CCCAF Workshops!

FREE Hands-On Comics Workshops will be held at CCCAF in the Community Room downstairs on floor L2. First come, first seated. Workshops 1 and 3 are well suited for younger artists. For more information on the event, see here. For more on our exhibitors, see here.

10:30–11:30 AM: Mix and Match Comics Workshop
Instructor: Jerel Dye

Bring your creativity and your silly streak to this fun and unusual comics-making workshop. Learn about the way the comics work as we explore this unique medium. See just what can happen when we combine words and pictures in surprising and unexpected ways. In this workshop we will create and swap, mix and match, and tell silly, strange, and hilarious comics stories. Fun for all ages and all skill levels. (Jerel Dye, MFA, has taught art at the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, Cambridge Center for Adult Education, and Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo.)

1:00–2:00 PM: Tell Your Own Story in Comics
Instructor: Heide Solbrig

Have you thought about taking events from your own life and making them into a comic? Beginning with self-portraits, we will make character designs for real people in our lives, and learn how to take an event, idea, or daily encounter and turn it into story. Next we will organize our stories, characters, settings, and events around a three-part narrative arc. This workshop will give you a roadmap for working on your personal comic! (Heide Solbrig, MFA, PhD, is a writer, artist, and filmmaker who has taught visual storytelling at Emerson, Wheaton, Bentley, and other local colleges. She manages the Boston Comics Workspace.)

2:30–3:30 PM: A Doodling Comics Workshop
Instructor: Cara Bean

This playful workshop opens with a few sketching games to inspire your imagination. After generating interesting characters and settings, we will explore how words and pictures can come together to build comics. Topics include storytelling, page design, pacing panels, word bubble coherency, and methods for solving drawing problems. In the end you’ll be ready to write and draw your own stories inspired by the activity. Creative people of all ages are welcome. (Cara Bean, MFA, is an art teacher at Lexington High School and the author of such books as 20 Ways to Draw a Mustache.)