Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Draw inspiration from the Famous Artists School Cartoon Course! Creative Director of Character Design for Sesame Workshop, Louis Henry Mitchell walks us through elements of chapter one of the course - The Cartoon Head. Pick up a pencil, grab a piece of paper and join in!
Love what you see? Come see the exhibition at Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA - March 1 through June 15, 2025
ABOUT THE ARTIST
As Creative Director of Character Design, Louis Henry Mitchell directs and oversees most aspects of character art for Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street. From designing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons and floats to directing Sesame Street Muppet photo shoots, Mitchell has been at Sesame Workshop, full-time, since 2000. Prior to that, Mitchell freelanced for the organization beginning in 1992. Mitchell designed the character Julia, the first Sesame Street character on the autism spectrum. Julia was first designed exclusively as an illustrated character for an autism outreach book and then Mitchell expanded his design and art directed the Jim Henson Company in building the actual Muppet, and her family, for the show.
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
On View: March 1 through June 15, 2025
Exhibition Info: nrm.org/2024/12/all-for-laughs-the-artists-of-the-famous-cartoonist-course
Support the Museum: nrm.org/support
What did “famous” cartoonists Al Capp, Whitney Darrow, Barney Tobey, Dick Cavalli, Willard Mullin, Rube Goldberg, and Harry Haenigsen have in common? They were all celebrated visual humorists in the mid-twentieth century and faculty of the Famous Artists Cartoon Course—a popular correspondence course launched in the 1950s that was designed to teach artists to be funny. Original cartoons and instructional drawings from the Norman Rockwell Museum’s extensive Famous Artists School Collection by this cadre of noted artists will explore the wit and wisdom of the Famous Artists Cartoon Course.
Draw inspiration from the Famous Artists School Cartoon Course! Creative Director of Character Design for Sesame Workshop, Louis Henry Mitchell walks us through elements of chapter one of the course - The Cartoon Head. Pick up a pencil, grab a piece of paper and join in!
Love what you see? Come see the exhibition at Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA - March 1 through June 15, 2025
ABOUT THE ARTIST
As Creative Director of Character Design, Louis Henry Mitchell directs and oversees most aspects of character art for Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street. From designing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons and floats to directing Sesame Street Muppet photo shoots, Mitchell has been at Sesame Workshop, full-time, since 2000. Prior to that, Mitchell freelanced for the organization beginning in 1992. Mitchell designed the character Julia, the first Sesame Street character on the autism spectrum. Julia was first designed exclusively as an illustrated character for an autism outreach book and then Mitchell expanded his design and art directed the Jim Henson Company in building the actual Muppet, and her family, for the show.
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
On View: March 1 through June 15, 2025
Exhibition Info: nrm.org/2024/12/all-for-laughs-the-artists-of-the-famous-cartoonist-course
Support the Museum: nrm.org/support
What did “famous” cartoonists Al Capp, Whitney Darrow, Barney Tobey, Dick Cavalli, Willard Mullin, Rube Goldberg, and Harry Haenigsen have in common? They were all celebrated visual humorists in the mid-twentieth century and faculty of the Famous Artists Cartoon Course—a popular correspondence course launched in the 1950s that was designed to teach artists to be funny. Original cartoons and instructional drawings from the Norman Rockwell Museum’s extensive Famous Artists School Collection by this cadre of noted artists will explore the wit and wisdom of the Famous Artists Cartoon Course.
