I just finished a short online class called “Cartooning for Beginners” with Josh Bayer through 92Y. He teaches a few classes for them. You can check out info about them here.
Class lengths vary. This one was only 3 weeks. For each session, Josh offered a short lecture with examples (topics included developing characters, developing a style, and inking). Then, he’d lead a demo, and we would sketch based on the demo while he provided individual feedback. While my class with Carl Potts through the School of Visual Arts got me working on a contiguous story and turning in pages every week, I knew that class would be a struggle as I had never made comics before. Josh’s class allowed me to take a step back and experiment a bit more. I feel like developing my own style has been one of the biggest challenges, and I messed around with that a bit more through his class.
Before taking the class, I participated in a workshop by Josh and Hyena Hell through the Sequential Artists Workshop. In the workshop, the assignment theme was “Why I Am Punk.” I really began to experiment with styles through the assignment. Here’s what resulted from that workshop.
For the first week we had to create a strip answering the question, “What Kind of Comics Do You Want to Make?” Here’s what I created.
For the second week we had to recount an experience or memory. Here’s my strip.
In the final week, we had to create a cover image. I kinda copped out as I struggled with some thumbnails and couldn’t work out another cover. I completed one in Carl Potts class, so i submitted that for additional feedback. Here’s the cover for the first issue of my comic.
Overall, I feel like I getting better at sequential storytelling, but I’m still feeling iffy about what my style is. I suppose I have one and that others can see it more clearly than I do. I start the 6-month Graphic Novel Writing Intensive course through the Sequential Artists Workshop on June 1, and I am retaking Carl Potts’ Comics Project Course through SVA starting June 10. It’s a lot for the summer, but as things reopen, all these opportunities for online classes will be going away, so i wanted to take advantage of them while I still can.
Indie Creator Explosion 