Intended for artists who are currently working on their own material, this intensive course will begin with a review of thumbnails and story notes. We will help you in determining objectives, creative goals and choosing a project, as well as refining skills and fine-tuning your visual storytelling. You may work on new projects or sections of larger works such as graphic novels, serialized comics and Web comics. Guest lecturers will discuss their work practices, including time management, budgeting and publishing. The course will conclude with a group critique, and will focus on narrative structure, pacing and rhythm, choices in style and technique, and practical suggestions for working more efficiently. There are no course prerequisites; students are expected to have a working knowledge of the techniques, materials, and language of comics.

Tom Hart
Cartoonist, digital animator

Awards include: Xeric Grant

Web site: http://www.tomhart.net

Clients include: DC Comics, Tower Records, Burton-Marsteller, Kodansha, Star Wars Kids magazine, United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Sony, Old Navy, Transitions Optical, McDonald's, Metro

Group exhibitions include: American Underground, Angoulême, France; Comix Decode; Comix 2000, traveling exhibition; Westwood Medical Children's Center; Derek Eller Gallery

Education: School of Visual Arts

Publications include: The Collected Hutch Owen, Unmarketable, Les Exploits d'Hutch Owen, The Sands

Matthew Madden
Cartoonist, editor, translator, illustrator, U.S. correspondent for Oubapo (Workshop for Potential Comics)

Education: BA, University of Michigan; MA, University of Texas

Awards include: Society of Publication Designers, American Illustration

Web site: http://www.mattmadden.com

Clients include: The New Yorker, The New York Times, Bookforum, Bomb, DC Comics, Alladin Books, Marvel Entertainment

Books include: Drawing Words & Writing Pictures; Odds Off; 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style; A Fine Mess; Black Candy translator, The Zabîme Sisters