Talk about jam-packing a whole lot of awesome into a teaching artist residency…This fall at EPIC Academy in South Chicago, Urban Gateways artist Samantha Hill outlined the basics of graphic novel creation. From looking at well-known examples like “V for Vendetta” and “Sin City”, to storyboarding & sketching, to fully illustrated final products, the high schoolers participating in this residency (eight students grades 9 to 11, to be precise) learned it all!
Check out the process below. These up-and-coming artists became well-versed in Comic Life and Photoshop software, and they came away with the first two pages of a comic book to boot. (Their work with Sam will continue during EPIC’s spring semester, so it’s not over yet!)
Another especially great aspect of this residency: Sam included a discussion about art schools for interested students. They talked about selecting an art school or university, portfolio development, and possible majors and minors. She knew this would be important because this particular group was so motivated. “[The students had] developed full graphic novel plots in their spare time, so I focused my classes on professional techniques for comic book production,” Sam said. “It was a real pleasure to teach them.”
Showing students how to make an artistic hobby into a career is inspirational, especially when the demonstration comes from a teaching artist who has succeeded in doing it. Kudos to Sam for including this in her teachings!
You can learn all about EPIC Academy right here on our website, where we’ve got an entire profile dedicated to it!