Sharjah 24: Young students grabbed a unique opportunity to create their own, personalised comic book page at the 13th edition of the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF( 2022.

The hour-long Shaping a Comic Page session organised at SCRF’s Comics Corner and led by Lebanese artist Samer Nehme taught aspiring caricaturists and illustrators aged 10 – 14 how to string together thoughts into a storyline. 

“The most important thing for children at this age is to learn how to be able to channel their imagination into drawings and then eventually a story,” said the architect-turned-illustrator who began the workshop with simple yet effective techniques of sketching characters. 

“Drawing is the best tool of expression for children. They must be allowed to think and visualise freely,” he added, while explaining to his class the ‘four key stages’ involved in the making of a comic book page.

“I learned how to make characters look their part and what makes each emotion stand out,” said 11-year-old Haiya Salah who portrayed ‘fright’ on the face of a young girl. “So, I understood the importance of depicting jaws wide open, and eyes rolled up. These elements in my drawing clearly depicted the state of fear and shock she was in,” explained the grade 7 student of Pakistani Islamiya Higher Secondary school. 

For Haiya’s classmate Ishaal Afridi too, the experience was full of new learnings, who admitted that he was “even more inspired to flip through pages of comics to better understand this aspect,” after this workshop. 

“I enjoyed creating my characters the most. It’s different to regular drawing and it’s very engaging once you get involved in your story,” said Hamza Rehman, 14, a grade nine student of Westminster School, who takes inspiration for his characters from anime series.