Learn on your own but not alone
All workshops give you access to the instructors via the Lean Into Art Forums!
All workshops give you access to the instructors via the Lean Into Art Forums!
LIVE Online Workshops
The full classroom experience!
The full classroom experience!
Downloadable Workshops
Learn at your own pace!
Learn at your own pace!
Hands-on practice
Get the most out of your workshops: turn in assignments, get feedback, and dive deeper into learning!
Get the most out of your workshops: turn in assignments, get feedback, and dive deeper into learning!
Choose from our growing library of topics
Nearly 40 hours of enrichment, fun, new skills, and creative learning options to choose!
Absolute Con-Sense: 50 Strategies to Double Your Fun, Triple Your Contacts, and Quadruple Your Profits at Your Next Comic Book Convention
Comic Conventions can be a great opportunity to sell your products, build your fanbase, and network with your peers. However, when approached the wrong way, they can also be stressful, unprofitable time sinks that make you question whether or not they're worth the trouble. Well, they are, and in this workshop, Tyler James will offer 50 clear, actionable strategies for making cons work for you. Whether you're getting ready to attend your first convention, or you've been on the con circuit a while and feel like you're not seeing the returns you would like, this workshop is for you. With convention season is right around the corner, Absolute Con-Sense will help you make this your best convention year yet.
Tyler James
- 90 Minutes: Picking Fonts, Designing Balloons, and Intro to Sound Effects
- LAB (2 hours): Bring your work to the lab for critique, review, and discussion on works completed
- Session 02 (2 hours): Advanced Balloon Design, Alternate Voices, Advanced Sound Effect Design, and Integrating the Sounds into Photoshop
- 90 Minutes total, 1 session
- live+download
- upcoming workshop
- March 2012
FTAM! Designing Sound Elements in Adobe Illustrator
Learn techniques of creating sound elements (word balloons, sound effects) using Adobe Illustrator while also getting under the hood of some of the principles of sound design in comics!
Jerzy Drozd
- Session 01 (2 hours): Picking Fonts, Designing Balloons, and Intro to Sound Effects
- LAB (2 hours): Bring your work to the lab for critique, review, and discussion on works completed
- Session 02 (2 hours): Advanced Balloon Design, Alternate Voices, Advanced Sound Effect Design, and Integrating the Sounds into Photoshop
- 6 hours total, 3 sessions
- live+download options
- upcoming workshop
- January 2012
30 Classes Keynotes
Keynote: Intentional learning combined with intuition and gut preferences can lead us to interesting creative experiences!
Closing Keynote: Reflection as a helpful tool and looking back at a month of adventures thinking about what went well and what we'd like to improve upon!
Jerzy Drozd and Rob Stenzinger
- Keynote
- Closing Keynote
- 2.5 hours total, 2 sessions
- download
Comics Fundamentals
In this four-part series we'll explore how to build a comics story from the ground up! There's a lot to consider when making a comic: developing a dynamic cast of characters, defining your world, devising visually exciting pages, and more. And what about figuring out your options for getting your work to your audience? This series of interactive presentations, followed by hands-on assignments in the forum, will provide you with some context and options in navigating those waters.
Jerzy Drozd
- Comics Fundamentals Session 1
- Comics Fundamentals Session 2
- Comics Fundamentals Session 3
- Comics Fundamentals Session 4
- 4.5 hours total, 4 sessions
- download
Who Needs Art Anyway? The Role of Creativity in Child Development
Join Kate for this family-focused workshop on the importance of creativity in children’s lives. Learn how to use your art/storytelling/design skills to nurture your child’s confidence and curiosity along with their emotional and cognitive development; all key skills for academic readiness. Strategies for integrating creative family rituals into busy family life, easy creative projects, and tips for cranking up the fun will be shared.
Kate Shields Stenzinger
- Who Needs Art Anyway
- 1.5 hours total, 1 session
- download
Storytelling to Make Your Comic's UI Awesome
How do you make your webcomic, comic app, or ebook user-friendly and engaging? In this interactive workshop, cartoonist and app developer Rob Stenzinger will demonstrate how you can combine user-centric design principles with storytelling experience to design and construct an interactive home for your digital comic.
Rob Stenzinger
- Storytelling to Make Your Comic's UI Awesome
- 1hr 18min total, 1 session
- download
Creating Crazy Characters
In this workshop, we'll explore fundamental concepts to creating crazy characters. We'll discuss the importance of the line of action in capturing a pose, the use of basic forms to build and pose characters, the importance of clear silhouettes, and how simple forms can be combined to push your character designs to the EXTREME!
Krishna Sadasivam
- Creating Crazy Characters 1 (1:01:46)
- Creating Crazy Characters 2 (1:14:56)
- Creating Crazy Characters 3 (1:04:43)
- Creating Crazy Characters 4 (1:07:01)
- 4.5 hours total, 4 sessions
- download
Foundations of Dynamic Linework
Smart use of line is one of the surest ways to take your work from looking amateurish to professional. And you don't need a super steady hand to do it either, you just have to understand some basic principles. In this presentation we cover the fundamentals of line theory; how to vary line weight, creating focus, and using to detail to reinforce structure.
Brandon Dayton
- Foundations of Dynamic Linework
- 45min total, 1 session
- download
Turning Jokes Into Comics: Laughing Yeti Monkey Spaghetti
Learn techniques of creating sound elements (word balloons, sound effects) using Adobe Illustrator while also getting under the hood of some of the principles of sound design in comics!
Rob Stenzinger
- Turning Jokes Into Comics
- 1hr 23min total, 1 session
- download
Creating Compelling Characters
In comics and visual storytelling, character is king. In this workshop, Tyler James, orchestrator of the popular 30 Characters Challenge, will lead a workshop on how to create characters readers care about. Full of examples pulled from comics, pop culture, and from past entries from Tyler’s annual 30 Characters Challenge event, the workshop will explore the three keys to creating compelling characters. Tyler will share a number of character development tools that he and others have found exceptionally useful in creating new characters.
Tyler James
- Creating Compelling Characters
- 1hr 14min total, 1 session
- download
Labs - Creative Topics Variety Pack!
Nearly 11 hours (10:52:29) of labs from 30 Classes in 30 Days! Each lab presents a kickoff topic with in depth discussion and examples covering topics such as:
- LAB 01 - Visual Rhythm (2:02:46)
- LAB 02 - Introduction to Art Automation (1:46:40)
- LAB 03 - Creating a Cast of Characters (1:56:18)
- LAB 04 - Writing and Drawing Serial Comics... The DRAMATIC REVEAL! (1:28:15)
- LAB 05 - Introduction to HTML5 Comic UI (2:05:56)
- LAB 06 - Using Artificial Deadlines as a Creative Tool (1:32:34)
Jerzy Drozd and Rob Stenzinger
- LAB 01 - Visual Rhythm (2:02:46)
- LAB 02 - Introduction to Art Automation (1:46:40)
- LAB 03 - Creating a Cast of Characters (1:56:18)
- LAB 04 - Writing and Drawing Serial Comics... The DRAMATIC REVEAL! (1:28:15)
- LAB 05 - HTML5 Comic UI Intro (2:05:56)
- LAB 06 - Using Artificial Deadlines as a Creative Tool (1:32:34)
- 11 hours total, 6 sessions
- download
Lettering with Adobe Illustrator
Learn techniques of creating sound elements (word balloons, sound effects) using Adobe Illustrator while also getting under the hood of some of the principles of sound design in comics!
Jerzy Drozd
- Lettering with Adobe Illustrator
- 1hr 16min total, 1 session
- download
The Dramaturgy of Sillyness
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Yet good ideas are hard to come by. This class on improvisational cartoons will not teach you make good ideas, but how to come up with with a lot of ideas in a in a short amount of time. With only stick-figures and sillyness as your weapons, you will create a whole bunch of short comics based on various imagnation-excercises. And with the tools to create an idea out of nothing, hopefully you can shift through the gravel and get to the gold.
Kim Holm
- The Dramaturgy of Sillyness
- 1hr 49min total, 1 session
- download
Making Videogames From Your Comics
You make comics and play videogames... wouldn't it be awesome to make a game starring your characters and comic world? In this interactive workshop, game developer and cartoonist Rob Stenzinger will introduce the handy game design "fun loop" concept and together you'll sketch game concepts and fun loops based on comic characters and setting.
Rob Stenzinger
- Videogames
- 1hr total, 1 session
- download
An Introduction to the Super Rad World of Color
An introductory course on color theory and how to put it into practice. Make your comics, children's books, and illustrations really sing. We'll explore what different colors communicate to a reader and how you can use that knowledge to strongly communicate mood and tone. By using color intentionally you can bring focus to your work that your audience will feel viscerally.
Kevin Cross
- An Introduction to the Super Rad World of Color
- 1hr 27min total, 1 session
- download
Digitally Organic Artwork
Creating art digitally can easilly create a very digital look. This class is for those of you who already know how to use Photoshop, but want to either create something from scratch that seems organic, or better preserve the organic quality of scanned art when digitalizing it. Cartoonist Kim Holm will show how he uses various effects and texture-layers to make your art get a intangibly digital organic quality.
Kim Holm
- Digitally Organic Artwork
- 1hr 1min total, 1 session
- download
Coloring with Adobe Photoshop Elements
You don't need the full Adobe CS design suite to color like a professional! In this interactive workshop, cartoonist Jerzy Drozd will show you how to digitally clean up your line art, establish a convenient workflow for coloring your images, and some techniques to shade and refine your coloring.
Jerzy Drozd
- Coloring with Adobe Photoshop Elements
- 44min total, 1 session
- download
Headline Mashup
Ideas are easy to come by–the hard part is turning them into a story! In this hands-on interactive workshop you will be presented with three random headlines from the newspaper, and select three random objects. You will then be challenged to combine these elements into an eight-page mini-comic! A fun improvisational storytelling workshop where you’ll be surprised with what you create.
Jerzy Drozd
- Headline Mashup
- 39min total, 1 session
- download
Sequences & Consequences
Learn how the tone and plot of your comics story can change through a simple rearrangement of elements! In this interactive workshop you will create a comic on a series of 3x5” index cards. You will then change the sequence of panels to create a new way of looking at the story, or discover an entirely new narrative.
Jerzy Drozd
- Sequences & Consequences
- 49min total, 1 session
- download
Manga is a Medium
Manga is just another word for comics, yet within Manga lies an amazing alternative voice! Often overlooked by the western comics fans and creators, the medium of Manga contains powerful storytelling principles that can be utilized by anyone.
In this workshop, we will dissect pages from many different types of manga, approach not only understanding the unique language of these comics, but also what we can use and apply in our own work.
Kasey Van Hise
- Manga is a Medium
- 1hr 3min total, 1 session
- download