For Top Comic Art Classes Pennsylvania Can Be A Great Choice

By Katina Brady


With comic books and their characters now firmly entrenched in the mainstream entertainment culture, interest in this type of storytelling is higher than ever before. Many would-be artists both young and old have a desire to break into the industry and perhaps create the next popular series of books or graphic novels to thrill and delight their fans. For anyone seeking out the top comic art classes Pennsylvania has many options available.

Decades ago, there were essentially two ways to get into the industry. The first was to spend many years studying the greats of the day and mastering the craft at home. The second involved getting a job working as an understudy to an active professional artist. Basically, the choices for aspiring artists were little unchanged from what they had been for all artists throughout history.

With the increase in the medium's popularity, a new generation of artists felt compelled to teach their craft to the next generation of artists. Joe Kubert, a great comics artist in his own right, was among the first to open such a school. As other artists watched that school's graduates emerge to take the industry by storm, other schools began offering similar courses of study in places like Pennsylvania.

These schools and workshops offer students an opportunity to learn everything from the basics to advanced storytelling and production techniques. The goal of the school setting is to provide each new student with everything he or she needs to produce comics that meet or exceed industry standards. To accomplish that, there are a variety of different skill sets that are addressed in the courses.

Obviously, some skills are common to those taught in other schools for artists. Human anatomy is one such course, and a great deal of time is spent in its study. Comics tend to be stories about people, so artists need to know how to draw them. That requires learning both the natural proportions of the human body, and the so-called heroic proportions often used in these tales.

Different tools, mediums, and techniques are also studied. In addition to pencil drawing, students are also expected to develop expertise with India ink, as well as the pens and brushes used in the inking process. They learn how to vary line thickness, work with shadows, and create mood in their drawings. Many courses also offer supplementary instruction in mediums like watercolor, as well as instruction in various graphics software programs.

Of course, no class on comics would be complete without looking at sequential storytelling. The craft of telling a story with pictures is a highly specialized one. As a result, it requires knowledge in a variety of different areas, including things like story pace, panel composition, scene perspective, and how to translate a writer's script into the paneled scenes needed to tell the story.

Year after year, the movie industry releases new blockbuster movies using characters from the vast universe of comics. That continuing trend has helped to fuel artist interest in becoming part of the industry that creates those characters. Thankfully, those artists can learn the craft they love by attending one of the fine artist schools in this area.




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