at this point. I have also created logos for my school, a cookie company, and a technology company with future logos in the works at the moment. I am also starting to develop a new idea for a comic strip. With all of these things, I feel that I got more than I had ever expected from the Academy. Was it worth it? I think by reading everything, you can tell that I feel my experience was worth it. By no means would I say going to the academy was a piece of cake. Just like everything you ever do, you struggle, but the more time you put in to something, the more you will get out. I feel a got a lot out of my experience at the academy and have everyone that worked there to thank for it as well." - Daniel Budzban >> Click on pictures for full sized images

"My name is Kayleigh Uzdarwin and I am 17 years old. I am a teacher here at the academy where I teach children how to animate characters, but I didn’t start working here right off the bat. I discovered the academy in the Yankee Flyer newspaper, but it was when I received a letter about the academy that I really looked into going to the classes. We looked at the Cartoonist’s Academy website and watched the video of Guy Gilchrist drawing Mudpie. My dad turned and said to me “We really gotta get you in here.” We signed up for a month of Intermediate classes in June 2006. I was wicked excited to attend the classes. When June finally arrived, I attended my very first class. There I met many students about my age and of course, the almighty Guy Gilchrist is his big cowboy hat. Him and his assistant Bill looked at my work and were pretty impressed, but the problem was that I drew in someone else’s style, the style of Butch Hartman who created the Nickelodeon shows Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom. Bill and Guy told me that it was okay to draw in someone else’s style in my own free time, but I wasn’t going to make it in the cartoon world copying someone else. At the end of class, I went up to them with a huge pile of drawings to show them. They looked through and both Bill and Guy were shocked. In these sketchbooks I had drawings of animals, especially dogs and wildcats, and even dragons. These were not in the style of Butch Hartman, but my own style. Guy knew I had huge potential of getting really great at drawing, so he sat me and my dad down for a little talk. Guy told me of times when he himself drew in someone else’s style, and sent his drawings in to a magazine. His drawings were rejected to his disappointment. There was even a letter to him that said his drawings of the copied style were not good at all, especially when the magazine could hire the original artist of that style. But the letter also said his sketches of real people were good, and they wanted Guy to continue doing his own style. This pushed Guy to do his own work, and that’s just what he told me. Guy wanted me to do my own style. So that was when I chucked Butch’s style into the garbage and started new. I took class after class after class. I took the Pen and Inking class where I learned to use real dip pens, brushes and inks. I took the anime class with George Sellas. The class that helped me the most with my artwork was Life Drawing. I took this class for months. Before I couldn’t draw a live person at all. But now I can look at someone and draw their face. I learned the contours of the body shapes, the balancing of the human posture, the structure of the body and face. Now I go and I draw caricatures of people! In December 2006, I got a job here at the academy. I started with cleaning up the place and being a teacher’s assistant. I gradually worked my way up to being an animation teacher, and it’s the best job a kid my age could ever have. I get to do what I love the most, animating, and I love watching my students work so hard and get wonderful animations done. One of my ‘veteran’ students, who’s 12 years old, has done so many wacky, amazing animations and has 3 CDs made full of them! Working here has changed me so much. Before I was a very aloof, reclusive, and antisocial person. But going on caricature gigs with Guy, teaching children, talking with other people about the academy and doing birthday parties has completely turned me around. I am now a much less shy person, and a better drawer! Everyone who works here or comes here as a student is now a friend of mine, especially the kids who come here everyday after school. Eventually, Guy even let me animate his Mudpie character for the Guy Gilchrist’s Cartoonist’s Academy TV commercial! I have never been so proud of my achievements in my life. I can’t wait to take what I learned from here to college, and eventually the world. I will not be an amazing artist who hides in her closet all her life, I will be an amazing artist who is world renowned." - Kayleigh Uzdarwin >> Click on pictures for full sized images

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