Create Your Own Character: Sketching, Figure Drawing and Development [Age 13-16]

Let's create some cool characters together! Do you have a teen that loves to draw? By creating characters and stories, students show a great deal of creativity and imagination. Comic books, otherwise known as graphic novels, have been a staple throughout the history of the creative community. They are a great interest of many artists who identify as illustrators, storyboard artists, graphic designers, writers, and visual developers. As students go through high school and eventually college, graphic novel creation does not just have to be a hobby. Other than being a wonderful expression of art and storytelling, modern comics can also bring focus to social justice issues, and create discussion around inclusiveness while bringing attention to experiences shared by people around the world. 

This One Time Class is directly related to my two other "Create Your Own Comic Book" classes. This class is a great first step towards drawing full scenes and developing each student's individual style. I will supply professional examples from many different artists throughout each section of class. I will draw with the students and encourage them to display their progress along the way. My goal is to have the students drawing 95% of the time. They can continue to draw as we talk and during a slide presentation of references and techniques. I will also be displaying video of me drawing as we move through techniques.

Class Content:

- We will begin class by going over various supplies and how choosing different mediums contributes to the end result. Then, we will practice sketching together creating gesture drawings. This type of drawing focuses on a quick and rough general recognition of a figure.

- Next we will go over proper proportion guidelines for human-related characters. We will also discuss and roughly sketch the major muscle anatomy and bone connections of humans. 

- Lastly we will combine techniques covered in class to finish a full character that is structurally sound. After sketching and testing designs the students will choose one character position to focus on. We will work on clothing, hair, and other character specific traits at the very end. 

*No student experience or prior comic book knowledge is necessary. Students should be ready to ink and/or color their drawing after class. They can also choose to continue expanding their character's personality by drawing and developing their character with new movements and in different positions.

Zoom Settings:
Please pin my video at the start of class. If you are unsure how, here are the instructions: To Pin a video at the top of your meeting window, hover over the video of the participant you want to pin and click the three dots. From the menu, click Pin.

I also suggest using side-by-side mode during class as I will be sharing my screen and showing a camera angle of me drawing. Using this mode makes both images large. Viewing a shared screen in Side-by-side Mode instructions: While viewing a shared screen click on View Options and choose Side-by-side Mode. The shared screen will appear on the left and my video will appear on the right. 
Hover your pointer over the boundary between the shared screen and my video until your pointer changes to a double arrow and you see a grey line separating both views. Click and drag the separator to adjust the size of each view. Click Speaker View or Gallery View at the top to switch between the two.

Teaching Style:
I am solution centered, patient, attentive, and detail oriented. I one hundred percent believe in being an inclusive and visionary teacher. I think it is most important to understand the uniqueness of each learner and show them how we can relate to one another while celebrating our differences. This type of education is proven to have an exponential influence on students’ mental and emotional growth. Art education has been an amazing way for me to connect with young adults and assist them in creating and achieving their goals. Students can dive into understanding distinct and diverse expressions of emotions, thoughts and experiences from an intriguing and innocent perspective.