6th-8th Grade Art: Create Your Own Comic, Manga, Graphic Novel
Students will learn about the basics of creating a comic, starting from writing the script and creating their own characters, to drawing the comic itself.
Katie C
Average rating:
4.9
Number of reviews:(197)
What's included
4 pre-recorded lessons
4 weeks
of teacher support1 year access
to the contentClass Experience
In this four week course, students will learn the basics of creating their own comic. Each week, a prerecorded video will be available for the student to watch at their own leisure. These videos cover each important aspect from the syllabus for that week, along with examples from actual comics, graphic novels and manga. It is up to the student if they want to draw their comic using pencils and paper or if they want to draw their comic on the computer or a tablet. While the goal of the class is to have a comic finished, if the student wants to start creating a very long comic (a very long comic in this case would be 10 pages or longer), that is perfectly fine! In this case, however, it will be very unlikely that the very long comic will be finished in the span of a month. It's my hope that my class gives the student the tools that they need to continue and finishing creating their comic, even after the course is over.
Learning Goals
Brainstorming and How to Plan Writing and Drawing a ComicHow to Create Characters
Syllabus
4 Lessons
over 4 WeeksLesson 1:
Lesson 1: Brainstorming, Character Design, Writing a Plot
On the first week, we will lay down the groundwork for our comic by brainstorming what we want our comic to be about. Afterwards, we will start developing the main characters for the comic. We will also talk about narrative arcs: what goes into a story? Finally, we will start plotting the story for our comics. 25 mins of video lessons
Lesson 2:
Lesson 2: Thumbnail Sketches, Starting to Sketch Your Comic
On the second week, we will get started with sketching our comic, first by learning about thumbnail sketches. Thumbnail sketches are used to plan out what the comic will look like using quick sketches. After working on some thumbnail sketches, we will then start drawing the comic itself. We will also go over what exactly is on a comic page and talk about comic page terminology during this lesson. 19 mins of video lessons
Lesson 3:
Lesson 3: Inking Your Comic
On the third week, we will continue to sketch our comic. We will need a lot of panels sketched out, because afterwards, we will talk about inking our comics - the different tools that we will need, as well as different approaches to inking. 15 mins of video lessons
Lesson 4:
Lesson 4: Designing a Cool Cover Page
On the final week, we will continue to finish our comic and work on the cover page for our comics. 18 mins of video lessons
Other Details
Supply List
For this course, the student will need: - Pencils - Paper - Inking Pen OPTIONAL: - Tablet To create the comic, students can either draw their comic with a paper and pencil or draw their comic digitally on the computer or with a tablet. Both are fine!
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Teacher expertise and credentials
For as long as I was able to hold onto a pencil, I have been drawing my own comics in one way or another. I drew my own comic book series when I was 12 years old!
I have a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education - for my student teaching assignment, I have taught classes on how to create your own comics. I have also taught live classes on how to create your own comics on Outschool for 3 years now!
I am extremely passionate about comics and how you can tell a story with the combination of words and pictures! In addition, I have also self published and sold some of my comics online!Reviews
Self-Paced Course
$3
weekly4 pre-recorded lessons
4 weeks of teacher support
Choose your start date
1 year of access to the content
Ages: 9-13
