OWCW - Day 1

DAY 1: FOUR-PANEL JUMP START!

Greetings from White River Junction, Vermont!

Whether you're new to cartooning or have been at it for awhile, this one-week cartooning workout is designed to build your
cartooning muscles with daily challenges, tips, and helpful links.

Since 2005, aspiring and working cartoonists have enrolled at The Center for Cartoon Studies to help them grow as cartoonists. Though this course can't provide the immersive experience CCS's MFA program and workshops provide, it will get you into better cartooning shape!

Ready? Let's do this.

DAY 1 CHALLENGE

Create a four-panel comic. It can be autobiographical, experimental, a collection of facts about something that interests you, or your day's to-do list. Cartooning is about finding a sequential rhythm. Think of the four-panel comic as the haiku of cartooning.

TIPS

You don't have to wait to come up with a brilliant idea first. Draw you first panel and then react to that image in the next - don't worry about writing a gag or coming up with the perfect punchline.
Draw two random images in the first and last panel, then come up with the middle panels to connect the two.
Think about your day. Did something memorable or poignant happen that you could convey in four panels? Go for it!

INSPIRATION and EXAMPLES

For five years CCS alum Dakota McFadzean '11 developed his chops by drawing a four-panel comic every day. These were eventually collected into a 368-page book, Don't Get Eaten By Anything.

The cartoonist Jen-Jen Rose draws an autobiographical webcomic called 4-Panel Life about funny moments from her day-to-day experiences.

The 4Panel Project is an experimental webcomic curated by Mark Laliberte with a wide range of contributors who draw abstract or conceptual four-panel comics.

A WORD ABOUT ART SUPPLIES

For all the assignments in this course, supplies are not the primary concern - what matters most is that you start cartooning. So whether you use the most basic of office supplies (copy paper, ballpoint pen) or go digital (drawing tablet, smartphone), fearlessly making marks is all that counts.

TODAY'S FUN FACT

In 2011 James Kochalka became Vermont's first Cartoonist Laureate. Kochalka is the godfather of the diary comic and drew his American Elf webcomic in a four panel grid every day for more than 13 years!

FINAL WORDS by Inky Solomon, CCS Legend

"The awful comic you make is always going to be better than the perfect comic you never make."

If you post your work from this week online, make sure to use the hashtag

#CCS1WeekWorkout so that other workout students can check out your work!

Page updated

Report abuse