Live Class Schedule

Lee White · 19 Sept 2016, 21:25

Hey guys,

I have a quick question for you. As we plan to launch the live component to SVS, we would love feedback on the class selection. Which of these would you prefer to go along with the Portfolio class starting in January? More classes will be launched in spring and Summer too....

Thanks for your feedback! : )

January Classes:

Portfolio Class: This is a class made for students with a good amount of work in their portfolio. We will look at the overall body of work and the direction they want to go to focus on specific assignments they may be missing. In addition, we will polish existing work to make the strongest impression possible. Business Strategy will be discussed as well.

Basic Photoshop for illustrators: A beginning class for photoshop newbies to get up to speed (to allow better engagement in the higher level classes). Basic interface, painting, etc. More of a photoshop class than illustration.
Digital painting: medium level class that focuses on really learning to use photoshop as an illustration tool
Illustration 1: A basic illustration course that is an introduction to the field. Assignments will be given from a few different of illustration (book covers, children's book, editorial, etc.)
Gesture drawing for illustration: This is based on my Drawing for Animation class I've taught for years that focuses on drawing and designing characters in engaging poses. Emphasis is on getting good solid poses and building your character around it. This was a 200 level class when I taught it at the university level.
Children's book illustration: Portfolio building class for the kidlit industry

The price point for these classes will be around $550 (ish) and will be 6-8 weeks long typically. Some may differ from this, but this is what we are talking about...

I'm thinking that Illustration 101 might be the most logical choice given everyone's diverse skills and background. Let me know what you think...

Lee White · 19 Sept 2016, 21:14

Maybe:

Winter 2017
Portfolio Development
Illustration 1

Spring 2017
Basic Photoshop for illustrators
Children's book illustration

Summer 2017
Digital Painting
Portfolio Development

Fall 2017
Gesture drawing for illustraion
Illustration 1
Illustration 2

Note: watercolor may be in here too somewhere. As well as other media classes...

QuietYell · 19 Sept 2016, 21:15

@Lee-White Great options. #3 Illustration 101 does seem to be a good one given the assignment aspect and diversity of assignment options. My personal interest is in #5 "Children's Book Illustration Portfolio Building" with specific interest towards hyper-targeting of pieces towards Middle Grade & YA covers/insides. But, isn't this kind of redundant to "go along with the Portfolio class"?

Lee White · 19 Sept 2016, 21:20

Not really, The portfolio class is where we take a look at everything in your specific portfolio and really see what should stay and what should go. We may tweak some existing images, discard others, and maybe do a new piece or two. People in that class could be from all over the place in terms of what their portfolio looks like. Character design, children's book, game art, book cover illustrators could all be in the same class. I will not be assigning broad assignments in there. We will also be looking at your branding and overall marketing strategy for the work.

The children's book class will focus on story telling and getting good images for that genre. Of course, there could be some overlap if you happen to get a knock out piece in the class. But most images need a bit of polishing after a class is done. That is what the portfolio class can help achieve.

Does that make sense?

amberwingart · 19 Sept 2016, 21:22

@Lee-White This sounds awesome - all of the above! I'd definitely look forward to all of those classes. And since I won't be able to take the portfolio critique until the next one that comes out (I have to save up for it), these would all be great companions to it.

QuietYell · 19 Sept 2016, 21:23

@Lee-White totally!

QuietYell · 19 Sept 2016, 21:27

@Lee-White Actually, let me rephrase per my understanding to make sure that my "Totally" is correct:

One is about refining the individual’s specific body of existing work (through add/modify/delete) along with their branding presence & marketing strategy to give them the best foot forward in pursuing work in their preferred industry niche.

The other is about creating new work towards a specific industry niche, namely, the children’s book market.

Dulcie · 19 Sept 2016, 21:32

This looks really exciting!! A great mix of classes to choose from already. My main thought is that it's nice that you're pairing up advanced-ish classes with medium/newbie classes running at the same time, which makes it less likely that anyone's favourite classes will be running at the same time. If you did the watercolour class at the same time as the portfolio class, I'd have to give up on sleep for weeks!

evilrobot · 19 Sept 2016, 21:34

I'd be interested in a few of them. The portfolio class and the children's book illustration class I think are what I'd be interested in most. As well as the illustration classes.

Lee White · 19 Sept 2016, 21:36

Let me know if there is anything I haven't mentioned that you would be interested in as well...

smceccarelli · 19 Sept 2016, 21:59

At the moment I would only take Portfolio Development as a live class. And hope that you would also have a regular schedule of live critique sessions? I am so sad I had to miss the Fall one...
Anyhow, I think you came up with an excellent program and the sequence makes sense to me. Maybe it would be nice to have a second edition of Children's book illustration in Fall too.

Lee White · 19 Sept 2016, 22:03

There will be many more classes available than the ones listed here. These are just the ones I will be teaching. Jake may run some and Will too of course. We may team up on some of them as well. We will be working to have guest instructors too...

evilrobot · 19 Sept 2016, 22:07

I'd love a graphic novel/ comic book class..covering development and story telling techniques.

Lee White · 19 Sept 2016, 22:32

Jake MAY run the comic class in January! I hope he can! : )

Lee White · 19 Sept 2016, 22:33

We will also be offering a single image critique like the Fall crit coming up on a quarterly basis. Not totally sure of that schedule yet (again, all of this is in development right now...)

Zach Roush · 19 Sept 2016, 23:19

@Lee-White Would love to see more of the crits available! Are we allowed to watch while they are done live? or just later when the recording is made available.

Lee White · 19 Sept 2016, 23:41

We could possibly do the individual image crit every other month possibly. Since it's limited to only 10 -12 people maybe it should run more.

Lee White · 20 Sept 2016, 23:00

Another question, what do you guys think about class times? Since some people will be on east coast time, others will be on west coast time, and still others in other countries I was thinking maybe having them on the weekend? Or maybe during the week in the evening?

What do you think?

QuietYell · 20 Sept 2016, 23:10

@Lee-White Class duration might be a factor here. (Meaning how long the class lasts: 1hr, 2hrs, etc.)

Lee White · 20 Sept 2016, 23:19

I'm thinking 3 hours. Anything less than that and it's hard to fit in a crit and a lecture of material. My university classes were 4 hours, but that is too long for a web class I think...