Graphic Novels and Comic Book Art Short Course
Course description
Course overview
Graphic Novels and Comic Book Art is an engaging introduction to the process of creating graphic novel-style sequential art. Course topics will include story development, storyboarding, page layout design, inking, lettering and colouring.
You'll explore a range of visual languages, styles and creative techniques; including an introduction to efficient, high-quality digital methods using Adobe Photoshop.
At the end of the course, you'll receive a colour A3 print of your work. Teaching takes the form of class and individual exercises, class critiques and one-on-one discussion with the tutor.
Who this course is for
This course is ideal for anyone who wants to learn about the process of creating comics while developing their creative practice or is looking to build a portfolio of sequential artwork to apply for a longer cartooning course.
The general principles of this course apply to manga as much as a superhero, funny animal or underground comics.
Key information
Topics covered
- Life drawing
- Creative writing
- Storyboarding
- Character design presentation
- Page layout
- Develop your own story
- Sketching story panels
- Inking
- Colouring scanned work digitally
- Adding borders, balloons and lettering digitally
Learning outcomes
- Gain creative skills in scene composition, page design and character creation for comic books
- A finished page strip of comic book art, together with a full set of handouts on all topics discussed. This will provide a firm foundation for application to further illustration courses, self-publishing your own webcomic or developing a portfolio for work in related industries such as video games
- Digital badge and certificate of attendance
Materials
- Notebook and Pen
- Laptop, iPad or tablet
- Adobe Photoshop – if you do not have access – you can download a free 7-day trial
- A scanner, or camera to upload images, unless you ae working 100% digitally
- Three objects, each about 20-30 cm tall, that you can use for a life drawing exercise. Try to find a mix from simple to more complex
- Bristol Board, at a size suitable for your scanner (typically A4)
- “Non-photo blue” pencils (e.g. Prismacolor Col-Erase)
- Black fineliner pens, in selection of sizes Alternatively, you could use a dip pen (e.g. Speedball 102 crow quill) and black India Ink
- 2-3 examples of your previous work, which may help to inform your development
- Sketchbook (no larger than A3)
- Selection of drawing pencils (H/HB/2B)
- Any other drawing materials you are comfortable working with, such as charcoal
- Colour materials you are comfortable using (e.g. coloured pencils, felt tips, watercolours etc)
- Eraser and pencil sharpener
- Clear plastic ruler 30cm
- 1GB USB memory stick
- If you have a graphics tablet, you may also wish to bring this on the last day of the course
Tutor
Matt O'Dell
Matt O'Dell has been teaching the Graphic Novel and Comic Book Art short course for over five years. When not at Chelsea, he works full-time as a Teaching Fellow / Technician at the University of Surrey, where he teaches design, animation and a wide range of Adobe CC and Autodesk software. He previously taught the asset creation modules of the Games Design BA at Brunel University, and has worked commercially as a 2D / 3D video games artist and user interface designer.
When not teaching he enjoys painting sci-fi scenes on his Wacom tablet, and increasingly, an iPad Pro.
Take a look at Matt's website
Book a course
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