One of the more popular events for kids was the "Padawan Penciling: Drawing Star Wars with Joe Corroney" panel.
Kids and their parents from all over the country, and in some cases the world, picked up their sketch pencils and paper and learned step-by-step how to draw Star Wars heroes and villains. With a series of circles and triangles, kids slowly transformed basic shapes into everything from a feisty Jawa to the wise Jedi Master Yoda.
Star Wars artist Joe Corroney instructed kids 12 and under (with quite a few older kids paying attention as well) how to draw famous Star Wars characters, including aliens, droids, and favorite Jedi. Many of the would-be art students gained a few tips and tricks, thanks to Corroney's easy to understand teaching method.
As a teacher as well as an artist, Corroney knows all too well how the Star Wars saga can trigger an interest in art in young minds.
"Two primary things spurned my interest in art when I was very young: Star Wars and comic books," Corroney says. "It was after I saw the original Star Wars in the theater when I was four years old and my mom had given me the Marvel Comics adaptation, the large size 'Treasury Edition' of Star Wars, as a present for my birthday that summer. For a few months, I only had to rely on a few action figures and my memory of the movie to draw from. But when I got the comic book I started drawing pictures from that too."
As the room full of young artists paid close attention to Corroney's instructions, parents in the room were amazed at how easy it was to draw the characters that they themselves grew up with from watching the original trilogy of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Among the artists, proud father Taryn Loveman watched his son sketch Darth Maul. Loveman and his family live Tokyo, Japan, but when his son found out about the panel from looking up the events of Comic-Con on the Internet, he convinced his father to make the trip to San Diego. As soon as they reached the Convention Center, they came straight to Corroney's panel.
Loveman works as a third grade teacher in Japan, and says he often likes to use the Star Wars movies as a model to help his students take an interest in math and science.
"The characters in Star Wars are universal," Loveman says. "When you draw a character from the movies, students tend to pay more attention to what you're trying to teach them."
After the panel finished and young artists took their favorite sketches with them, Corroney encouraged everyone to keep practicing what they learned and to continue drawing their favorite characters at home.
"Star Wars has always inspired me and it pushes me to be a better artist with every project, which helps in my other artwork too," Corroney says. "If you keep focused, work hard, utilize advice and support from family and friends and always believe in yourself then you can pretty much do anything you set your mind to."
