- It's March 18th,here in the Mo Willemsstudio for Lunch Doodlewhich also means that it'sturned the number 18into a silly face day, like that.Hi, it's Mo Willemshere back at the studio.I hope that you had a good day.I hope you got to do a lot of doodlingand drawing with your familiesin the last couple days.As a matter of fact, last night our familyall had a dining room dinner doodle.Which means that we took paper like this,butcher block paper, we putit on the dining room tableand we had dinner andthen we made some drawingsand everybody drew in a different style.Some people drew realisticallyand some drew abstractly.We'll talk about abstracts later.Do you wanna see the drawings that I madeduring dinner last night?I spent a lotta timetalking so the drawingstook a little bit more time.And when I started I didn'tknow what I was doing.So I just sorta let it happen.So I drew three birds,each of them very, very silly.I think I've probably drawnbirds like this beforewith the crayons, butdefinitely this type of birdis new to me.Now maybe you guys can do that tonight,you can pull out some paperand when you all have dinner togetherand you're talking and what not,after dinner you can have a little doodleand come up with some characters.Well yesterday I showedyou some of the drawerswith the Elephant and Piggiebooks, the original drawings,and I taught you guys howto draw Elephant Gerald.And then I said well why don't you make upsome Elephant and Piggiestories of your own.And then I realized I forgot to teach youhow to draw Piggie.So let's start off by drawing Piggie.(mutters) Piece of paperand I'll get a marker.So make sure that you guys are ready.If you have a piece of paper and a marker,if you don't, pause.Okay?You just get a normal piece of paper,this is simple, it could be a pencil,it could be a marker,it could be a crayon.Doesn't really matter what you draw with.(mutters)Okay?You got it?Oh, okay.Play.So, Piggie is really a bunchof numbers put togetherand one letter.I'm gonna start with thenumber zero for Piggiebut unlike a normal zerowe're gonna squish it.We're gonna pretend it's a balloonand step on it and squish it a littleand make it something thatI like to call a moval.There we go, that's my moval.That's pretty good.And then inside it, becausethat was fun to make,we're gonna make a second smaller moval.Just like that.Now it kinda looks like a misshapen donut.Now my favorite number is number 11,so we're gonna write the number 11.11.And because that was so fun,we're gonna write the number 11 againbut this time we'regonna take these top 11sand we're gonna inflate them.We're gonna go.Shh.Shh.And make them big.And that way we can really,really see the eyes,'cause they're the mostimportant part of the drawing.Now for the letters, we take the letter Mand we break it in half.Put half of the M hereand half of the M there.And then a little letter U for a smile.Now we've got a Piggie.Now okay, right and Ihave to put my name there.You have to put your nameso that if I run across that later,that I know that I madethat drawing of Piggie.And so now if you look at thisand then you look at yesterday's episode,you know how to draw Elephant and Piggieand you can make your ownElephant and Piggie adventures.It's pretty exciting.So Elephant and PiggieI started in about 2007,I think the first one came out.Let's take a look actually real quickbecause they're all here.Move my drawing doodle.I better put that somewhere.Let's see.This is the first one.My friend is sad.We'll look at a blue from that.Okay.Oop, my friend is sad.Gerald really is sad.There we go.Early Elephant and Piggieand I made that drawingon January 9th, 2006!Now that's a long time ago.Let me put that back.But in 2006 I had alreadybeen writing for kidsa long time because I started on a showcalled "Sesame Street".And I was a writer and an animator.And I started in, let's see,I actually have my early scripts.See when you write a script on televisionthey used to give ya this really beautifulbound copy of all your scripts.It said "Sesame Street"and the season XXVI,which is kinda like the Superbowl.And then 1994-1995.And these are my very first scriptsthat I wrote for "SesameStreet" all those years agoand it was really special.They would give you these scriptsin this bound thing and thenthey would put your name on it.See how they said Mo Williams?Because I was a writer.Very, very special.They, well the next yearthey got it right, they said Mo Willems.And they bound up all my scripts as well.And these were all the scriptsthat were turned into episodes.Well I was also an animatoron "Sesame Street".An animator is someone whomakes a lot of drawings.So many, many, many, many,many, many, many, many,many, many, many, many,many, many, many, many, many,many, many, many, many, many drawings.And you put 'em in the right orderand then the drawings startto look like they moveor things like that.And back in the day weused to actually draw themon a piece of plastic called a celland put one cell over the other.So I wanna show you.I saved some of these cells.I want you to take a lookat these old, old cells.Let's see if you can move in here.Let me get in.Is that good?All right, so see how and this is abouta guy who has an octopus on their head.I like making thingsabout people who havethings on their heads.And another one who has abigger octopus on their headand the background is adifferent piece of paperand you see how that headis a little brighter?Because it's a separatedrawing than that bodyand that thing is a separate drawing,that arm and that tentacle.And so all of these things separatelydon't mean anything.But when you put them togetherthen they mean something.So it's kind of like all the stuffthat we're doing right nowby staying at home and trying to be safe,it kinda feels likewe're not doing anything,but if we all do it togetherthen we're really doing something magical.So here, let's see.Here we go.This is Suzie Kabloozie.Suzie Kabloozie was my first character,my first continuous character.And it was voiced by anactress name Ruth Buzzi,which is someone some of your grandparentswill have heard of.Really, really funny.And there's Suzie Kablooziejumping up and down.And what I used to like to do back thenbefore I had invented the pigeon,I used to like to hide pictures of myselfin my films.You see that?That's a little drawing ofwhat I used to look like.I don't look like that anymore.I'm so old that my hairis no longer straight up.It falls right down.And that was Suzie Kabloozie.Oh here's a cell froma film I made for HBO.See if you can find the hidden Mo in this.This film was about a shark.And it was about howsharks are really goodand they don't like to eat peoplebut maybe they like to eat cartoonists.I don't know if you cansee that hidden Mo in that.Let's see, here we go.Oh here, is the very firstSuzie Kabloozie film.And this is about a telephone.And a telephone is aold fashioned inventionthat used to put on furnitureand you used to have to go toit in order to talk to people.And you see how that partof the phone is brighter'cause it's a different cell.And I painted the background,there's Suzie Kabloozie,her cat Fef, who'safraid of the telephone.And then this I cut out all the pagesand made shapes out of a phone book.And that you'll have toask your great grandparentsabout what a phone book is.I don't know, these are some cells.And I got to make thatbecause I am an animator.And animation happensbecause of something calledpersistence of vision.If you have one drawing of one thingand another drawing of another thingand you move them around fast enoughyour brain can't keep up.So your brain starts to sayoo, I wonder if it'sjust something moving.And it creates movement.Persistence of vision, very important.So I think it is time now,and I'm excited about this,this is one of my favorite things,to teach you how to be an animator.(babbles)How can I be an animator?I hear you asking right now.Yeah, I heard it.This is how you can be an animator.You're gonna need a couple things.You're going to needa piece of paper like in your printeror a typewriter and you're going to needa very special thing called a pencil.So, piece of paper and a pencil.If you don't have 'em, press pauseand go get your piece of paper and pencil.Oh wait, I forgot something!Also, if ya have aruler or a straight edgeor even scissors orable to fold something.I'm gonna use this ruler.All right, so here we go.Pause.(mutters)All right ya got it?Okay, play.Here we go.Gonna take this piece of paperand I'm gonna make it tall like this.Actually can we close that door?Let's do that, then thelight'll be just great.Perfect.And I'm gonna takeabout a knuckle's worth,an inch or so of thatpiece of paper like that.And I'm gonna fold it and make a strip.Maybe ya need a grown upor you want a grown upto help you with this.But I basically, I make, Ifold it nice and straight.And I make this little stripand I take this ruler and I'm gonna pull.(exclaims)Look at that.I pulled the paper and it ripped.See, it's hard.I'm gonna do it againbecause it's okay if you make a mistake.I'm gonna fold thispiece of paper like that.And I'm gonna take my nail,I'm gonna get it really, really sharp.And let's see when Ifold it the other way.Okay now let's see ifI can hold it and rip.Slow, slow rip.Slow, oop.Eh, hard.Oo man.Okay.That's not so bad.How did yours come out?Did it come out?Or maybe it didn't come out.So let's pause again.And you can do it again.And practice and get it,'cause this is the hardest partof being an animator isripping this strip of paper.It really is the hardest part.Will you pause?Okay.(sighs) Try again.Yeah, all right.Play.Okay.Now I've got my strip of paper.So proud of it.Such a good strip of paper.And I'm gonna fold that strip of paperin half like this.And so now it kinda lookslike an alligator mouth.You're doing really well.This is the hard part.This is the difficult part.It's about to get really fun.Okay.So now I've taken this and Iopen up the alligator's mouthand on the very bottom,just on the little knuckle width or soI'm gonna make a drawing of a pigeon.I'm gonna draw a circle of a pigeon's headand a pretty big eye like this.And the two lines down for the neck.Two across and I'm gonnaopen up the beak really bigand make these lines that come out.Some other lines like that.So it looks like the pigeon is yelling.You see I drew the circle and the eyeand the circle and the open beak.And the neck and the little movement.I'm gonna put in another little movement.And now I fold it over so I can't see.And now if I look it's maybehard to see on this camera,I can look if I press really hard,I kinda can see that pigeonand I'm gonna draw the pigeon differently.I'm gonna draw the pigeon with a big headand a little eye.I'm gonna keep the neckpretty much the sameand I'm gonna close the mouth like that.See I made the headbigger and the eye smallerand the mouth closed.If I look at that, it's open.There it's closed.It's normal sized and here it's big.And the eye is normalsized and there it's small.I've got two different looking pigeons.And we're going to make adrawing that goes back and forth,it's called a cycle.An animation cycle.So now I have my penciland only with the top sheetI'm roll it uplike a hair roller or something.Roll, roll, roll, roll, roll.I see the bottom but I don't see the top.And then I kinda let itgo and see it springs.Like a curl.Now this pencil's gonna be my aperture.I'm gonna take this penciland I'm gonna move it like thisand every time I go thefirst drawing goes upand I go slowly and then I'll go fasterand faster and it will start to animate.Let me drive the bus!Please, I want to drive the bus.Oh wait, wow, look at me.I am animated.I have been animated by Mo.Wow, that is so cool.I like to do that.So much fun.Let me drive the bus!And see the faster I go the faster it goesand it's gonna be the rhythmthat's the perfect rhythm,that really feels like it's animating.All right.How's yours?How did that work out?Yeah, it's hard but whenit works it's really cool.You are an animator.Before we even started todayyou were not an animator.And now you are an animator.Congratulations.And you can draw pretty much anything.You can make a strip and maybe draw a caror somebody bouncing a ballor oh I don't even know.You can do all kinds of different thingswith this little piece of animation.And if you ever see a friend you say hey,you wanna make an animation together.And then you guys can make animations.That's one of my favorite things to do.I really like making little animationswith tiny pieces of paper.Well a lot of you peoplehave been watching,which is really exciting to me,the idea that you guys are drawingand doodling and watchingand coming up with questionsand making your own creatures.And really being super, super creative.So I've got a couplequestions that came to me.There they are.And I thought it would bea fun time to answer them.So here are some randomquestions that we gotthat you guys sent it.The first one is from Isla,age eight from California."What happened to the birdson the Piggie's head?"Oh, that's a good question.- Isla I think you are talking aboutthe birds in the book.There was a bird on my head.Which is funny 'causeI've showed you the thingabout the octopus on the head.Let's take a look andsee where that book was.That was an early one.Oh, here it is."There's a Bird On Your Head".And you were talking about this one.And the bird is mostly on Gerald's headfor most of the book.And then at the very endat the very end the birdsare on Piggie's head.Right?So Isla wants to know whathappened to those birds?Well, Isla from California, they retiredwith a great benefit packageand they are now living in Florida.They are snow birds."Why won't you let the pigeondrive the bus?" asks Will.Will is five.I have no problem with thepigeon driving the bus.You're the one who doesn'tlet the pigeon drive the bus.You're the one who yellsno, you can't drive the bus.And I think that you yelled thatbecause of insurance premiumsand things like that.I just make the books.That's all I do.All right."How do you come up with suchfunny stories?" asks Maurine,who lives in Maryland and is nine.Maurine, that's a very good question.We've talked a little bit earlierabout how ideas or seeds thatyou plant and that you grow.But you don't alwaysknow that those plants,those story plants, are gonna be funny.So what I do is I put ineverything in my stories,sadness and happiness and sillinessand funniness and weirdness.And sometimes smells.Just everything.And then when I'm done, Itake out all the not fun bitsand hope that what's left is funny.I'm not saying that'show you should do it,it's just how I do it.Okay, Ella, another five year old says"Why is the pigeon always up to no good"on the covers of theElephant and Piggie books?"Yeah, the pigeon hatesit when I make booksthat are not about him.And so when I'm not lookingand I leave this studioand I go back downstairs,the pigeon sneaks into everysingle one of my books.Every book that I've drawnthe pigeon sneaks in.Kind of like I used to sneakinto all my cartoon filmsa long time ago.All right, Clara says, "I really like"recreating your drawings andcoming up with my own books."Good for you, Clara.That's awesome."What color do you use for the pigeon?"Blue.Because the pigeon is sad.It doesn't really matter which bluebut it's probably pretty close to this.This is called azure.A very fancy way of saying blue.But any blue will do."If the pigeon found a new friend,"what would that friendbe?" says Galloway.Asks Galloway."If the pigeon found a new friend,"what would that friend be?"You."Why do you doodle?"Because it's fun.Because it makes me feel better.And sometimes I doodle thingsthat don't make any sense.Like the other day, justwanted to show you this.I made this little abstraction.Just a bunch of squigglesof color togetherand I don't know what it meansbut it made me happy to make itand it makes me happy to look at it.It looks like they're all playing aroundand maybe this guy is trying to figure outhow to get in on the game.So I thought for our final doodle todaymaybe we'll do two things.We'll make an abstractionand we'll turn it into a monster.So we'll do both.So let's grab a piece of paper.I guess I got some sort offancy, old paper that I found.And this time let's get a couplecolored markers or crayons.Pause.Get some markers or the crayons.We're gonna make lots and lots of shapes.Big shapes just with themarkers or the crayons.Okay?You got that?And then you're alsogonna want a black penor a dark colored pen or a dark pencil.So I'm pausing, I'm waitingfor you to go find thatif you don't already have it.Play.Okay.So I'm gonna start bymaking just like a dot.I'm gonna start on theinside with a red dot.Oh yeah.One of the things that Ilike about drawing shapesis weird, is how it sounds.Listen to that.(scratching)You hear that?It's kinda like a rhythm.I like that.All right red.So it's just a red dot right now.You can make whatever kinda dot you want.But when I take a little bit of blueand I make a differentkinda jelly bean thingand I color that in,it hasa relationship, right?The red and the blue are somehow related,they're talking to eachother in some cool way.Oo, this is orange.Let's see.Making another sort of jelly bean.All right.And I hear that sound.♪ Color it in, color it in, color it in ♪♪ Color it in ♪And I wanna make it round.At one point I went over.If I make a mistake with a markerI can just make my shape bigger.Now I'm gonna make a smaller yellow.And look at that.It's really changed quite a bit, right?And that's my abstraction.Here's what's cool about an abstractionis after I'm done, maybe I'll say,oh maybe it looks better this way.That's kinda cool howthey're kinda going up,getting darker.Or maybe it goes this way.I don't know.Maybe it goes that way.All right, that is my abstraction.Now I'm gonna do something a little silly.So I'm gonna turn myabstraction into a cartoon,as I have my dark pen,in this case, for me it's a brush pen.And I am going to turn these little shapesinto jelly bean creatures.Look I'll give this guy a smile.He's got his arms up.And he's got his arms up like that.Mm hmm.And she is standing a little bit backbecause of social distancing.Doesn't wanna, just not this week.Doesn't wanna touch the orange guy,even though they like each other.Oh and this, this istheir dog going outfor a dog walk I think.He's got a little tail.I still like taking out my dog.Right?And let's make this, let's make this,let's see, let's make thisa bird flying,wondering what's going onwith that very happy orange bean.All right, here we go.Most important, I'm writing my nameso that I know when Isee it later who drew it.But now my abstract isa silly little scene.What did you turn your abstraction into?Let me take a look?Oh yeah, I like it.It's kinda fun.So that's a whole bunch ofexercises that you can do now.Now we are an animator,you're an abstract artist,you can make jelly bean creaturesand you know how to doa dining room doodle,dinner doodle, doodlediddle doodle doodle.So I think that's a lot for today.So thank you guys for comingand we will see youtomorrow on March 19th.Bye bye.LUNCH DOODLES with Mo Willems! Episode 03 Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence at Home #MoLunchDoodles Visit http://www.kennedy-center.org/mowillems to download a worksheet for this LUNCH DOODLE! Mo invites you into his studio, doodles, and teaches you how to draw Piggie. A note from Mo with more about the project: When I became the Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence, I didn't realize the most impactful word in that title would be 'Residence.' With millions of learners attempting to grow and educate themselves in new circumstances, I have decided to invite everyone into my studio once a day for the next few weeks. Grab some paper and pencils, pens, or crayons. We are going to doodle together and explore ways of writing and making. If you have questions for me, send them to LUNCHDOODLES@kennedy-center.org and I might get to answer them. You might be isolated, but you're not alone. You are an art maker. Let's make some together. Subscribe to The Kennedy Center! http://bit.ly/2gNFrtb