Our next Pro-Call is with Tessa Hulls! Come join us in our most affordable, online ongoing-community SAW FLOW + PUBLISH MEMBERSHIP GROUP (comes with a two-week free trial) to join in on MONTHLY PRO-CALLS!

We bring in comic professionals from all walks of life to guest speak (virtually) at SAW. These guest speakers give SAW students/members some insight from their personal experiences throughout their comics career and welcome questions at the end of each session. Come join us!

Your Idea(s) Will Change Over Time

Nail down some thoughts on paper or a napkin. Everything counts. Gather everything together and look at it. What are the napkins telling you that you don't know? Sometimes we project a structure onto something early on that falls away later in service of the narrative. That is normal and good!

Jess Ruliffson and I are starting our live discussion series, The Terrible Anvil, tomorrow , Jan 11, 2024 in the Sequential Artists Workshop Flow Community and this post is an invite (you can sign up for a free 2 week trial here: https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/comics-flow-group )

Sowing, reaping, and resting in our art. A post by Jess Ruliffson.

We read them instantly.

For Conversation:

Will Eisner, in his Comics and Sequential Art, makes the case that figures in a comic are like an alphabet that we "read."

Excerpted from
https://archive.org/details/Will_Eisner_Theory_of_Comics_and_Sequential_Art/page/n15/mode/2up

In this example below, he shows the example of a "worship symbol."

Do we create emotion symbols with our figures? What do you think? Share some examples or non examples in the comments!

One thing I seem to be thinking about a lot lately is how to make an "art budget" for a long form comic. Or even a short comic! In the SAW weekly meetings, sometimes we do short exercises.

Reading the Magic Treehouse graphic novel with my daughter I noticed some really nice pages, and thought I would point them out. Good visual communication and storytelling here!

Our next Pro-Call is with Jamila Rowser! Come join us in our most affordable, online ongoing-community SAW FLOW + PUBLISH MEMBERSHIP GROUP (comes with a two-week free trial) to join in on MONTHLY PRO-CALLS!

We bring in comic professionals from all walks of life to guest speak (virtually) at SAW. These guest speakers give SAW students/members some insight from their personal experiences throughout their comics career and welcome questions at the end of each session. Come join us!

For anyone working on what feels like (or is) a "big idea" and not knowing how to start. OFTEN, a creator will make a small piece, not realizing it is about to become a bigger thing. This is great, and it's encouraged! Here are some examples:

The first mistake everyone makes when writing for comics...

Starting October 7th, our regular Draw Jam on the first Saturday of the month will instead be a two day event for 24 hour comics day!

Mid-October, we are thrilled to have award-winning cartoonist, Tommi Parrish (@tommi_pg) lead a week-long Visiting Artist Workshop in the SAW Studio; our usual monthly Drink and Draw on October 19th at Boxcar hosted by SAW alums, Amy @sunshineblossoms and Elli @s0ftpillow; and a free artist talk with Tommi Parish at Third House Books @thirdhousebooks starting at 7:30PM on October 20th…

Check out Course Lab's latest podcast featuring Tom Hart on "Drawing New Conclusions." "Many course topics are believed to be “unteachable” online. Tom Hart teaches one of them — cartooning. Not only that, his school operates as a nonprofit. But despite bucking conventional wisdom in both ways, Tom’s school has been comically successful."

Don't miss our next *WE BELIEVE IN COMICS* SAW's Friday Night Workshop: Against the A.I. with Tom Hart @hutchowen this Friday August 25, 2023 @ 7PM EST. https://bit.ly/saw-tomhart

Come join us in our most affordable, online ongoing-community SAW FLOW + PUBLISH MEMBERSHIP GROUP (comes with a two-week free trial) to join in on MONTHLY PRO-CALLS! Our next Pro-Call is with Joan Reilly!

THIS WEEK, we will feature 8 recent graduates from our year-long certificate program reading the final stories.

If you've ever loved an art form, you know what a plunge it is to engage in it. 

I've loved songs my entire 50+ years, but have never ever tried to make them, not even a little. They just seemed magic and best left to the experts, kind of like football or mountain climbing. I'm just glad people are out there doing it; I knew I'll never be one of them, and it's ok…

If you missed our most recent *WE BELIEVE IN COMICS* Friday Night Workshop, catch the replay below! We had a great time with Elizabeth Haidle who had us making book reviews in comic form. We mixed up characters and made animals tell the story of our favorite childhood books and even made up some books! It was a lot of fun. Come take a look!

Catch the replay of our most recent Friday Night Comics Workshop with Will Betke-Brunswick! We had a fantastic time with Will, who had us drawing birds, and having us reaching our goals with our little bird characters. It was so much fun, what a delightful time. Come join us for the replay or the next workshop! 

An article by SAW Instructor, Jess Ruliffson, going over a recent PRO-CALL we had with REIMENA YEE on how to make a webcomic; tools to make webcomics; webcomics vs. print; and more!

Try to focus on "what I have in my hands right now" (skills and abilities) not “who I wish I was of Future Me Who is Much Better at Drawing and Socializing and Unafraid of All Things.”