Learn to harness the drawings to find your vision

Learn to control anatomy, composition, clothing, details, light and shadow, exaggeration and stylization and more in this comprehensive introduction to drawing in the panel.

Course curriculum

  • 01
    00 - Introduction
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    • Drawing for Comics Introduction by Tom Hart
    • Introduction by Sidney Davidson!
    • Drawing the Head and Figure 80-page PDF
  • 02
    01 - Drawing the Figure in Gesture
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    • Intro, links and resources
    • Gestures and Figure Examples
    • Gesture and Figure Demo
    • Exercise: Draw 6 gestures from photos.
    • For Conversation: Are gestures like the alphabet?
    • BONUS: Connecting to Comics History
  • 03
    02 - Drawing the Face and Expressions
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    • Intro, links and resources
    • Head and Face Construction
    • Fun with Facial Structure
    • Exploring Expressions
    • Exercise: Draw 6 heads and expressions from photos.
    • Bonus: Connecting to History
    • For Conversation: Keeping Characters Consistent.
  • 04
    03 - Putting People in Spaces
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    • Backgrounds and perspective: putting people in spaces.
    • Intro to linear perspective
    • Perspective as Storytelling Element
    • Hanging Head for Figure Placement
    • Perspective Grids
    • Bringing it all Together
    • Sidney's Perspective as Storytelling Presentation PDF
    • Bonus Perspective PDF (From a few sources, 20 pages)
    • Exercise: Horizon Lines and Floating/Hanging Heads
    • Bonus: Connecting to History: Hilda Terry
  • 05
    04 - Arranging the Elements in a Panel
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    • Intro, links and resources
    • Looking at How Pictures Work by Molly Bang - Video
    • Molly Bang How Pictures Work PDF
    • Exercise: Draw an image from a fairy tale
    • Bonus: Connecting to History. The Dot and the Line (Video)
    • Bonus: Drawing in the Panel PDF - From Tom Hart's Professional Comic Strip Book
  • 06
    05 - Composing Shots and Panels
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    • Composing Shots and Panels
    • Composing your Panel Video
    • Composing Your Panel PDF
    • Video: More about Staging Your Characters
    • BONUS: Lessons From the Classic Disney Handout
    • BONUS: Storyboarding the Simpsons Way
    • BONUS Video: Using angles for drama
    • Exercise: A range of shots and angles
  • 07
    06 - Putting it all Together
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    • Final Assignment - Session 1 - Dialogue with the Past
  • 08
    07 - Bonus: Video: Some Principles of Graphic Storytelling
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    • Bonus: Video: Some Principles of Graphic Storytelling

  • Sidney Davidson

    Instructor Bio:

    Sidney Davidson is an illustrator based in Gainesville, FL. He got both his B.F.A in Sequential Art and M.F.A in Illustration from SCAD. He works primarily as an editorial illustrator but has a strong passion for sequential art which he creates on the side.

    Sidney Davidson

    Instructor