By Suzanne Hodgson
Staff Writer

“When you draw a cartoon or caricature you enter a happy place,” says Steve Hrehovcik.
Hrehovcik is teaching a new Cartooning and Caricatures class at River Tree Arts in Kennebunk that focuses on teaching students how to draw and also how to create story lines and situations for their characters.
“Find humor in what’s around us,” says Hrehovcik. “Laughter is the best medicine.”
The six person class allows each student to enter their own world of make believe; Hrehovcik even refers to his students as gods and goddesses.
 “It really takes my mind right off my troubles,” said Cathy Troy of Kennebunk, Goddess of Fun.
God and goddess nicknames are supposed to remind students to look at the bigger picture when drawing: they are in control of every line and exaggerated detail that goes on the page before them.
During the second class of the session, students learned how three shapes form the basis for every drawing. The circle, square and triangle make up a body, a hand or even a bow tie, but it’s up to the person drawing to exaggerate the shapes and body expression help tell a story.
The class is learning progressions in facial drawings, beginning with a blue guide pencil used to draw an oval, then splitting the oval in quarters. Eyes are supposed to be at the halfway point on the face and the nose down a little farther, followed shortly by the mouth.
“The most startling thing I found out when I was starting out was the eyes go in the middle, it just doesn’t seem right,” Hrehovcik says.
Sultry eyes, wide eyes and angry eyes soon fill blank ovals on his students’ pages.
Hrehovcik began cartooning many years ago, scribbling as a kid.
“The first cartoon I drew was an old jalopy. I felt so successful with that I continued with it,” Hrehovcik says, “Cartooning and art work is part of my professional life, cartooning is part of everything I’ve done.”
While working in sales and marketing, Hrehovcik’s would draw caricatures of speakers and then present the drawings to his company’s visitors.
Hrehovcik has taught cartooning before at Kennebunk Adult Education.
“It’s a personal way to fill time,” says Hrehovcik. “There’s a certain amount of pleasure and satisfaction you get from it.”
Besides filling their time, some students say they wanted to learn to draw so they could illustrate their writing.
“She said she likes to write and wanted to learn to draw to illustrate,” Troy says, pointing to a girl in the class. “That’s the reason I [took the class] too.”
Rodney Mailhet had previously written and illustrated his own comic book, but always considered himself an amateur. He’s taking the course to learn more about his craft.
“Steve has a lot of background in the subject. He explains things very well,” says Mailhet. “I didn’t know the technical explanations for drawing.”
Hrehovcik tells his students one of the best tools for a cartoonist is a mirror. Once you see how you look in real life you can exaggerate yourself with a lumpy nose, huge eyes or a wide smile.
Before moving on to the body of the person, Hrehovcik asks his class to draw their hands using the basic shapes with a blue pencil. Squares are used as the palm of the hand and lumpy rectangles make up the fingers.
As students fill in more details with a black pencil, Hrehovcik tells a story about a student in math class who was late for a final exam. Before the student entered the class, the professor put an unsolvable math equation on the board.
Two weeks later the student came back to the professor with a correct answer to the equation.
Hrehovcik explained the student was able to solve the problem because he hadn’t heard the answer was impossible.
Hrehovcik divulged that most artists think the hand is the most difficult object to draw, but all of his students were able to complete the drawing because they didn’t know it was difficult.
For homework, students are told to re-create their favorite cartoon characters to help practice drawing. They are also asked to draw an inanimate object in a setting.
“Where do you begin? The blank page is petrifying and so the purpose of replicating a cartoon is not to assume or embrace style of artists you are replicating, it’s finger practice,” Hrehovcik says.
The rest of the class will focus on drawing faces, drawing bodies, creating emotions, generating action and inspiration for storytelling.
For more information on the cartooning class or how to sign up for Hrehovcik’s next class, contact River Tree Arts at 967-9120.

    Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.