NOTES FROM SAW

Here’s the place to check out everything that’s been going on at SAW including what we're learning, reading and drawing.

 
Sequential Artists Workshop Sequential Artists Workshop

Are we making art and stories or are we performing rites and rituals?

ON RITES, RITUAL AND OUR PERSONAL TRANSFORMATIONS.

Lately, I’ve been thinking that to some degree, especially in the Graphic Memoir / Medicine genre, we are seeing our storytelling return to the function of Rite and Ritual. (Note, I’m accidentally using rites and rituals a little interchangeably, though as I understand it, technically a ritual exists within the larger rite.)

What I mean is: rites, large ones anyway, serve to mark and assist our psyche, and community, in moving us from one stage of life to another.

Sometimes these rites rituals are small—let's put on our sports jersey and rise for the national anthem before the football game, as we are transitioning from ordinary life to sports-team-fandom-game-day-life. Etc.

But the big ones: marriage, bah/t-mitsvahs and other adolescence rituals, childbirth, anniversaries, grieving rituals, are more like what we do here.

We who are marked by some real life situation, we strive to move from the person who is in a state of shock (sometimes gentle, sometimes not so gentle), to a state of acceptance and wisdom.

We do that through the rite of art making and of personal story telling.

Read More
Online Courses, Online Learning, Process, Projects, Student Stuff, Single-Year Comics Int..., Current Gainesville Class Sequential Artists Workshop Online Courses, Online Learning, Process, Projects, Student Stuff, Single-Year Comics Int..., Current Gainesville Class Sequential Artists Workshop

POLYOMINO IN THE YEAR-LONG PROGRAM

Our online Year-Long Intensive Program students recently tried their hands at POLYOMINOES. “What the heck is a polyomino?” Check out our blog to find out!

Read More
Classes and Workshops, Community, current class, Online Learning, Online Courses, Projects, Process, This Week at SAW, Workshops, Current Gainesville Class Sequential Artists Workshop Classes and Workshops, Community, current class, Online Learning, Online Courses, Projects, Process, This Week at SAW, Workshops, Current Gainesville Class Sequential Artists Workshop

Rat in a Cage: Live Comics and Storyboarding Class with Derek Ballard

Work LIVE with Cartoonist and Adventure Time and The Midnight Gospel Storyboard Artist Derek Ballard to challenge your imagination and skills to develop new ideas and stories.

Read More
Classes and Workshops, Community, current class, Faculty, Online Courses, Online Learning, Process, Projects, Tom's Thoughts, What We're Reading, Workshops, Current Gainesville Class Karlo Antunes Classes and Workshops, Community, current class, Faculty, Online Courses, Online Learning, Process, Projects, Tom's Thoughts, What We're Reading, Workshops, Current Gainesville Class Karlo Antunes

On Making Work for the Market

We DO belong somewhere, but the "market" is cruel place. Very few belong there. I wouldn't recommend anyone try it, without a lot of research and planning, like wearing SCUBA gear… So, what should you focus on so you can sell your work?

Read More
Classes and Workshops, Class Archive, Community, current class, Faculty, Online Courses, Online Learning, Process, Projects, Single-Year Comics Intensive, Tom's Thoughts, Workshops, Current Gainesville Class Karlo Antunes Classes and Workshops, Class Archive, Community, current class, Faculty, Online Courses, Online Learning, Process, Projects, Single-Year Comics Intensive, Tom's Thoughts, Workshops, Current Gainesville Class Karlo Antunes

Make Small Things and Finish

Draw the critic. Have a dialogue with it. Talk to it. Pick it with pins. Visualizing the internal struggles we have usually helps (a little). You just gotta transfer your understanding and competence with finishing something you can typically finish to comics. Not your competence with the medium, just your competence with finishing.

Read More
Classes and Workshops, Online Courses, Online Learning, Process, Projects, Single-Year Comics Int..., Seriously Comics, Student Stuff, Testimonials, Current Gainesville Class Karlo Antunes Classes and Workshops, Online Courses, Online Learning, Process, Projects, Single-Year Comics Int..., Seriously Comics, Student Stuff, Testimonials, Current Gainesville Class Karlo Antunes

SAW ROUND UP! Abstract Comics, Expanding Ideas, and more!

Check out what we’ve all been up to the last few weeks with the SAW gang, SAW courses, and the Mighty Network groups! Snakes, Comic Finals, Expanding Ideas, and more!

Read More