Discover Top Posts Tagged with #designandbuildcomics

The start of Amaya's werewolf transformation within the calling card I made for myself within my #designandbuildcomics class (at Breezy's Studio)

#designandbuildcomics

Teaching Comics Today...

I have taught at the School of Visual Arts for over a decade (how did that happen?) and I'm beginning to see a new trend among my students: the democracy of the Internet has truly taken hold with them. They realize that the line between professional and student doesn't exist on places like Tumblr. In the last year I've seen more and more students get way more web savvy than me (which isn’t a hard bar to cross). They create personas and gain audiences which gives them more confidence so they make more art. They are extremely entrepreneurial, students open stores and sell prints, mini comics, patches, and t-shirts. I'm seeing students that are far more aware of their niche market than ever before. They might not be the most experienced at what they do but they know that there's audience waiting for an instructional cooking poster or a zine about their goth punk band.

Now I realize that this is a very superficial assessment of the modern cartooning student. When I talk about web savviness I'm not talking about how good their actual content is. They’re really sculpting a facade (but artists always sculpt facades). However, I've noticed that even though I’m describing surface identity, the quality of their actual work has not diminished. If anything, they realize that the things that get noticed and “hearted” on Tumblr are the really beautiful, well designed things. This makes students think more about the finish than the process. So those that are really interested in narrative work on creating compelling narratives. Those that are interested in branding and making cute pin-ups do that. Either way, the quality is mostly better.

This brings me back to a question that I’ve asked myself for a while...how do you teach in this environment? What good is an SVA cartooning degree if the real school is posting on Tumblr? I feel like the heart of what I do now is making students better editors. I want them to go into the digital world with their eyes open. And so here are the questions that I throw out to you, comics readers, and creators, young and old: Tumblr is great for getting your name out, but it does exploit people for their art? Yes and no. I personally would not post finished work of mine on Tumblr unless I couldn’t find a home for it, because I need to get paid--but I realize that selling pieces to companies is something I’ve built over time. I make the pieces I want and then see if I can sell them. I am not sure if what my students are doing now results in a paycheck. Does everything they do get washed up in a maelstrom of ephemera, or is it even more permanent, and is print more ephemeral? This is an ongoing discussion, but I would love to hear from all sides on the issue.

#designandbuildcomics #laurenweinstein #teaching

Comics Poster Show Today!!!!

Every hour or so, Design And Build Comics will present a poster-comic. In real life, these are 18 x 24 prints. All brand new work done this semester by the fabulous members of SVA's Design and Build class. Please enjoy.

#designandbuildcomics