Introduction to Comic Illustration

In this class geared for adults and older teens, we'll learn about the key elements of comics and how to use them to tell your story. We'll go over such topics as: generating a story, breaking it down into pages and panels, getting the story to flow, how panel-to-panel action works and page composition.


Overview

Week 1: Class introduction and Character designs

In this class we will briefly cover the history of comics. Why they are important to us? How they made an impact in visual arts and entertainment? We will then start on the comic making process, starting coming up with character sketches. During the sketching process we will brainstorm story ideas of characters.

Homework: Write a script/story about the characters you created. I prefer it to be typed but if that’s an issue you can hand write it as well just as long as it’s readable. We will use the script in our next class.

Week 2: Story, Composition and Environment design

In this class we will finish up the character designs and start layout the comic. Throughout the class we will do thumbnail sketches of the overall comic based on the script you typed up. Once we got the layout we want we will then go over some composition principles and apply then to our comic sketches.

Homework: Revise comic layout sketches. Try to get the sketches to the point that your satisfied with the layouts. After that’s done go over the script you written and see if it gels with you layout.

Week 3: Final pencil work and Inking

In this class we with the revised comic layout sketch will start doing the final pencil work. This is where will put in the final details with the characters, environments etc. When that’s done we will start on the ink work. I will go over some inking techniques and show you how to apply then to your comics. We will ink up until next classes.

Homework: Try to continue the inking process. Get as much done as you can.

Week 4: Final inking details and critique

In the final class we will finish up the comic and the share it with everyone. We will discuss what we learn about the class, the comics, what we can improve on and so on.


Presented by Christina Obotiti