Sequential Artists Workshop

“I had a ton of fun on this course, and I learned a lot, and I am really, really happy with the cartoons that came out of it! Among the many things that were totally and completely new to me were the idea of starting with a character, an emotion and a place to generate ideas, and the way you design a composition, guiding the eye so that it delivers the punchline effectively. As for feedback on how to improve this course: I think this is more than enough material for two courses actually, twelve weeks or so maybe. It felt a bit compact, the last lesson for example discussing penciling AND inking in one go. At the beginning, the course basically gave as assignments to do a brainstorm, and to do thumbnails. I had done these before and so I understood the idea behind these, but these concepts may be new to some people who join this course. I think some guidance and hand-holding when it comes to these techniques may help some course participants. I didn't see many people make more than one thumbnail for each cartoon for example, which is the idea behind thumb-nailing I believe: quickly trying different compositions, changing or pushing the composition at each iteration. This is probably so ingrained into your process that you perhaps don't realize that some people don't know that's what you're supposed to do. But those are very small and unimportant details. Really, this was a tremendous course and I learned so much! SAW has really great courses! Emily, thank you so much! ”

“Emily Flake's class was wonderful! I found Emily's lessons to be incredibly well-thought out and clearly executed. I always knew what the lesson was, why the lesson was, and strategies of how I could go about completing the assignment that would then reinforce that lesson. She provided really wonderful examples to help even more clearly illustrate the intention of the lessons, and I felt that each week really built upon one another in a natural way. I was challenged, certainly, by the volume of work at times, but I think that was more on me and my propensity to be too precious about things- which, of course the class helped me with as well. I feel not only better about that now (though I still need to work on this!) but also my drawing, casting, and for sure ink and brush skills (previously I'd been pretty scared to work with ink and now, I'm not!). Emily is a great teacher--which goes beyond her being a wonderful cartoonist which she most certainly is. But being able to teach others something is a whole 'nother venture, and she's similarly capable at this too! She is also very fun and engaging in her presentation style, as well as of course incredibly informative, and always very encouraging and helpful in her feedback. I would highly recommend Emily's class!”