Tom Hart Dot Net :: Teaching

Tom Hart is a professional cartoonist, digital artist, animator with over 6 years teaching experience at School of Visual Arts, Parsons, Education Alliance, Young Audiences, numerous places across the country and all over New York City.

He is the creator of Hutch Owen graphic novels and comic strips, critically acclaimed by The Comics Journal, Time.com, Publishers Weekly and the Library Journal.

ADULT TEACHING

Prospective or active:

Adult Continuing Ed SVA Students: click here
92nd Street Y Students, click here
Undergrad SVA students click here

Registration pages for upcoming adult classes:

92nd Street Y, From Gag to Strip, Tuesday Evenings starting Sept 25
SVA: Advanced Cartooning (How Comics Rule), Monday Evenings starting September 17

PERSONAL TUTORING

Comic and manga tutoring with Tom Hart, for ages 10-100. Any level. No knowledge of drawing necessary, just a drive to figure it all out and tell stories.

Recent adult students have said

"Our lessons are SO great!
"you're such a great teacher!"

And the mom of a 13 year old student says,

"it was a great experience for him and he really learned a lot-- I think he even surprised himself."

More on:

WORKSHOPS

LIBRARY WORKSHOPS!

I've given dozens of single session 2-3 hours Manga workshops at libraries all around New York and Connecticut (usually with an assistant.) We provide a brief overview and context, demonstrate professional tools and encourage the students to develop their own ideas. In many wokshops, students can take home their supplies for later play and exploration. We can also retool Manga workshop into a basic comics workshop. Many references.

Click here to see pics of a recent workshop, in Durham, CT.

A BIT OF PHILOSPHY.

I'm reminded of a comment from a interview with a Walt Kelly, who stated (somewhat adamantly): "You have to be articulate!"

In my teaching, I try to focus on learning the craft of storytelling as a way of being articulate. Of giving yourself the largest vocabulary possible, but also to give you a deep understanding of how to maneuver, access and control that vocabulary.

More importantly, in learning that vocabulary, we often learn what it is we WANT TO SAY. By working deeply and by paying attention, our own unthought thoughts and hidden aspects of our emotional narrative can reveal themselves. In other words, what I try to teach is discovering what it is you want to say and how to best say it. Through exercises and personal connection, I hope to bring you to a new place with your own ideas and inspiration, while giving you the tools to connect with your readers.

My students over the course of my 7 years of teaching continually thank me for helping them learn to access their creative fire, but also to organize it. For giving them the ability to literally find new life on the page, and the tools to keep it alive and find purchase in the mind of a reader.

Huzzah!

A former student's blog entry about the class here.

Archive of middle school teaching ideas: Storyark

Some Resources:

Archive of many amazing stories by amazing artists HERE
including: Jack Kirby | Harvey Kurtzman | Jaime Hernandez | Samm Schwartz | Peter Arno and more

Scott McCloud UNDERSTANDING COMICS Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 6

Some Diary Comics

Some Biography Comics

Some Examples of Location, Place and Environments

Some recommended books

Andy Bugpowder's Early Comics Archive

Making your own comics