TIM DECKER - Form Disney Animator, Puppetmaster

NEW THIS YEAR! Mark Kistler's Summer Art Camp welcomes the amazingly talented fabulously fun TIM DECKER! Students now have the option of choosing a "4-Hour Super Session" that includes both drawing in 3-D with Mark Kistler, AND learning CLAYMATION and 3-D PUPPETRY with Tim Decker. How awesomely FUN is this!

Tim Decker's resume is a creative journey through worlds of wonder and adventure. He has worked as an animator/animation director for numerous well-known TV shows, Hollywood films and video games including:
- The Simpsons
- Alvin and the Chipmunks
- Steve Spielberg's Knowledge Adventure
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Disney Interactive

Now, he teaches the next generation of animators how to tell funny and fantastical stories with cartoons, claymation and puppets at two colleges in Milwaukee.

He fulfilled a lifetime professional goal when he created animation for some of Disney's most beloved characters in the games created for the company from 1996 - 2003. "It was amazing," said Tim, who began teaching in MATC's Animation program shortly after its launch in 2005.

His students now reap the benefits of that extensive professional experience. They must meet class project production schedules and deadlines, like the industry demands. Tim's teaching philosophy is simple. "My time with students is to open the door to imagination and creativity." His students have wowed You-Tube viewers with "Little Shop of Horrors"

 

 

 

Mark Kistler, surrounded by student made puppets, during his visit to the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee campus. College Instructor, Former Disney and Simpsons Animator, Tim Decker, will be joining Mark Kistler Summer Art Camp!

Tim Decker specializes in Claymation and stop motion animation Puppetry, which will be taught at Mark Kistler's Summer Art Camp.

 

When:
Monday through Friday
July 16 - 20
Location:
Christ Lutheran Church & School, 7701 Candelaria Road NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110
Directions:
Click for Google Maps directions to Christ Lutheran Church & School

Other Albuquerque, New Mexico Summer Art Camp Locations!
May 29 - June 1: Albuquerque (Rio Rancho area) NM (Click Here)

Daily Lesson Plan: Students are enthusiastically encouraged to register for 2 sessions per day...that's 2 and 1/2 hours of drawing each day with Mark! Students also have option of registering in the 4-hour "Super Session" which includes drawing in 3-D with Mark and claymation/3-D puppetry with Tim Decker.

Take a sneak peek at some of the drawing lessons that Mark may draw in your class!

Each session each day is different. Each hour students explore new adventures. These themes include "The Revenge of Ninja Bananna!", "Xtreme Skateboarding Dinosaurs!", "Fluffy Bunny Rabbits Playing DS-Nintendo!", "Mermaids and Spitting Sharks!", "Horses, Kittens, Tigers", "MONSTER TWINKIES!", "Kittens, Bunnies and Robot Squirrels," "Alien Creatures That Crawl," "Koala Kingdom," "Tree Root City," "Underground Wormopolis," "Mermaids and Sharks," "Moon Base Alpha," "Marching Mummies," "Pyramids and Penguins of Ancient Egypt," "Kangaroos and Crocodiles," "Marshmallow Metropolis and the Adventures of Super Marshmallow," "Fantastically Fabulous Fish," "Jumbo Jellyfish's Expedition," "Outrageous Octopus and the Lost Treasure" "King Arthur's Camelot," "Space Hamsters," "Sharks that BURP!," "Dynamic Drooling Dinosaurs," "Radical Robots of Planet Pluto...(ooops, Dwarf rock in space Pluto)," "Furry Fat Cats," "Unicorns and Flying Trolls," "Multi-eyed Monsters," Bugs that RULE!," "Ants Wearing Pants," and many more!

On some days, Mark will feature the work of successful children's book authors and illustrators, exploring unique drawing in 3-D styles such as Dr. Seuss, Michele Gagne (Odd Numbers), Tedd Arnold (Parts), Chris VanAlsburg (The Z Was Zapped and Polar Express), Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), Gary Larson (Far Side), Suzy Spafford (Suzy's Zoo), Lynn Johnson (For Better of For Worse), and many more.

Times:

Each hour-long session is different, students are enthusiastically encouraged to register for 2 sessions per day...that's 2 1/2 hours of drawing with Mark! Students also have option of registering in the "4-hour Super Session" which includes drawing in 3-D with Mark and claymation/3-D puppetry with Tim Decker.

Drawing in 3-D
Session 1: 9:00am - 10:00am 5 to 7 year olds
Session 2: 10:30am - 11:30am 8 to 13+ year olds
Session 3: 12:00pm - 1:00pm 8 to 14+ year olds
Session 4: 1:30pm - 2:30pm 8 to 14+ year olds
Session 5: 6:00pm- 7:00pm ALL ages Family Art Workshop Week!

"4-hour Super Sessions": Drawing/ Claymation/3-D Puppertry
Super Session A: 9:00am - 1:00pm 8 to 13+ year olds
Super Session B: 10:30am - 2:30pm 8 to 14+ year olds
Super Session C: 12:00pm - 4:00pm 9 to 16+ year olds

Why:
Because learning how to drawing 3-D builds important creative thinking skills, powerful problem solving skills, and a solid foundation for future art success (careers in children's book illustration, digital 3-D game design, digital 2-D and 3-D animation). Many of Mark's alumni students are successful digital game designers and animators with resume projects including Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Bugs' Life, Toy Story, Marvel Comics, Leapfrog Toys, etc.

Mark visiting with friends at Dreamworks Studio in California

Cost For Full 5-day Art Camp:

Drawing in 3-D Sessions:
$89 first child, $69 additional siblings. DOUBLE YOUR FUN with 2 sessions per day, $178 first child, $138 additional sibling. That's 2 - 1/2 hours of drawing fun with Mark Kistler every day! All art supplies needed for the class are included!

"4-hour Super Sessions": Drawing/ Claymation/3-D Puppetry:
$267 first child, $199 additional siblings. All art supplies needed for the class are included!

Registration is closed until next summer!

Register Now:
Click here to advance to our registration page.
Art Camp Sign Up Form.

Home Schoolers, Foster-Adoption Families, and single parents are extended the reduced rate.

Teachers are welcome and free with a paid student registration. All art supplies needed for the class are included.

Parents, grandparents, guardians are free and encouraged to participate! Parents of students ages 5 - 7 years old are required to stay on site for classes. All parents, on the first day, if possible please plan on staying for Mark Kistler's welcome and art camp introduction, thanks! Please no curb drop-offs or pick-ups. Thank you for helping insure the safety of your children.

Scholarships: A limited number of full-scholarships and 50% scholarships are available for single parents, foster-adoption parents, and families needing special consideration. Please send an email to info@markkistler.com.

Mission: Over the past 20 years we have donated over 200 episodes of quality children's art education television programming to PBS stations around the country. To help raise the funds needed to create, produce, and distribute (via satellite) the television shows, we offer these Summer workshops and Mark Kistler elementary school assemblies. Thanks for supporting our mission to continue producing imagination enriching children's art education television programming. Children who learn to draw in 3-D, learn to think and live creatively. "Teaching the world how to draw in 3-D, one child at a time."

Take your family summer vacation to Houston, Texas for a week of
my Summer Art Camp and a week of horseback riding summer camp! Ya-hoo!

"My son is SOOOO excited about participating with this week-long Summer Horse Back Riding Camp! If you are looking for a FANTASTIC week of horses, outdoors, fun, friendships, and great memories...click here! AFTER you register for MY ART CAMP of course!" :)
The Woodlands Equestrian Club week-long Summer Camps runs June through August. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION!

Click here to purchase Mark's New Book from Barnes & Noble

Here is a wonderful review by Deborah Adams...

Take out your number 2 pencil. You are about to be amazed.

Yes, I'm talking to you people who can't draw a recognizable stick figure. I used to be just like you - I wouldn't even doodle because I was so ashamed of my pathetic renderings. When I received Mark Kistler's You Can Draw in 30 Days for review, I considered it a dare that I would certainly win. I distinctly recall saying, "We'll just see about that."

I was not impressed by the press release that claims Kistler's students have gone on to design the International Space Station and work on animated films such as Shrek and The Incredibles. Those people obviously had natural artistic talent. So what if they took a course from this author? I am drawing-impaired from the word 'go,' and there is no way I'll ever produce more than a lumpy, misshapen circle.

Kistler's friendly writing style lured me in, however. I reluctantly drew the Before pictures - a house, a plane, a bagel -then turned the page to see what Lesson 1 involved. It was so clearly beyond my ability that I almost stopped there, but pure stubbornness drove me to give it a go.

It wasn't easy. I couldn't figure out how to hold the pencil, even though I constantly have some sort of writing implement in my hand and have been capable of using one for writing words for many years now. The paper felt funny. I broke into a sweat. Despite all that, I managed to produce some very nice spheres in only a few minutes.

Kistler's lessons build upon each other, and explain in simple terms how to use size, placement, and overlapping to create realistic-looking objects; how to use foreshortening to create illusion; and how to use a simple horizontal line to give depth to a drawing. You can probably skip all that and just follow the simple step-by-step visual instructions, but honestly - the terms aren't that hard to understand.

Each of the 30 lessons has a bonus challenge, too, and I wound up doing them all with a fair amount of competence. Kistler is surely aware of just how embarrassing art lessons are for the majority of us, because he has wisely included work done by his students with each lesson, including some of their Before attempts, making me feel more comfortable about my own efforts.

By Day 5, I was looking forward to my daily lesson. By Day 7, I'd started sketching coffee cups and bowls, tables and desks, and just about anything else that caught my eye. What's more, I was able to look at those things and identify what I was seeing: foreshortened view, two point perspective, and textures.

Am I serious competition for Van Gogh? Nope, not yet. Can I draw one heck of a waving banner or delicate lily? You're darned right I can. And I'm convinced that You Can Draw in 30 Days, too.

© Deborah Adams, 2011, Curled Up with a Good Book

Follow these links for More Information!

Parents Q & A about the Summer Classes
Daily Class Curriculum
Summer Poster
Letter from a Parent
What Folks are Saying
Kids' Emails from Around the World
Back to Summer schedule




A Wonderful Letter from a Participating Parent at Past Art Camp




About Mark Kistler
News Interview with Mark Kistler
Summer School students art on Display