DURATION: 10 Weeks - STARTING APRIL 27th, the Monday after C2E2!
DAY: Mondays
TIME: 5:00 pm - 7:00 PM
SKILL LEVEL: Early Intermediate, Intermediate, or Advanced
INSTRUCTOR: Douglas Klauba
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Students will work within their comfort of chosen mediums, with a focus on developing ideas in pencil from roughs to finished art. Demonstrations will include: pencil drawing using 2H-6B, and color pencils. Gouache and acrylic wash. Drawing on toned paper. Ink illustrations using croquill, brush, and pens.
MATERIALS:
Students will need varied degrees of graphite pencils including: 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, 6B, Kneaded eraser, a Sketchbook no larger than 9×12, drawing paper tablet 12×18, comic art sheets or pad, 12×18.
Additional materials will be discussed during the sessions.
SYLLABUS
1 Monday
Topic: Introduction and importance of structure in drawing. Life drawing with objects and planes of the face. Gray Value Scale.
Class Exercise: Working with pencil. Drawing the planes of the face and drapery and study the value scale.
Homework: Alter Ego portrait. (Examples: Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, etc.)
2 Monday
Topic: Character acting,staging, environments, differences in various settings; Historical,
Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Noir. Using references: found and staged.
Class Exercise: Working with pencil. Study sequential pages of comic artists. (Examples: Kirby, Steranko, Guy Davis, Alex Ross, Will Eisner, etc.)
Homework: 4 pencil illustrations with a figure and foreground, middle ground, background, using genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Historical, and Horror.
3 Monday
Topic: Expressions and Behaviors in Characters. Character Archetypes in Comics.
Class Exercise: Analysis of the different archetypes: Positive / Negative, Male / Female, Major / Minor Roles. Acting, Gestures, Expressions and Behaviors.
Homework: 12 facial Expressions. Design 6 Archetypes (full figure).
4 Monday
Topic: Intro to storyboarding, storytelling, and sequential art.
Class Exercise: Scene and framing - foreground, middle ground and background, all compositional levels of depth in a scene. Practice with perspective, negative spaces and interesting camera view to give emphasis and drama to your scene. Realization of several storyboards based on given scripts.
Homework: Illustrate a poem, sequentially, 1 page.
5 Monday
Topic: Intro to composition, and visual narrative in Cover concepts.
Class Exercise: Communicating through proper composition, mood, and subject matter. Studies in various genres: Superhero, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Crime, and Anthropomorphic.
Homework: 5 pencil concepts / roughs, with thumbnails, of cover design for each genre, with one concept will match previous assignment of archetype character design. 6 x 9.
6 Monday
Topic: Shadow as a narrative element, and importance of graphic black and white style in storytelling.
Class Exercise: Discuss and copy a comic page of an artist that uses shadows with mastery.
Homework: Classroom critique of cover concepts, then complete cover art, 11×17.
7 Monday
Topic: Genesis of a comic / sequential story.
Class Exercise: Discussion: story idea to script to layout, 4 pages. Character sketches and environment studies.
Homework: Development of chosen story and roughs. 4 pages.
8 Monday
Topic: Onomatopoeia. Character studies using light and shadow. Using artistic influence and photo references.
Class Exercise: Classroom critique, first pass of story development and roughs. Illustrating sound effects.
Homework: Story roughs to layouts. Logo design.
9 Monday
Topic: Finished Art for Comic Books.
Class Exercise: View comic art originals. Final review of progress on 4 page story and cover art.
Homework: Finish 4 page story and cover project.
10 Monday
Topic: Presentation of Story and Cover Art. Marketing, preparing work for professional portfolio, self publishing and meeting editors.
Class Exercise: Design a logo to be used as a promotional tool / business card. Incorporating a figure with letter forms. Discussion of working in washes, limited color, and full color.
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$350 per student, $50 off if you bring a friend - for both of you!
For more info or to RSVP today, please contact the International School of Comics:
EMAIL: [email protected]
PHONE: 312-265-0982