Commander Mark and the Secret City Taught Me How To Draw In 3D!

The Secret City was a 65 episode how-to-draw show on PBS in the mid 80s, created and hosted by Mark Kistler. Mark's unique and enthusiastic approach to teaching kids how to draw was already popular with teachers through his school assembly. The success of the Secret City gave Mark the means to produce the Draw Squad series of videos, but I'll never forget that crazy jumpsuit or the giant orange mural wall.

This is awesome! When I saw this on his website, I had to share it on this Squidoo Lens. It would have been awesome to have sat through an assembly by the Amazing Commander Mark! I can't wait until my kid's in grade school so I can start bugging her school to get Mark Kistler. He also offers a Family Evening Drawing Program after the assembly.

Text and photos below from Mark Kistler's website.

Elementary School Assembly Program
"Get your students prepared to blast off into the land of imagination with pencil power! For three decades, Mark Kistler has been teaching kids at over 7,000 elementary schools how to draw in 3-D with this world-famous assembly program. An unforgettable hands-on assembly that encourages students, teachers, and parents to participate. Mark has taught millions of children around the world how to draw...he can teach your students, too!"



Look kids! It's Miley Cyrus...

• Two enchanting live performances with Mark Kistler. One assembly for grades K-2, and another for grades 3-6. Fresh new lessons every year!


• Students arrive at the assembly equipped with special lesson plan paper, pencil, and a book to use as a lap desk.


• Mark Kistler has the group (up to 5,000 at a time!) sit on the floor or in theater seating, poised ready for drawing action!


• Using an overhead projector, television/VCR, chalkboard, and microphone, Mark Kistler guides your children through an extraordinary imagination adventure. Your students learn how to draw in 3-D while Mark tells stories of great galactic adventures, journeys to the bottom of the sea, time-traveling odysseys back to the land of the dinosaurs, and forward into time with pencil power! This "how-to-draw" assembly is an experience your children will never forget!


• Students complete four 3-D drawing lessons and get inspired to write and illustrate their own children's books!


• During this exciting assembly adventure, many students and teachers from the audience are invited to come up and draw the lesson in front of the entire school!


• At the conclusion of the drawing lessons, Mark gives your school several DVD classroom follow-up drawing lessons, along with his best selling childrens "How-To-Draw" book. Mark's DVD's and books are proven tools to keep your students' enthusiasm and excitement for art growing all year long!


• As additional classroom follow-up, Mark invites the teachers to use his 50 animated online art lessons, and his 300 live video art lessons, available online here on this website. Your students' drawing skill can continue to grow with Mark's online lesson tutorials for years to come!


• Teachers who wish to have their students' wonderful 3-D art work displayed on your school's website, or in Mark Kistler's online Genius Student Art Gallery are encouraged to scan and email artwork to your school's web master and to Mark Kistler's web site. Their drawings will be displayed in international cyberspace for all the world to see and applaud!

Over the past sixteen years Mark Kistler has taught millions of children how to draw in 3-D at over five thousand elementary school assembly workshops around the world, including Australia, Germany, England, Scotland, Mexico, and the United States. His starring roles as Commander Mark and Captain Mark in the hit children's public television series The Secret City, The Draw Squad, and The New Secret City Adventures, have been viewed in eighteen countries with over forty million viewers. His most recent self-produced public television series, Mark Kistler's Imagination Station, is currently airing on nearly one hundred PBS stations nationwide.

Mr. Kistler has written and illustrated many popular children's drawing books, including Learn to Draw with Commander Mark and Mark Kistler's Draw Squad. As a result of his television series and drawing books, Mark Kistler has generated over one million letters containing 3-D drawings from children around the world. Mark deeply believes that learning how to draw in 3-D builds a child's critical thinking skills while nourishing self-esteem. His positive messages on self-image, goal setting, dream questing, environmental awareness, and the power of reading have inspired millions of children to discover their awesome individual potential.

When Mark is not waiting for connecting flights at airports, he enjoys sailing his Catalina sloop in the blue Pacific waters off the coast of sunny southern California. Mark lives in Carlsbad, California.