Single classes and workshops

Service Description

Workshops are customizable and can run from 45-minutes to 2-hours. For effective teaching and coaching, workshops are limited to no more than 20 students. (Note: $50 additional fee if >30 miles from Dedham, MA). The following workshop topics are available: 1. How to Create a Graphic Novel Page – I will explain the elements of a story, panel planning/creating thumbnail sketches, penciling and inking a graphic novel, and I coach students through creating their own graphic novel page. 2. Making Autobiographical Comics – Graphic memoirs are huge among middle-grade and tween readers. I share my approach to creating them, asking students to reflect upon personally meaningful moments in their lives and thinking of precise ways to express these memories—and their significance—in comics form. 3. Biographical Comics – I pair off students, and they learn to interview each other to create a one- page comic about the other person’s life. They also learn how to draw likenesses of real people in cartoon/caricature form. Students can later use these skills to create reports of famous and other real people using the comics medium for school or just for fun. 4. Informational Comics – Comics are great tools to communicate educational and instructional information, including science, history and how to accomplish certain tasks—such as how to cook a favorite dish. In this workshop, we’ll practice breaking up information and translating into a fun, comics form, whether it’s a comic about Australian animals or the invention of the telephone. 5. Cartoon Drawing and Inking – In this workshop we cover the basics on how to draw cartoon figures doing almost anything and get practice using a brush, ink and felt-tip pens to create finished comic art. 6. Writing and Drawing Comic Strips and Gag Cartoons – Before there were graphic novels, there were comic strips and one-panel magazine cartoons. In this workshop, students will get practice writing and drawing one-, two- three- and four-panel cartoons that will make their reader laugh, think or observe something interesting.