#amasaw

[sequentialartistsworkshop]

These bricks look like bricks.  You did it.  You did comics.

@mirandaharmony, saying since things about @inkanddestroy‘s old comics from before she attended @sequentialartistsworkshop

[sequentialartistsworkshop]

This is Eric again!

Not really answering a question but wouldn't YOU want to study comic where there is a vibrant urban student scene full of passionate artists, or would you rather sit in a snowed in cabin in Vermont trying to deal with the an angry roomate that cannot find their sweater because you are trying to hide it under the sweater you are currently wearing.

[sequentialartistsworkshop]

Part time work

Someone asked in an e-mail: How many students also had jobs while taking the year-long program? How hard is it to juggle both? What is the part-time job market like in Gainesville?

Hi, Eric here, one on the first first-year students from SAW,

I’ve stuck around Gainesville since coming down here, and halfway through the year I found a part time job. With the multiple colleges in Gainesville, there are always jobs popping up around Gainesville and the businesses are used to the high turn around of students, and are usually good about working around class schedules. I would say a majority of student have part time jobs while they attend class here. I wish would have had a little more time to work on comics (the eternal struggle!) I was able to keep things pretty straight class wise, taking the time after class to work and having a really awesome classmates that are really trying to get better and are happy to see you get better in the process were the best thing in the full year program!

[sequentialartistsworkshop]

Question emailed to SAW for our teachers: I am a self taught comic artist so I feel like my skills aren't that good. How "good" does the art and story-telling have to be to be accepted into the program?

This is Sally C – @inkanddestroy on tumblr and thisquietcity on twitter!

I read this question out loud to Tom Hart and this was his answer on how “good” your art and storytelling needs to be: His answer was that you mostly need “an ability to see and a desire to learn”.  

That being said!  There are teachers here (Justine, Leela, Kurt...) who WILL push your art and teachers who WILL push your storytelling (Tom, Leela, Kurt…) to the next level and it’s up to you how much you’re willing to be pushed!  Like anything else (school, work, magic, certain laws of physics, etc) what you put in is what you’ll get out.  If you’re willing to put in the hours and do the best you can, whatever your best may be on that day, week, month…you’ll get a lot out of SAW.  

Small press/indie/underground comics are full of people of many different backgrounds, many different skill levels, many different art styles…that’s why independent comics and small press is so great!

Personally my skill level improved IMMENSELY from before SAW and now that I’ve been hanging around SAW for 4 years.  

Before (2011): 

After (2016):

[sequentialartistsworkshop]

Question from email: How many SAW Grads end up staying in Gainesville after graduating?

This is Sally C- @inkanddestroy on tumblr and thisquietcity on twitter

Quite a few!  At least a dozen over the last four years.  Most of them have stayed involved with SAW (or art in general– one is now an apprentice at a tattoo shop).  Most of us stay involved with SAW too– we keep taking classes and workshops, we travel and represent SAW at conventions like @cakechicago and @spx and FLUKE….

I think a big factor is Gainesville’s low cost of living.  Pretty low rent if you’re not near the university (I’ve paid under $400 rent + utilities everywhere I’ve lived so far- you couldn’t get a couch for that much in NYC or SF), things are pretty close together geographically within town, farmer’s markets, bike to the prairie and see the gators sunbathing …I came to Gainesville from north Jersey and it is sooooo much less stressful living here than there or NYC.

[sequentialartistsworkshop]

Question for students of the SAW program: When you applied, did you think you would get in? What were your plans if you weren't accepted into SAW?

Roxy, recent graduate, again. Honestly, yes, I expected I would get in, but I am a pretty confident person. I also assumed that most art schools don’t expect you to be a perfect artiste when you arrive, right? You go there to learn – it’s really all about attitude. And I was right! (So if you are nervous, take heart!)

My plans if I didn’t get in, again being radically honest, were not fully formed but probably something along the lines of: continue to live in NYC and work at jobs I hated, do what art I could on nights and weekends but all the while thinking it was never enough time, never enough time, begrudgingly nursing a growing quiet despair that I would never touch even the barest edge of the possibilities that I knew myself capable of. 

(One of many sad emo self portraits, most likely done in the midst of face-tearing NYC winter)

But yay, that didn’t happen!

[sequentialartistsworkshop]

Question from email: Did you make a lot of comics before going to SAW? How has your work-output changed since finishing this program?

This is Sally C– @inkanddestroy on tumblr and thisquietcity on twitter!  

I’ve been making comics in some form or another since I was 14 (I met SAW founder Tom Hart when he was my teacher at School of Visual Arts’ Pre-College program). I made a few short comics, I didn’t finish a lot of comics partially due to also being in high school/college, and partially due to lack of confidence in my ideas/my skill level. I dropped out of college and became part of the 2012-2013 inaugural class at SAW.  

My work output has changed drastically since attending SAW, though.  I made over 100 pages between late 2012 and early 2014.  My output of personal projects fluctuates now but that’s because I’ve been able to get work in comics in and illustration through my connections with SAW.  I’ve become a much faster and more confident artist, which helps immensely.

Pardon my face:  here’s a picture of me with some of the 100+ pages of output from my first year and a half taking classes at SAW!

[sequentialartistsworkshop]

Sneak Peek: Virtual Open House Question ‘Bout the Application Essay

My essay reads like a monologue or a story I am telling a friend. It isn't like a normal college essay that one would turn in for a grade. Is that ok or should I make it more "text-book"?

Answers to this and more at SAW’s Virtual Open House tonight at 9pm EST! Ask us here, on Twitter with the hashtag #amaSAW, or via email like this lovely inquirer [email protected]