“Phineas & Ferb” creators say that creativity holds the key to making the most of your summer vacation

Jim Hill

15 years ago

Are you looking to get the most out of the upcoming Fourth of July weekend? Well,
then maybe it’s time that you heeded the advice of those two great Americans,
Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh.

(L to R) Jeff “Swampy”
Marsh and Dan Povenmire. Photo by Claudio Asquini. Copyright 2009 Disney
Channel. All Rights Reserved

(There will now be a short pause here for those of you who
need to ask: “Who the hell are Dan Povenmire and Jeff ‘Swampy’ Marsh?”)

Dan & Swampy are the very
talented guys behind “Phineas & Ferb,” that hit animated series which airs
on the Disney Channel at 9 p.m. on Friday nights and Monday nights at 8 p.m. on
Disney XD.

And given that “Phineas and Ferb” is a TV show about two step
brothers who are determined to make the most of their summer vacation … Well,
it shouldn’t really surprise you that Povenmire & Marsh have some distinct
thoughts when it comes to how kids should be spending the months of June, July &
August.

As Dan explains:

“You’re never going to remember your (summer vacation)
in years to come if you spend the entire time playing video games and watching
TV. But if you do something fun, inventive and unusual with your time, you’ll
remember it for the rest of your life – and all of your friends will, too.

“(So you should) do something fun during (June, July
& August), like borrow a video camera and make a mini movie. When I was a
kid, I wrote a science fiction comedy that we recorded throughout my
neighborhood on an old video camera. My mom helped sew costumes for my friends
and everyone got involved. It was really cool – and something I could keep for
years.”

Swampy also has fond memories of fun times with his family, when
Marsh’s parents encouraged him to try new things:

“I grew up in a very musical family and we always had
tons of instruments around the house. Over the years, I’ve played the banjo,
trombone, trumpet and guitar. I’d sing into fake microphones and create full
rock bands with my friends and family. (So) why not learn a new musical
instrument during the holidays? You might find you’re more musical than you
imagined!”

But given that Povenmire & Marsh are the creators of an
Emmy-nominated animated series, does it really surprise you to learn that Dan
& Swampy strongly encourage kids to spend their summer vacation learning
how to draw?

Now before all you parents out there start carping about the
cost of pens, paper, etc. Marsh wants to remind you that learning how to draw shouldn’t really
involve spending a whole lot of dough.

“When it comes to art, you don’t need special equipment.
You can draw on anything and use anything to draw with, so it shouldn’t cost
too much to get into it. Whether it’s a pen, pencil, crayon or even a piece of
chalk you find in the park, you can use whatever you want. And who says you
need a blank piece of paper to draw on? Use scraps or anything you find that
might work!”

So how do you actually learn how to draw? Well, according to
Dan, the real key to getting started is copying.

“One of the things that helped me (learn how to draw was)
copying. If I saw a drawing I really liked in a magazine or comic book, I would
copy that drawing line-for-line and it showed me a lot of shortcuts. It taught
me a kind of cartooning shorthand. I don’t mean trace these pictures. I’d just
look at a drawing, analyze it and copy it line-for-line to see how the artist
drew the picture in the first place. I’d then incorporate the techniques into
my own art.”

Now some folks might discourage kids to learn how to draw
via copying. But as Swampy explains …

“ … there is no right or wrong way to draw. Draw what makes
you happy and never worry about somebody saying, “Oh, that isn’t a good
drawing.” There are so many, infinite drawing styles out there. Your work
doesn’t have to look like it’s straight out of a comic book or straight out of
an art book. As long as you’re expressing yourself and you’re getting a
reaction, then that’s good.”

More importantly, don’t just think of art as something that
you have to do with paints & an easel. If you really to learn how to draw,
Povenmire suggests that you …

“.. take a doodle pad with you wherever you go so that you
can practice drawing anywhere in the world. I used to draw flipbooks in the
corner of my schoolbooks, which were a fun way to learn simple animation. I’d
draw a bouncing ball and when you flipped through the book, the ball would
bounce away. There are loads of animated scenes you could come up with. Be
creative and go for it!”

Marsh is also a big fan of always carrying a notebook /
sketch pad with you because …

” … you never know when a creative idea might pop into
your head. Write down all of your ideas: doodles, pictures, diagrams, mini
stories and funny names for characters – everything!”

But that said, Swampy wants to remind everyone that you don’t
really need a notebook and/or a sketch pad in order to create art:

“Some of my favorite drawings were created by a guy who
used to draw caricatures on his newspaper every morning of people sitting near
him on the train. He would draw these caricatures in ink pen on the newspaper’s
print. It wasn’t a clean, white sheet of paper, but he had reams of these
drawings and they were the coolest pictures I’ve ever seen.”

In fact, sometimes when you use an unconventional piece of
paper, you can wind up with a really remarkable work of art. As Dan recalls:

“I used to really enjoy creating posters for my favorite
films when I was younger. When the shark movie, Jaws, came out, I got a big
sheet of fluorescent green paper and colored in the entire page with a big,
black marker – apart from the outline of a shark. After it was finished, all
you could see was this shark in fluorescent green against a black background.
The shark glowed in the dark and looked really cool!”

Swampy agrees that kids should spend their summer tackling
all sorts of art projects, be they posters or comic books.

“I was always creating my own comics when I was a kid. I’d make up loads
of different characters and write a story around them. You don’t have to be
brilliant at art to make a comic book. Stick figures will do. All you need is a
fun story and a lot of imagination.”

Of course, what also helps in this situation is to have supportive
parents. People who’ll really get behind their kids as they attempt to spread
their wings artistically. As Povenmire says:

“Phineas And Ferb is loosely inspired by when Swampy
and I were kids. We had very creative parents who pushed our creativity. They
would always be getting us to do interesting, creative things including
building and creating. We always think it’s a good thing to use your
imagination and make it come to life, whether you want to build a fort or
create art of some description or invent your own game or even take a video
camera out to make a movie. Do something fun to get your creativity
flowing.”

With the hope that this might help kickstart your kids’
creativity, Dan & Swampy provided the drawings that I used to illustrate
today’s article. Which will then walk you through how to draw the title
characters from “Phineas & Ferb.”

Mind you, if you’d like to hear more of Povenmire &
Marsh’s advice when it comes to creativity (or you’d just like to hear some
great behind-the-scenes stories about “Phineas and Ferb”), you should probably
check out their panel at this year’s Comic-Con. Which will be held on Sunday,
July 26^th starting at 10 a.m.

Anyway, that’s Dan & Swampy’s advice when it comes to
making the most of your summer vacation. So go Fourth … and have fun.

Your thoughts?