Comic Drawing At Norwich Gaming Festival 2017

Norwich Gaming Festival Comic workshop

Essential sequential has been invited by one of our favourite annual events, The Norwich Gaming Festival, to run Comic creation activities during the summer Half term holiday 2017!

There will be Free comic drawing activities taking place in the marquee outside the forum in Norwich on Monday 29th May & Tuesday 30th May between 10 AM to 3 PM. 

Just drop in anytime and stay for 5 minutes or all day!

The will also be a competition to win a pack of 24 Professional quality Letrasett Pro markers – So come along to enter.

And on Wednesday, May 31st there will be a special 2 hour comic drawing workshop in The Forum’s really cool Auditorium where anyone aged 9 and above can learn how to plan and create your own comic which you can take home with you.

Tickets only cost £6 which includes all the materials you’ll be using!
To find out more and book places visit our EventBrite page

 

 

Creative Collisions Comic Workshop

Creative Collisions is an imaginative youth arts network in Great Yarmouth where likeminded people can create, collaborate and communicate opportunities within the arts.

The project involves young people in decision making and co production of events via a youth led steering group. Part of their goal is to connect young people with their heritage by working closely with Great Yarmouth Museums, such as the Time & Tide, and wider networks, regionally and nationally.

Who attended the comic drawing workshop?

The Saturday workshop started on a chilly winter morning at Great Yarmouth college where Essential Sequential workshop leader Stuart Paterson was joined by 9 enthusiastic young people, mostly girls, ranged in ages from 8 to 14.

Third week of drawing: comic strips. Thanks to Stuart Paterson for a fantastic session! @natsatclub @gycollege #timeandtide

A photo posted by Creative Collisions (@creative.collisions) on

In previous weeks with other tutors they had been exploring challenging areas such as mark marking and life drawing, so the cross-discipline medium of comics presented a tantalising opportunity to put what they’d learned into practice in one exciting package!

How the Workshop went

The motivated group of young artists worked really hard for the session’s 3 hour duration – creating original artwork to accompany supplied scripts.

Using the pre-created comic scripts allowed us to concentrate on learning fundamental comic creation techniques and processes such as thumbnail sketching, using photocopiers to expand and shrink artwork and allowing space for speech and captions.

Amy Stock, Creative Collisions Tutor, who also attended and assisted with the session said:

“The session was amazing, thank you! The group loved it and yes, the results were fantastic!”

As always some amazing work came out of the session which can be seen below and on the Creative Collisions Instagram page.

Looking good!! @natsatclub @gycollege #timeandtide

A photo posted by Creative Collisions (@creative.collisions) on

Looking very #graphicnovel. @natsatclub @gycollege #timeandtide

A photo posted by Creative Collisions (@creative.collisions) on

Want to draw comics?

If you think you’d like to book or attend a comic drawing workshop get in touch and we’ll be happy to do all we can to make it happen!

Solution-Focused Comics Helping The Long Term Unemployed

employability-comic-1

The ABC Comic Project helps long-term unemployed participants explore and uncover possible routes to employment or training through comic creation and solution-focused storytelling.

Created for Neighbourhoods That Work, a 5 year multi-agency project in Gt Yarmouth designed to improve community resilience, the ABC comic workshops demonstrate skills and techniques used by professionals to create amazing comic book stories and artwork whilst exploring the participants career & training options.

Aims and goals of the workshop

Using storytelling and comic drawing to explore and discuss each step on their journey with the workshop leader or others in the group could help uncover possible routes to your personal goals that could go undiscovered.

Using simple fill-in-the gaps worksheets we will create rough text and artwork for your comic panels – first focusing on describing your situation right now (the “Beginning” of your story), then we’ll leap forward to where you’d like to see yourself in the future (the “End” of your story).

Once you’ve chosen the Beginning and End of your story of the way we can focus on the most important bit – the middle of the comic!

The middle bit will describe a possible journey towards the story’s end – each panel showing a separate step towards fulfilling your final goal.

At the end of the workshop participants take away a few things;

  1. A clearer idea of what your own personal goals might be
  2. A better idea of how you might achieve those goals through simple, thought out steps
  3. A pretty cool piece of finished comic book artwork

Could creating comics help your organisation?

Comics are an amazing, accessible tool for:

  • Sharing stories and experiences
  • Exploring problems and issues
  • Having fun and boosting confidence!

Creating comics could be a valuable, enjoyable tool for your organisation – if you’d like to explore the possibilites get in touch!

 

Turning College Students Into A Comic Production Team

GY College Comic session

Essential Sequential are working with creative students at Great Yarmouth College to mould them into a comic publishing team that will draft, write, design and promote their own, original comic book!

All those taking part will gain invaluable experience of how the world of freelance creative work operates and improve employability – requiring a high level of teamwork and delegation, encouraging the development of “soft skills” such as time-keeping, discussion & debate, compromise and constructive criticism.

Fantastic, original comic stories and artwork

The project has been funded by EnterpriseGY and was launched at a major Comic Convention held in Great Yarmouth in November 2016.  The final comic will be on sale to the general public through multiple channels in Spring 2017.

GY-College-Comic-project

The end goals of this unique project is to provide a real-world experience of freelancing (working semi-autonomously to pre-agreed brief & deadline) to all of the students involved with the comic’s creation and sale, and to provide the launch pad for a new self-sustaining venture leading to an ongoing legacy of published material involving and linking communities.

[quote]”Students that are interested in animation, Photography and art will make the most of this project by including on their cv and in their portfolios leading to opportunities to progress to university and wider possibilities for employment. Work experience is at the heart of the course and is recognised as good practice by the college, universities and ofsted.” [/quote]
Matt Dale,
Course Leader for Art, Design & Photography at the college

Could creating comics help your organisation?

Often one of the first things we hear at our comic workshops is “I’m rubbish at drawing!”

We strive to show that creating comics is a process – a series of relatively simple tasks
The vast majority of these tasks do not depend on you being brilliant at drawing!

(And what’s to stop you just getting someone who is good at drawing to do that bit!)

Comics are an amazing, accessible tool for:

  • Sharing stories and experiences
  • Exploring problems and issues
  • Having fun and boosting confidence!

If you think that creating comics is something you’d like to explore or would be useful for your organisation get in touch!

 

Big Lottery Funded Project for 2017!

big lottery funded comic drawing project

‘Moving Ink’ is a year-long series of 24 creative workshops, working within flexible and accessible locations at the point of need;

The project will work with a minimum of 75 young people (aged between 16 to 24 years old) identified as being at risk of or who is currently NEET and having faced specific challenges in seeking to find meaningful employment or further education and training opportunities.

If you are interested in taking part in this project, either as an individual or as an organisation, please use the contact form at the bottom of this post or email the project leader (Stuart Paterson) directly.

Project Aims

Through participation the young people involved will demonstrate an increased understanding of and ability to apply functional skills and techniques that are based upon sequencing processes; (the process of having to do one job before it is possible to do another).

In order to achieve this aim the project will:

  • Involve and nurture young people through increasing participation in creative expression
  • Help build understanding, transferable skills and the confidence
  • Help participants critically interpret and articulate difficult circumstances and any others issues they may be struggling to manage.

The project is open to anyone who has been identified as being at risk of or who is currently NEET and having faced specific challenges in seeking to find meaningful employment or further education and training opportunities.

Project Delivery

The workshop sessions will be delivered through 6, 4 week programmes, and will support participants to develop their own story, write a script and produce colour artwork for a one page comic strip; stories are then combined to produce an alternative community-published work, that will be circulated via a range of community associations and venues.

The project will be delivered by creative professionals who have a proven ability of working positively with young people, and in helping to cultivate positive, supportive and creative environments that are community orientated and which feel locally owned.

By working within communities, the project will help to support participants to more easily translate learning into their local environments, and therefore be better prepared and more confident to take advantage of future opportunities as they arise.

The project will also seek to further develop collaborative working between social sector organisations, and related opportunities to provide mutual support, share resources and combine expertise to develop creative learning and employment pathways that can provide sustainable social and economic benefits for participants, their families and peers.

OPEN Youth Trust Disovery Day; April 2016

Following the success of the the comic drawing activities held at OPEN Youth trust as part of BBC Get Creative 2016, I returned a few weeks later to do a repeat performance!

Who attended the comic drawing workshop?

I set up two tables on the “Bridge” – an impressive walkway suspended twenty or so feet above OPEN’s main hall.  Before I’d even finished getting my equipment out I had a couple of young people eager to get started!

Just as with the BBC Get Creative event I brought along a range of activities that could be done in anything from 5 minutes whilst still communicating valuable techniques used in professional comic making.

By far the most popular activity were my Design-A-Superhero sheets – Just check out the gallery section below to see just some of the wild designs participants came up with!

Want to experience a Comic Creation Workshop yourself?

If you’re interested in attending one of my Comic Creation Workshops, or are considering hosting one an at your organisation go ahead and get in touch!

All necessary checks, policies and insurances are in place to ensure safety when working with children and vulnerable adults.

Workshop running time, features and price can be configured to suit your organisation or groups needs.

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BBC Get Creative Comic Workshop

BBC-GetCreative-logo

On April 2nd 2016 I had fantastic fun running a range of comic drawing activities at OPEN Youth Trust in Norwich city centre as part of the annual BBC Get Creative Event.

The event was great – the Get Creative team even asked me to write a post of my top comic making tips for the BBC website so well worth the effort!

It went so well I’ll be back there this weekend (Saturday 23rd April) doing it all again as part of the Discover OPEN event.

So if you’re any where near the OPEN on Saturday between 1:30 and 3:30pm drop by and have a go.  All ages welcome!

What made this event different from our usual comic workshops?

A normal Essential Sequential comic drawing workshop takes a group through the extraordinary process of creating a story and artwork for a comic – depending on the group this might take hours!

Because I only had 2 hours and participants may only dip in and out of the activities I needed to come up with things that someone might do for the whole 2 hours or just do for 10 minutes but still demonstrated some valuable comic making skills – a tall order!

This is what I came up with:

Design your own Super Hero

This proved very popular with younger comic lovers – they got to choose their male or female hero’s super power (and super weakness!) and then using a template draw their own fantastically costumed super hero.

Quick 3 panel comic strips

Brien-2-2

This activity used a cut-down version of the random story generator system I use in my full workshops to quickly develop a comic told over three panels.

Practice your inking

Inking is an often overlooked and underrated part of the comic creation process – I brought along with me a range of black and white art (some drawn, some photographic) that, with the aid of some tracing paper and pens, can be turned in fabulous inked artwork.

Ready made comic creation kit

Brien-1-2

Like the 3 panel comic strip, this activity allowed participants to quickly construct a comic story – but in this case they didn’t even have to do the drawing!

I supplied ready drawn panels of seemingly random characters and events to be cut out and stuck onto a template in whatever order makes sense to the creator.  The result can then be inked using tracing paper to create an original piece of comic book art!

Want to experience a Comic Creation Workshop yourself?

If you’re interested in attending one of my Comic Creation Workshops, or are considering hosting one an at your organisation go ahead and get in touch!

All necessary checks, policies and insurances are in place to ensure safety when working with children and vulnerable adults.

Workshop running time, features and price can be configured to suit your organisation or groups needs.

Connects & Co Young Carers Comic Workshop

Connects & Co is a Norwich based organisation working with young carers who live with the effects of terminal or long-term illness, disability, mental health issues and addiction within their family.

Who attended the comic drawing workshop?

There were 10 young carers involved in the workshop, aged between 6 and 15 – a couple of the team leaders couldn’t resist joining in too, so there was plenty of comic making going on!

How the Workshop went

The group was quiet and focussed for the most part, cracking through the different stages involved in creating their comic page efficiently and earnestly.

It’s always fascinating to see how different people treat similar subject matter – there were plenty of mad scientists and pop stars cropping up in the stories produced, but they were never treated the same!

Feedback from the artists

Here are just some of the comments left by artists on the workshop:

The bit I liked most was…

  • “When they all came to life”
  • “Learning new things”
  • “Drawing the comic in pencil”

What really struck you as interesting or surprising during this workshop?

  • “How much work goes into making a comic”

What part of the workshop was most useful to the way you work?

  • “Starting rough and then neatening”

Want to experience a Comic Creation Workshop yourself?

If you’re interested in attending one of my Comic Creation Workshops, or are considering hosting one an at your organisation go ahead and get in touch!

All necessary checks, policies and insurances are in place to ensure safety when working with children and vulnerable adults.

Workshop running time, features and price can be configured to suit your organisation or groups needs.

 

Fast Forward Project Comic Workshop

FastForward comic workshop

Following the success of the Comic Workshop at this year’s Latitude festival for Culture Works East I was contacted by Oliver Payne at Musical Keys (Both organisations are based in the same building!) who thought it would be a great fit for Fast Forward, a project Musical Keys runs in partnership with NANSA and the Open Youth Trust.

Who attended the comic drawing workshop?

Fast Forward is a series of activities being run over 12 months at OPEN, a brilliantly equipped venue in the centre of Norwich.  The project offers a range of activities for young people aged 11 to 25 on the “edge of disability services” – a good cross section of which attended the four weekly comic drawing sessions that I provided.

How the Workshop went

As you’d expect with a group of young people there was a lot of fun and energy during the workshops – manifesting itself at one point in the form of a impromptu rap battle on the relative merits of various first person perspective shoot-em-ups (I can’t recall which was deemed the victor).

A number of innovations took place in this series of workshops – I gave the artists the option of working in teams on multi-page stories (usually everyone creates their own one page story), so we ended up with a couple of 4 page stories which was great! 

With the help of Ian Brownlie, one of Musical Keys regular facilitators, one of the teams (one of whom is partially sighted) experimented with collage and photocopying to create a really exciting piece of post-apocalyptic fiction!

Feedback from the artists

Here are just some of the comments left by artists on the workshop:

What really struck you as interesting or surprising during this workshop?

  • “How many stages there was to creating a comic”
  • “I think how the story came along + planned”
  • “Everyone working together on a comic”

What is the one idea that you will use in future as a result of this workshop?

  • “Do not rush a drawing although there is many stages, it is about the perfection and drawing not the time it takes”
  • “I’ll trace some of my friend Amie’s pictures”

What part of the workshop was most useful to the way you work?

  • “Teamwork – creating a page each to do with the same story”
  • “Getting ideas from other people”

Want to experience a Comic Creation Workshop yourself?

If you’re interested in attending one of my Comic Creation Workshops, or are considering hosting one an at your organisation go ahead and get in touch!

DBS checks, policies and insurances are in place to ensure safety when working with children and vulnerable adults.

Workshop running time, features and price can be configured to suit your organisation or groups needs.

Mesh Youth Group October 2015

The Mesh Youth Group runs activities for children in Gorleston as part of facilites provided by Shrublands Youth and Adult Centre Charitable Trust.  I was invited to run a one day comic workshop in the autumn half term holiday.

Who attended the comic drawing workshop?

The group I worked with was a boisterous bunch of around 30 local children ranging in age from 6 to 12 years, some of whom were on the autistic spectrum.

How the Workshop went

The children were really enthusiastic about creating their own stories and were very interested in the process – every one of them produced a brilliant page to go in the final comic.

Working with a large group like this one can lead to some small delays whilst I frantically stick bits of paper to drawing boards but the children demonstrated great patience, many choosing to help others who were struggling with getting their story right or assisting me with photocopying.

Feedback from the artists

I was very pleased to receive a lovely thank you card and a marvelous caricature of me in full superhero get-up from the children!

Also during evaluation 80% of the children said what they’d learned during the workshop would help with their school work!

Want to experience a Comic Creation Workshop yourself?

If you’re interested in attending one of my Comic Creation Workshops, or are considering hosting one an at your organisation go ahead and get in touch!