Notre Dame Academy students draw caricatures at the workshop in Patna on Friday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Lalu Prasad ruled in class on Friday, albeit with a pinch of salt as students sketched caricatures of popular leaders.

In a welcome break from studies, Class VIII students of Notre Dame Academy learnt to make funny sketches of politicians in a caricature workshop organised by the Parents Teachers’ Association (PTA) on the institution premises.

At least 180 students of Class VIII took part in the hour-and-a-half-long workshop and made caricatures of politicians, including chief minister Nitish Kumar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad and others. Famous cartoonist Pawan instructed students on the art.

One of the students, Pankhuri, said making a caricature of Lalu was the best thing that she learnt.

“I just love the expressions on Lalu’s face whenever he addresses public gatherings. I have seen him a number of times on the television. I really made his caricature today. Pawan Sir helped us a lot,” said the 13-year-old student.

“To capture the expressions in caricature is a difficult job and Pawan Sir helped us learn the skill. It was a great opportunity because we see cartoons and caricatures but we don’t know the technicalities of making them. In this workshop, Pawan Sir told us how to highlight some features to make it look funny. We were told how to highlight the eyebrows, ears, nose among other features,” said Aashtha Ranjan, another student, who took part in the workshop.

Pawan said: “Practice makes a man perfect and this is also true for caricature. I started making caricatures when I was in Class IV. Initially, I made mistakes while sketching politicians. Students who want to learn the art should practise a lot. They can copy the caricatures from different sources but after copying it at least five times, one needs to make the caricature on their own.”

Ritika Agrawal, the sports co-ordinator of PTA and one of the organisers, said: “Through the workshop, we want to make students aware of caricature as a career option. Students always go for traditional careers like medical, engineering among others. The workshop will help them understand that caricature is one of the many career options for them.”