Bellevue Hospital – Holiday Cards 12/20/2025

Just in time for the holidays, we teamed up with the kids staying at Bellevue Hospital to help them make drawings and cards they could give to their family and friends as gifts! Reindeer sailed through the skies, Sonic screamed down the slopes, and Titan TV Man stomped around looking for his presents. There was also one sweet birthday boy there who got several cards made just for him.

Thanks so much to our amazing Event Director, Micheline Hess, for coordinating such a special day. And to our little elf workshop of volunteers: Dennis Calero, Tim Savage, and Elizabeth Winter.

St. Mary’s Hospital Holiday Cards 12/13/2025

We love the great big group of kids at St. Mary’s Hospital and had so much fun helping them create special holiday cards for their family and friends. The kids donned their paper with Santas and reindeer and tall trees aglow with sparkling lights. Some lucky ones also got their caricatures done to share or keep as a special gift all their own.

Huge thanks to our little elves: Ray Alma, Bil Donovan, Stephen Kroninger, Marty Macaluso, Adrian Sinnott, and the indomitable Tim Savage–our Event Director–for pulling all this holiday magic together for the kids!

Halloween Fun at Bellevue Hospital 10/25/2025

For Halloween this year we headed to Bellevue Hospital to cobble together some creepy crawly characters! Our event Director, Micheline Hess and volunteer Jason Chatfield led a Franken-character game where the kids took turns suggesting body parts like octopus arms and pumpkin heads to create one hilarious new creature. Then each child got an owl figurine to decorate and keep in their room as their own private guardian.

The day ended with a little show and tell where each child described how they arrived at their original kooky creation. One kid said he couldn’t wait to show his werewolf-headed ghost with mushroom feet to his mom!

Sea Shell Art with New Alternatives for Children 09/24/2025

We had a super spe-shell 🐚 day with the New Alternatives for Children kids today! We helped this crafty group turn natural shells into Ninja Turtles, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and secret troves for hidden messages.

Our wonderful activity guide, Elana Amity, answered curious questions like, “how do the animals make their shells?” and explained how shells can be many different creatures’ homes over the course of their time in the sea.

Huge thanks to our Event Director Lisa LaBracio for coordinating the many moving parts to this event, and to our pro artist Ink Well Kids volunteers, Mike Burns, Jason Chatfield, and Tim Savage.

And thanks to Blick Art Materials for helping us share art kits with each of the kids so they can keep on keeping on all these groovy shell creations! ❤️

St. Mary’s Hospital 9/13/2025

We had a beautiful busy day at St. Mary’s Hospital, teaching the kids how to draw original characters and actions using folded paper. Our caricaturists also created some lovely portraits, prompting many kids to give that a go themselves and soon everyone was drawing each other in all sorts of scenes.

Huge thanks to our incredible Event Director for everything we do at St. Mary’s Hospital, Tim Savage. And to our trusty volunteers–Ray Alma, Jane Archer, Marty Macaluso, and Adrian Sinnott–who drew steadily for nearly two hours, creating countless drawings with the kids and imparting so many new skills that will help them continue to create on their own.

New Alternatives for Children Olympics 6/28/2025

We put our talents to the test at the New Alternatives for Children Olympics! Caricatures, character design, and “my hero” trophy drawings were our events and the kids swept it all. This was a special outing for the wonderful children we work with at NAC, a center supporting children with special medical needs in adoptive and foster care.

Thanks to our pro-artist volunteer A-team: Ray Alma, Jane Archer, Elana Amity, Tracey Berglund, Stephen Kroninger, Oded Naaman, Tim Savage, Adrian Sinnott, and a very warm welcome to new Ink Weller, Mike Burns!

And to our champion Event Director, Lisa LaBracio who coordinated the day and our dear Dennis Calero who led the entire Ink Well Kids show day of.

Last, we are so grateful to Blick Art Materials for donating the art supplies that allowed us to provide all our activities and art kits for the kids entirely free! 💛

St. Mary’s Hospital Puppets & Totes 5/17/2025

We had a blast decorating hand puppets and tote bags with the kids at St. Mary’s Hospital today! We rotated into five different rooms to connect with the children in smaller groups, and demonstrated how to use exaggerated features to show personalities, explore calligraphy styles for monogramming, and work with color palettes and icons to create a signature brand.

Huge thanks to our pro artist volunteer crew: Tim Savage (Event Director), Dennis Calero, Pedro Delgado, Dayna Gonzalez, Adrian Sinnott and to the excellent coordination of the St. Mary’s staff! And thanks to the sweet little girl who made Dayna a thank you note on site 🙂

Bellevue Hospital “Spring Arrivals!” 04/26/2025

What a beautiful day with the children at Bellevue Hospital as we celebrated the arrival of spring! Our Event Director, Micheline Hess, led the kids in drawing a bunny and flower, one shape at a time. 🐰🌸

Then Jason Chatfield sprang into action when a boy requested a Spidey comic. And Elizabeth Winter soared in with a winged unicorn by request. 🦄

The kids used the Blick Art Materials kits we gave them to trace and make these characters their own. One little girl designed colorful harlequin costumes while another tailored her sketch book to her favorite basketball team saying, “this is the best day ever!” Doesn’t get much better than that. 🌟

But the great day got even better when we met up with more Ink Well volunteers, Adrian Sinnott, Elana Amity, and Dayna Gonzalez for lunch.

We’re beyond grateful to be able to bring these kids a bit of joy and creativity while they navigate some tough challenges. Huge thanks to all the volunteers who made this spring day unforgettable! 🌸🌼

New Alternatives for Children – Valentine’s Day Crafts 2/13/2025

This Valentine’s Day, we teamed up with the New Alternatives for Children kids to create pop-up cards and “be mine” boxes! Butterflies, ducks, cows, and cats all delivered messages of love through fun crafts and designs. 

Thanks to Event Director, Lisa LaBracio, for leading this very special night and to our dear volunteers for sharing skills from their careers in animation, illustration, and cartooning: Elana Amity, Pedro Delgado, Stefano, Imbert, Ellie Rahim, Tim Savage, and a big welcome to first-time volunteer, Stephen Kroninger!!

St. Mary’s Hospital 12/21/2024

Rounding out the holiday season, we had a joyous time with the children of St. Mary’s Hospital, drawing caricatures and wintry scenes! Thanks to Tim Savage for his leadership as Event Director for all our activities at St. Mary’s, and to our dear pro artist volunteers: Ray Alma, Bil Donovan, Marty Macaluso, Oded Naaman, Joyce Pedretti, and Adrian Sinnott for sharing their time and talents.

Bellevue Hospital – Handmade Holiday Cards 12/17/2024

Our annual handmade holiday cards are on their way to the children of Bellevue Hospital! Thanks to all our volunteers who made these and many other lovely images to brighten the kids’ morning very soon…
Cards pictured here by Micheline Hess, Abby Merrill, Dayna Gonzalez, Pedro Delgado, and Elana Amity.

New Alternatives For Children  10/23 & 11/06 2024

We had an incredible time teaching the kids at New Alternatives For Children how to create hand-made characters and sets in session one of our Stop Motion movie magic lesson. Then in part two, we made them move using shot by shot animation!

Thanks to our event Director, Lisa LaBracio, who guided this fun activity with the help of our volunteers, Elana Amity, Pedro Delgado, Dayna Gonzalez, and Tim Savage.

Covenant House of Los Angeles 10/24/2024

 We loved our Halloween theme night with the youth at Covenant House! We created marvelous masks and character designs that we applied to “exquisite corpse” drawings. So grateful to work with this incredibly talented group of youth, who are all specifically interested in developing arts skills while being supported through homelessness or other home-life challenges at Covenant House of California. We also shared face painting kits, drawing journals and utensils, candy, and general merriment that lasted long into the evening, thanks to our volunteers, Jeremy Arambulo, Bennoit Le Pennec, Elizabeth Winter, and Zane Yarbrough!

Bellevue Hospital 10/08/2024

Halloween hullabaloooooo! So fantastic to get back with the kids at Bellevue Hospital for some mask-making marvelousness. Thanks to our Event Director, Micheline Hess, and volunteers, Jason Chatfield, Elana Amity, Eleanor Rahim, and Elizabeth Winter, for helping the kids craft up cheetahs, Spider-Men, Black Panthers, paper-eating seagulls, and toucan-parrot “toucarrots!”

St. Mary’s Hospital 9/14/2024

We love drawing with the kids at St. Mary’s Hospital! From classic Disney characters to modern video game villains, pro athlete portraits and all the kids’ caricatures, we’re grateful for every creation we got to make together with this wonderful group.

Thanks to our volunteers, Ray Alma, Pedro Delgado, Dayna Gonzalez, Marty Macaluso, Adrian Sinnott, and our St. Mary’s Event Director Tim Savage for another day of healing, creative fun!

More pics coming soon…

Covenant House of L.A. 06/20/2024

We held a “build your own brand” event with a magnificent young troupe of artists, sharing in the creative, supportive space at Covenant House California.

Ink Well volunteers, Jeremy Arambulo, Christian Lignan, Benoit Le Pennec, and Elizabeth Winter drew upon their animation, comic, and graphic novel careers to show how to make a memorable logo from just a few core character traits. Then we all talked together about how sound, motion, color, mood, and more can be applied to one brand to demonstrate who we are to the world. The youth put the sketch books, colored pencils, fabric markers, and canvas bags we gave them to make brilliant brands like “mad dog,” “flex DJ,” “fluid lines,” “soul singer,” and more.

Thanks to the Covenant House staff, Ink Well artists, and all the great young adults who joined and made this such a special day!

Red Door Community “Heroes!” 05/16/2024

Children dealing with cancer in their lives sometimes just need a fun, creative break. Here the kids invented their very own characters inspired by animals of the sea, sky, and doggie dancehalls!

Huge thanks to our Director of Red Door Community events, Dennis Calero, for coordinating and leading this great night, to the Red Door staff for graciously hosting, and to our dear artist volunteers, Elana Amity, Matthew Bennett, and Tracey Berglund for supporting with their wisdom, wit, and arts skills

New Alternatives for Children: Earth Day 04/23/2024

This Earth Day we met up with participants of the New Alternatives mentoring program to draw animals and their habitats while talking about all the ways we can help to protect them both!

This skilled group of young artists already had a strong handle on advanced techniques like lines of action, squash and stretch, perspective, shading, and more. So we put their talents to the test on drawings of sea turtles, red pandas, axolotls, orangutans, condors, and sea, land, and air habitats. It was fascinating to talk about these animals’ adaptive techniques like camoflauge and abilities to climb, dive, or fly to places out of reach in order to help them survive. But we humans can do so much too to help reduce pollution and pressure on our fellow creatures.

Thanks to Taylor, Chaquima, and Aneres for sharing your art and great ideas; to their mentors, Katie and Jennie for their warm, fun, supportive energy; to the Ink Well volunteers, Tim Savage, Joseph Scott, Elizabeth Winter, and Event Director Lisa LaBracio, for adding insights from their careers in animation and illustration.

St. Mary’s Hospital 03/16/2024

Another great day, drawing with the kids at St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children. We made caricatures, bat businessmen, basketball stars, and mermaids galore. For a very special treat, we got to see a fantastic animatic made by a young artist we hope to see in our animation studios someday!

Thanks for the beautiful, healing, creative fun to all our volunteers, Ray Alma, Jane Archer, Tracey K. Berglund, Dennis Calero, Pedro Delgado, Dayna Gonzalez, Marty Macaluso, Adrian Sinnott, Elizabeth Winter, and to our Event Director Tim Savage!

New Alternatives for Children: Comic Books 02/29/24

The brilliant kids at New Alternatives took the comic templates we shared and filled them with characters classic and new. We taught a little about onomatopoeia, action lines, foreshortening, and POW! these creative kids were off on their own comic adventures.

Thanks to our volunteers, Elana Amity, Jason Chatfield, Tim Savage, Elizabeth Winter, and to our fearless Event Director, Lisa LaBracio!

Red Door Community “Cartoonify” 2/22/24

Tonight we showed the kids at cancer support center, Red Door Community, how to make a cartoon out of anything! The kids called out requests and helped us come up with fun characters made out of everyday stuff like shoes, juke boxes, umbrellas, and dresser drawers!

Thanks to our volunteers, Dennis Calero (Event Director), Elana Amity, Matthew Bennett, and Stefano Imbert : )

New Alternatives for Children: Valentine’s Cards & Gifts 02/03/24

We love sharing the love of Valentine’s Day with the New Alternatives kids! At this event, we showed how to make pop-up cards and decorate gift boxes with some super fun glitter pens and heart-shaped boxes from Blick Art Materials.

We’re so grateful for this special time together. One of our participants even said this was one of his “top 10 days ever!”

Thanks to Daisy Hensley and the rest of the NAC crew for helping us put this great day together! And to our professional artist volunteers for sharing their awesome tips, techniques, and time: Lisa LaBracio (Event Director), Elana Amity, Jane Archer, Tracey Berglund, Jason Chatfield, Pedro Delgado, Dayna Gonzalez, Abby Merrill, Tim Savage, and Elizabeth Winter.

Red Door Community Valentine’s Cards! 1/24/24

Our hearts are brimming over with Valentine’s joy! Tonight we brought two animators and two fine artists together with the Red Door Community kids to show how to make ducks, giraffes, and roses into cards to give to loved ones.

We’re grateful to this cancer support center for letting us join in their excellent support programs for children who are dealing with cancer challenges within their families.

Thanks so much to our volunteers, Elana Amity, Stefano Imbert, Joseph Scott, and Elizabeth Winter for sharing your great talent for this great cause.

Bellevue Hospital Holiday Surprise 12/25/23

We love to do something a little extra special for the children being treated at Bellevue Hospital over the holidays. This year, we sent them one-of-a-kind coloring books by renowned character designer, Peter de Séve, and his daughter, Fia, along with crayons and hard-bound sketchbooks, provided by our wonderful friends at Blick Art Materials.

These pages depict brave figures, tackling daunting challenges and conquering them through creativity and cooperation. Their journeys reflect the strength the children at Bellevue show every day in valiantly facing their own challenges.

Special gratitude to Tifara Leon and the rest of the Bellevue staff who work tirelessly to make the kids’ environment a loving and supportive one year-round; to the Ink Well volunteers for sharing your time and talent; and to these beautiful kids who we admire and adore so much!

Red Door Community 10/26/23

Thanks to all the wonderful ghouls and boo-ys at Red Door Community for face painting, caricaturing, and puppet making with us this Halloween! Together we made dragons and many-eyed sock beasts, spider kids, Hulks, and cute little kitten faces.

Huge Halloween hugs to our artist volunteers: Ray Alma Illustration, Elana Amity, Jane Archer, Todd Broder, Jason Chatfield Cartoonist, Pedro Delgado, Dayna Gonzalez, Henry Hilaire Jr, Oded Naaman, Eleanor Rahim, Elizabeth Winter and very special thanks to our Event Director, Dennis Calero for his excellent coordination and support.

Red Door Community is a free program offering support groups, educational lectures and healthy lifestyle workshops for men, women, teens and children affected by #cancer.

St. Mary’s Hospital 09/23/23

Our hearts are full after another beautiful day, drawing with the children of St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children! More pics will be coming soon but for now, huge thanks to our Event Director, Tim Savage and our trusty volunteers, Ray Alma, Marty Macaluso, Joyce Pedretti, and Elizabeth Winter.

St. Mary’s Hospital 06/17/23

It was so beautiful to spend the day, creating with the kids at St. Mary’s Hospital! Together we made loopy-eyed SpongeBobs, Harry Potter in his full wizard regalia, as well as many portraits and caricatures. The children were brilliant in their additions of props in the background scenes, coming up with details that could really develop the characters they were working on, and most importantly they were really supportive of one another, building trust and confidence as a group.

Thanks to Vito and the full incredible staff at St. Mary’s. We’re so proud to have partnered with this special center, focused on making sure children going through severe medical challenges have every opportunity for joy, bonding, and creative self expression.

And much love to the Ink Well crew! Our Event Director, Tim Savage, did a wonderful job, leading our activities and making both the kids and volunteers feel at ease. Thanks to Ray Alma, Marty Macaluso, Adrian Sinnott, and Elizabeth Winter for volunteering and a huge welcome to our newest members, Jason Chatfield and Delfin Barral! Thank you guys for making the trek on your first outing as official Ink Wellers. Here’s to many many more!!

See more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAMeKC

All rights reserved.

Red Door Community 05/25/23

How do you pronounce axolotl??! Just ask a Red Door Community kid. And now thanks to our Event Director, Dennis Calero- and our trusty volunteers Elana Amity, Pedro Delgado, and Elizabeth Winter, you can also now ask them how to design jellyfish, sea turtles, and fishies of all kinds!

We were so happy to join together with this group that ensures no one faces cancer alone this week. Thanks to all for being there.

Covenant House of California 05/23/23

We were thrilled to be back in person with the talented young artists at the Covenant House of California! Together we worked through the elements of original character design using paper, pencils, and clay.

Enormous thanks to our beloved volunteers, Christian Lignan,  Jeremy Arambulo, Ivan Camilli, and a big welcome to our newest volunteer, Benoît Le Pennec! 

Bellevue Hospital 05/05/23

Check out the Lucky Owl Totems, crafted by the kids at Bellevue Hospital! Our Event Director, Micheline Hess, designed this activity where we gave each child a paper owl figurine and all the paint, glitter, and googley eyes they’d need to make their owls unique. The children also got to design a little tote bag so they could carry their lucky owls wherever they go.

Thanks so much to Tifara Leon and the staff at Bellevue Hospital for keeping our connection strong with these wonderful kids. And sending our eternal gratitude to Blick Art Materials who helped us provide these fun art supplies.

St. Mary’s Hospital 02/18/23

Extraordinary day drawing with the wonderful children at St. Mary’s Hospital! The kids leapt right into depictions of birds, trains, astronauts, and octopus aliens abducting cats and Machine Gun Kelly!? 😂

Huge thanks to the coordinating prowess of our fearless Event Director, Tim Savage, and to our volunteers, Ray Alma, Pedro Delgado, Dayna Gonzalez, Joyce Pedretti, Adrian Sinnott, and Elizabeth Winter for making drawings enough for 40 kids today!

Love Bugs at Bellevue Hospital 02/14/2023

Check out the magnificent “love bugs” the kids at Bellevue Hospital made! For Valentine’s Day this year, our Event Director, Micheline Hess created a step by step video, guiding the kids in how to create these lovable characters using our art supply kits. They made happy rainbows, angry birds, and all around adorable friends that they can keep, trade, or give away.

Now you can try it too! Gather a few fun tools like foam balls, heart shapes, paint sticks, and googly eyes – we got ours from Blick Art Materials- and follow this video: https://vimeo.com/798716079

We’d love to see what you come up with! Tag us @inkwellkids on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

#Craft #Childrensnonprofit #ArtHeals Children of Bellevue

Valentine’s Day Cards for the kids at Bellevue Hospital 2/2023

We delivered stacks of handmade Valentine’s Day cards from our animators, illustrators, and cartoonists to the doorstep of each child being served by Bellevue Hospital’s pediatric in-patient psychiatry team. Every child also received their very own art kit so they could make their own cards to exchange with one another or give to their loved ones.

Thanks to Elana Amity, Jane Archer, Matthew Bennett, Joan Chiverton, Pedro Delgado, Dayna Gonzalez, Stefano Imbert, Joyce Pedretti, Ellie Rahim, and Elizabeth Winter for your thoughtful homemade messages! ❤️

Valentine’s “Love Bugs” and Card Drive for Children at Bellevue Hospital 02/2023

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we shipped off “love bug” kits to the kids at Bellevue Hospital! Our Event Director, Micheline Hess, also created a step-by-step guide for how to use all these fun supplies to create a unique character. Can’t wait to see what they come up with using foam balls, tempera paint sticks, googly eyes, heart shapes and more. 💖

Our volunteers also crafted handmade cards so each child being treated at the in-patient psychiatric ward could receive their own message and drawing of love and support.

Holiday Cards for Children at Bellevue Hospital 12/2022

Every year we send hand-made cards to children undergoing in-patient psychiatric care at Bellevue Hospital over the holidays. These children are working hard to overcome challenges and we are so proud of them. Their imaginations and spirits are indomitable.

Thank you to our professional artists who encourage and support these kids with their beautiful words and images; to Tifara and the other wonderful staff at Bellevue Hospital Pediatric Psychiatry Ward; and to Blick Arts Materials for donating the supplies that we share with each card, making for a meaningful gift that will allow the children to keep on creating anytime.

Claymation with New Alternatives for Children! 11/09/2022

Bellevue Hospital Journaling 8/31/22

On a long summer’s day the children of Bellevue Hospital unwrapped their very own journals and began to fill them with images and words of strength and adventure.

We’re so grateful to be able to work with these beautiful kids year after year, continually learning from their resilience and grace through challenging times.

Glue Art Part 2 w/ Red Door Community 8/18/22

Drawing with glue part 2! This time we took to the stars with the Red Door Community kids in honor of the awesome new images coming from NASA’s Webb Telescope.

We rocketed up to the sky with Shaun the Sheep, Dragon Ball characters, and space puppies.

Thanks to Adrian Sinnott, Oded Naaman, and Elizabeth Winter for volunteering and huge gratitude to Dennis Calero for putting this whole evening of fun together.

Want to try yourself? Just make a sketch, cover the lines with glue, sprinkle some coarse salt, and drip paint or food dye over the crystals. Let sit for 10 minutes then hang on your wall!

Glue Art Part 1 w/ Red Door Community 8/17/22

Part one of glue drawing fun! Dennis Calero led our wonderful group of kids from Red Door Community in making flowers, and trees, and Despicable Me’s.

It’s really cool how the glue and salt interact with paint. Have a look and give it a try yourself! Just draw a sketch, cover it in glue, sprinkle salt, and drip watercolor paint or food dye over it.

Thanks so much to Elana Amity, Joseph Scott, and Elizabeth Winter for volunteering.