Bestselling author and illustrator Gavin Aung Than shared his writing and drawing experiences in two online sessions last week.
Using our web conferencing platform, Webex, Gavin discussed his career and his publications with SIDE students in Years 5-6 and a secondary Art class last week.
Gavin has been fascinated with graphic novels and comics from a young age. While he studied Graphic Design at university and later worked in this field, he always wanted to be an artist full-time, focusing on his own work. In 2012 he launched a website, Zen Pencils , where he adapted inspirational quotes into fun comics. The site developed a large audience across the world and the comics were later published in four collections in book form.
He has created graphic novels for 8-10 year olds in a series Super Sidekicks . Many primary students had already begun reading books in this series. Gavin used his original drawings to show how he designs his books, including the creation of individual characters, the design and editing process, and publication.
Gavin showed students how to create two of his characters while students followed his design principles to create their own versions of his characters.
Gavin’s books are available in print and as ebooks. Check them out in the SIDE Library Resource Centre .
