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!

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:

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

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!

Creativity and health practices come together every Saturday, 10 AM Eastern, forever.

In case you've missed this amazing opportunity, we've partnered with Georgia Webber at Drawing the Inside Out.

Drawing Health is an ongoing series of live practice sessions that connect health and creativity for a sustainable and satisfying art practice.

Some wise words from SAW Instructor, Jess Ruliffson, on just MAKING THE WORK and not worrying about the rest. Read on to see what she means.

Even though 2020 has been a whirlpool; landslide; and train wreck all at once, we’re still trying our best to make online learning as interactive as possible.

Once a month, we try to get a guest speaker in to talk comics, publishing, and whatever other professional insight they have about the comic world.

The last few months, students in our exclusive Mighty Network groups had access to Pro-Calls via Zoom with some awesome guest speakers. This year, we were fortunate enough to get these guest speakers!

Check out what we’ve all been up to the last few weeks in the SAW courses and Mighty Network groups!

Thoughts from Justine Andersen:

“So in an attempt to tone down the anxiety level regards the more advanced level of this class, let's look at a few more "cartoony" examples of "caves of wonder," and let's start with one of the very BEST! Maurice Noble's backgrounds for Ali Baba Bunny…

The majority of the public's education and awareness about the transgender community has been informed by the media (films, books, art, etc). A lot of this media, however, overwhelmingly misrepresents and mischaracterizes who trans people really are and the attitude the public should have toward trans individuals.

For Transgender Awareness Week, I want to highlight some Transgender cartoonists who share their experiences, educate about pronouns, or are just openly Transgender cartoonists.

History alone is always evolving, since new things are constantly surfacing about our past, and Comics History in the Western world is no different.

SAW’s Western Comics History course is always evolving as we find new sources to cover about diversity and technique in comics while also reflecting on how far comics have travelled to be where they are in today’s Western world.