By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
PRIMARY school students from Narre Warren P-12 College hosted a very special guest last week.
Award-winning author and illustrator Leigh Hobbs dropped by the school on Wednesday 19 August to run a range of workshops with the students.
He showed them how to develop characters, drawing on his own well-known illustrations as a guideline, including Old Tom, Horrible Harriet and Mr Chicken.
Narre Warren South P-12 College Assistant Principal Luke Abdallah said the students left the workshops full of excitement, with their imaginations “in full flight”.
Leigh Hobbs, who has also worked as a secondary school art teacher, was born in Williamstown but grew up in Bairnsdale.
After graduating from art school at Caulfield Institute of Technology, now Monash University, in 1973, his first job – at age 21 – was at Sydney’s Luna Park, where he worked as an artist.
In 1999 Leigh returned to the iconic theme park where he designed the colour scheme for the entrance.
Leigh, who also contributed cartoons to The Age newspaper from 1985 to 2010, is probably best known for his creation of the character Old Tom, a one-eyed cat who gets himself in all sort of adventures.
