Illustrator Floyd Cooper Paints Positive Picture for Oak Park Students

Renowned illustrator Floyd Cooper painted a bright picture last week for the futures of Oak Park Elementary School students.

“Never give up,” Cooper said. “I’m an artist that has made it. I’m a living example of what determination can do.”

Cooper was selected as a guest speaker at the school in recognition of Black History Month.

The Oklahoma native and Easton, PA resident has illustrated more than 80 books and 2,000 book covers, and authored four books.  He received a bachelor’s of fine arts from the University of Oklahoma.

Most of his work illustrates life in African-American culture. His first illustrated book was “Grandpa’s Face,” which discussed a young girl's relationship with her grandfather, and another book, “These Hands,” tells the tale of a family man working at a Wonder Bread factory in Detroit.

“I try to put something personal in my work,” Cooper said.

The idea to bring Cooper to Oak Park was the work of librarian Meg Denzel.

“A woman I know runs a booking company, and she told me how good he was,” Denzel said.

She said Cooper’s message of “never give up” is one that stays with you.

“You get renewed every time you hear someone tell you powerful thoughts,” she said.

Cooper began his presentation by showing how he illustrates a page.

He doesn’t use ink or pencil; Cooper draws with an eraser.

“I love erasers. I have an eraser collection at my house: ink erasers, pink erasers, electric erasers. I even have a Spongebob eraser,” he said. “My favorite eraser of all is a stretchy one.”

Cooper then showed off his favorite eraser, stretching it out to the “oohs,” “aahs” and “wows” of the children.

The students watched a presentation of Cooper’s artistic technique, called oil wash on board. He starts with a 15-by-20-inch illustration board and covers it with oil paint. Then, using an eraser, he uses a subtractive process; he erases the oil wash on the board to create his masterpiece.

Using this technique at the Oak Park presentation, Cooper illustrated the face of an American Indian.

“If you run out of an idea, you just keep going,” he said. “The picture goes to the book, the book goes to the story, and the story goes to the mortgage payment.”

Cooper showed off some samples of his work. He told the students how an oil wash illustration gets a bit of color once he adds some white paint to it. He adds more colors to it using crayons, acrylics and oil color.

One student asked Cooper if it was hard to write a book.

“Everything is hard at first,” he said. “If you stick with it, it gets easier and easier.”

When asked what inspired him to write, Cooper said he created his first work of art at 3 years old.

“It wasn’t very good,” he said. “It was all over the house, too. Don’t draw on your house. That’s probably why I’m erasing today. I remember being very busy.”

Cooper got his start working at Hallmark. He drew up some greeting cards,  but none of his designs sold. He eventually moved to Manhattan and found work on small drawing jobs.

Just when Cooper was flat broke, an agent noticed his work, got him a job at a textbook company, and the rest is history.

Cooper told the students that he loves drawing people because of his third-grade art teacher, who forced him to read anatomy books.

“She saved my life,” he said. “The next time your teacher asks you to do something you don’t want to do, do it. They could be saving your life.”

In addition to promoting an ethos of never giving up, Cooper also left the students with another inspirational creedo.

“The first thing you should do is read. The second thing you should do is read. The first 10 things to do would be read,” he said. “If you want to be an artist or writer, my advice is read, then read some more.”

 Cooper showed the students a slideshow of his favorite works. He said his first illustrated book, “Grandpa’s Face,” changed his life forever.

“Follow your dream,” Cooper said. “Face it with courage and conviction, and don’t give up.”

To commemorate Cooper’s visit to Oak Park, fifth-grade teacher J’Mel Johnson had her class make a book where each letter of Cooper’s name had something special to do with him.

“We were excited about Floyd Cooper coming,” said Johnson. “We wanted to honor him with the accomplishments he hasn’t got the recognition for.”

At the end of the presentation, Cooper did an activity with students where he asked a couple to draw a squiggly line on a large easel. He then created an illustration with it, and students had to guess what he was drawing.

All students went home with free stretchy erasers, courtesy of Cooper.

His day ended with signing books for students and the school in the library.

“I was taught to make great art and flow through your heart. It goes from the heart to the art,” he said. “You reach for that star and land on the moon.”

Visit Floyd Cooper’s Web site at www.floydcooper.com.