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Teenager's Parties Draw Children In

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By ANGELA DELGADO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 21, 2008

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Some people don't know what they're going to do with their lives after they graduate from high school; luckily for recent grad Leah Lopez, she has known since she was 15.

Drawing has been a passion for Lopez, 18, since she can remember and her life has constantly revolved around art. Her mother, Bobi Lopez, said her daughter's first work of art was doodles on her bedroom wall.

"I graduated her from the walls to paper," she said. "I pretty much supplied her with any kind of medium I could get my hands on."

Just as her mother encouraged her passion, Lopez is doing the same for the community's youth by founding Leah's Cartooning Parties Inc. With her company, she travels to Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties, conducts workshops and teaches children how to draw.

"These kids don't always know they have talent if they don't draw," Lopez said. "But when they come out here and find out they have talent, they may start to do something they'll enjoy their whole life."

"It's very important because you can have just as much success in that art," she said. "They push math and science, but art, too, needs its credit."

Lopez said she can remember doodling at age 2, but her "recognizable" work actually started when she was 4. Most of her work focused on animals, mainly horses and orcas.

"There was never a time she wasn't drawing," her mother said. "Pencils and crayons in the car - she was continuously practicing and drawing; always her pastime."

Lopez knew employees at the former West Gate Regional Library in Town 'N Country and used to hang her art there, she said. As a student at Westgate Christian School, Lopez entered art competitions and placed first, second or third at the state level. Her talent led library staff members to ask Lopez if she would like to lead a cartooning workshop at the library.

That workshop inspired Lopez to start Leah's Cartooning Parties with her mother and father, Gilbert. She was 15, but it wasn't until she was 16 that the business officially incorporated, in March 2006.

"I thought it would probably be a really great thing for kids and for us," she said. "An inspiring, unique business."

Lopez can usually be found conducting workshops for 4-year-olds to teenagers in libraries, day care centers, parks and recreation centers and at parties. Last week, she and her mother were at the recreation center at Sandy Perrone Park, 5120 Kelly Road.

The room was quiet, except for the occasional whisper, the sound of crayons on paper and Lopez's voice instructing the class. Standing by an easel, Lopez wore her uniform of a red beret, yellow polo shirt, jeans, a denim apron displaying the company name and a headset microphone so the class could hear her loud and clear.

Line by line, curve by curve, Lopez went through each step so the children could keep up with her instructions. Within about 45 minutes, she taught the group to draw a sea horse, a werewolf, a baseball, a funny face, a fish and a Japanese manga cartoon character.

"I did the best I could," said Daniel Marrero, 6. "The stuff she draws are very hard. She's pretty good at it. I don't know how she makes everything perfect."

Daniel said he felt good drawing the cartoons, even though it was hard, and will try and draw them again, "because its fun."

Kiana Diggs, 12, also took the workshop with Daniel but had a little more experience than he. She has taken Lopez's class three times in the past three years during summer camp at Perrone.

"You never know what they're going to draw," she said of Lopez. "Last time we did a fish and a dolphin. Also a man in a tuxedo."

Kiana won an art contest at her school with her re-creation of the man in the tuxedo drawing, she said.

"Parents will tell you how hard it is to keep the kids attention and have some quiet time, but this seems to really draw them in," Lopez said. "They're into it, and it's kind of an honoring feeling. They really love to do what I'm trying to teach them."

For the past two years Lopez has juggled her business with her school work and succeeded in both. She graduated as Westgate's salutatorian and plans to someday go to St. Petersburg College to study business.

Right now, she is focusing on Leah's Cartooning. Lopez and her parents are talking about expanding the business to include instructional DVDs and coloring books featuring her original cartoons.

"I've seen it grow from when she first started it," Bobi Lopez said. "I see how she can conduct a class and stand up there and actually teach them step-by-step. These kids are amazed when they do the drawings. She's trying to spark an interest in these children's art ability. She's trying to bring some art out of them."

LEAH'S CARTOONING PARTIES

WEB SITE: www.cartooning parties.com

E-MAIL: cartoonparty@hot mail.com

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.

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