Visual Storytelling Class

Tools and Techniques Class. Inking

Getting an MFA in Comics

At the beginning of July (2017) I started my low-residency mfa program in comics at the California College of the Arts. For the next three July's (the current one included) will be a month long intensive workshop. Classes begin at 9 in the morning and end around 7:30 at night.

The first week of my first summer was all about comics theory and craft. We looked at some strange and unconventional comic artists like Dash Shaw and Chris Ware. Focus was on creating thumbnails, studying the visual relationships of panels and the space on the page and how they're used to evoke various sensations of time. Comics are about visual relationship. Text, Composition, Panel size and shape; How they're placed in relation to each other is important in how you want to tell your story. We did some crazy exercises in class but I didn't take any pictures of those.

I forgot to snap some shots of our first homework assignment, an exercise in time. We did 3 six panel one page comics for something that happens in One Second, One Hour, and One Day. It was a great exercise that limited how many drawings we could use to portray three very different lengths of time.

 Our second homework assignment required the use of the following: A child, A red balloon, A park, And the balloon has to come to life. And it had to be 8 to 10 pages. This exercise was about creating a short narrative and playing with panel layout.

Our Third and final homework assignment was a two nighter. We had to pick a song and use it as inspiration to come up with a 8-12 page comic. The first night we do a rough thumbnail, critique it and the second night we do it better. The Song I picked was All along the Watchtower, the Hendrix version.

And the Second Version