Teacher, cartoonist, animator, Tom Hart is creator of Hutch Owen graphic novels and comic strips, critically acclaimed by The Comics Journal, Time.com, Publishers Weekly and the Library Journal.
"One of my favorite cartoonists of the decade"- Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics
ONLINE TUTORING!
Do your character's arms look like hammers, or tacos or something worse? Can people tell who's talking to whom in your comics? Do people really have any idea what's going on in your comic?
Can't think of any more ideas? Want to go deeper into your characters, your ideas, your themes? Want to get more personal, political, universal, specific, serious, dramatic, humorous whatever?
Think Dore was that guy who did Cheech Wizard (Cheech who?)? Think Steig is just a guy who made Shrek? Need a shot of comics history? An overview and a way to think about your own place in the medium?
Expert teacher Tom Hart works online, too, via email and attachments. Via either 10 session unit (abbreviated from my School of Visual Arts Principles of Cartooning class) or an otherwise individual method specific to your needs.
EISNER, HARVEY AND IGNATZ NOMINEE. XERIC WINNER, 1994. 6 years teaching experience at School of Visual Arts and also at Parsons and various other places- too many, I forget.
Offering extensive critiques and guidance. Will mark up your comics, layouts and scans. From specifics of panel arrangement, panel composition, inking to transition, ideas, story writing, dialogue etc. All of it except coloring. Don't ask me about coloring.
Handouts and pdfs to be supplied by me offering specifics towards student's main needs. A strength of mine is to understand what the student is trying to say before he or she even knows it. See below for philosophical tidbits.
For more info, e-mail Tom at: hutchowen [at] gmail.com
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!
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 Examples of Location, Place and Environments
Andy Bugpowder's Early Comics Archive
Printers and printing your own comics
Some pics by Eduard Muybridge here
Tom's 2004 tutorial from notion, inspiration and theft to idea development to final inks and scan. (7 MB PDF)
e mail: hutchowen [ at ] gmail.com