This class will go in-depth on the different elements of comics and how they work together to tell a story. 

Every class will be divided into an initial warm-up sketching period, a discussion of that week's topic, followed by an activity that explores the topic we just discussed and allows students to practice their own unique take on that skill's role in making a good comic. For example, during the lettering class, we will not only practice different styles of drawing speech bubbles and writing letters, but we will also make short three-panel comics using those different styles of lettering to help make the point that the comic is making. At the end of the course, each student will have a two-page traditional comic completed, and lots of new skills in their toolbox to use as they make more comics. 

Class by Class Breakdown: 
Week 1: Types of Comics and Scripting. During this class, we'll talk about different types of comics, including newspaper comics, comic books, graphic novels, and webcomics. We'll then practice scripting and visualizing a comic, and share our drafts with each other.

Week 2: Panels and Composition. During this class, we'll talk about panels and how their arrangement affects a story's tone and mood. We'll also talk about what composition is and why it is so important. For our activity, we'll draw the same scene using one big panel, three equally sized panels, and one set of different sized panels. 

Week 3: Pages and Pacing. During this class, we'll talk about types of pages, going back to our types of comics class, and why it's important to choose the right type of page for your story. We will also talk more about what pacing is and how to make decisions about how fast or slow a story should go. For our activity, we'll thumbnail a scene that takes up one page, three pages, and five pages, and talk about how changing the length of a scene changes how it makes us feel.

Week 4: Lettering and Dialogue. During this class, we'll talk about how important lettering is to telling a good story in comics, and why it's not okay to overlook it. We'll practice different kinds of lettering and speech bubbles, and then put them into practice by making a three-panel comic that uses many different types of speech bubbles to change the tone.

Week 5: Art style. During this class, we'll talk about how art style changes the way a comic makes us feel. We'll start discussing what kind of stories we want to tell in our final project comics, and what art style matches that kind of story the best. For our activity, we'll practice different styles of drawing, from cartoony to more realistic, and share them with one another. There will be homework this week--students will be expected to write a script draft for their final project. 

Week 6: Black and White Comics vs Color Comics. During this class, we'll discuss some examples of black and white and color comics. We'll discuss the pros and cons of doing each, and give each other advice on what we think would work best for each other's stories. For our activity, we'll do two drawings and practice black and white techniques on one and color techniques on the other. There will be homework this week--to start pencilling their final pages!

Week 7: Character Design and Starting Our Final Comic. During this class we'll design our main characters and discuss how to design a character in a way that reflects their personality. Our activity will primarily be working on those character designs, but students will also have time to work on their final pages for their comic. 

Week 8: Finishing and Sharing Our Final Comic. During this class we'll start with a half hour for any last minute finishing touches to our comics, before everyone gets to share their finished comic with each other and talking about what we learned throughout this class.

My teaching style is focused on giving students concrete tools that they will use creatively--this means that learners will be able to use any style to tell their stories. Art is all about expression and I'm not interested in limiting that for these artists. Instead, I want to make sure that they push themselves to grow and learn how to express themselves as effectively as possible. Learners will also be able to compare their work to one another's work; for that reason, students will need to keep their cameras on throughout class so that we can show one another our work. They will not need any prior experience with comics, but an enthusiasm for the topic and an interest in learning new things will be very helpful in making sure they get the most out of this class.