1. Do you want significantly more skills to be able to do comics "right"?
2. Or do you just want to make your graphic novel happen ?

*We put "right" in quotes because we believe everyone can make something stunning with what they have if they have the will and a support system.

The Year Long Certificate Program:When you really really want to up your skills to something more akin to what you see in the graphic novel aisle of the bookstore or library you go to. We teach an amalgam of skills including anatomy, landscape drawing, composition, color/value placement, character design, etc.

This will help you find your voice to create your own comics from start to finish.

After that, we often recommend the Graphic Novel Intensive for: Wisdom, project management, working skills, and mentorship- that's what the Graphic Novel program is about.

Of course your path may be different. We've had people do only one of them. We've had people do them in reverse order.

We're here to help you get YOUR comics made!

The online certificate program isn’t simply an ‘online class’. The low-residency model includes a structure of 4 six-week sessions designed to be taken in order, to bring you to a full synthesis of your learning after 9 months (the last 3 months are for your own peer-to-peer sharing and learning in the group.)

You’ll stay with the same cohort for the full nine-months and come out the other side with new skills that you can continue to build on your own. Or maybe even put to use in our other short courses and workshops.

While past classes won't be credited to the certificate program, we want to make sure that every student is receiving new and engaging learning opportunities that meets their needs. Contact us and together we can figure out the best approach for you!

Our online courses are a kind of 'best of' teaching resources from our faculty so there may be some cross over with past class content. If that's the case, we have a growing catalog of alternative classes that can be substituted for any student who feels like they're repeating a class they've already taken.

We encourage folks to come together in our in person space (a lot of people describe transformative experiences in our Gainesville studio) but we don’t require participation for people to receive the certificate of completion. Think of it as a supplement for you to connect to your creativity and community.

Our online classes are run through the Mighty Network. Each student has access to the course material through a personal portal where they can also contribute to the community forum.

Tech support is delivered by the SAW Admin staff. Email or direct message them, whatever issue you’re having, we will respond within 24 to 48 hours.

And yes, you will continue to have access to the course material for as long as SAW exists on the internet.

The classes are pre-recorded and released each week and remain available to you for as long as you need. All participants are invited to join a live call, once a week, to check in and receive supplementary instruction. Attendance at these calls is not required but is highly recommended to get the most out of the experience. These calls are recorded and archived in the learning materials.

The interaction in the community with the instructors is available 24/7 in our network.

The classes are scheduled to meet on Mondays, alternating each week between 2pm and 8 pm Eastern time. There are additional calls, usually on Thursday evening Eastern in the 2nd quarter for the Modern Comics reading class, and there are often student-led "study halls" at different times in the week.

Weekly exercises are uploaded in our membership community forum on the Mighty Network. And quarterly required assignments are uploaded via a simple Dropbox link and a Google form, so we can keep track of them and give you personalized, private feedback.

You’ll find the main proctors/guides/instructors in the Mighty Network nearly every day. Our other instructors, namely Justine Andersen, Sidney Davidson, Rob Clough, Ayanni Cooper and Lauren Weinstein will be in and out during their sessions, based on their schedule.

Outside of calls, we encourage students to engage with their peers in the Mighty Network or create self-directed studio times to meet up and simulate the experience of drawing alongside each other in the same room.

Online classes can be hard to stay engaged with, we know that! Facing a computer each day, it can be difficult to feel like you’re part of a community. We have a three fold strategy for keeping students engaged.

Number 1. A pass, fail system for classes. If you are unable to demonstrate your engagement with the course materials and homework tasks, you are unable to move on to the next set of classes. One of our admin staff is dedicated to tracking progress and checking in with people who might be falling behind to see if they need a little extra help.

Number 2. The low-residency weeks are intended to bring students together to put faces to the names of the online community and function as a goal during the semester while students are working independently.

Number 3. Our Mighty Network group is active 24/7, wherever you are in the world. Not only do you have access to your classmates, but you have access to other comics lovers. Each week there will be discussion opportunities, as well as work sharing not only with your peers but with the course instructors.

We believe being able to work independently and motivate yourself is a huge part of being a professional artist. Our goal is to give our students the tools and inspiration to leave the classroom fold and continue to create comics for themselves!

The suggested price that keeps our bills paid is on this page. We do offer scholarship assistance up to one month before the program begins. This system is really important to us as a non-profit organization, and helps us in our commitment to make comics available to everyone.

Our refund policy is to return payment within two weeks of the beginning of classes if you are not satisfied.