Creative Comics with Randy Wood
August 18th, 2008 by Joseph
Meet Randy Wood: Comic Artist!
Last week, we talked about how anyone can be a comic artist and thought it would be great to speak with a comic strip teacher. I checked on Teachstreet for “Comics in Seattle, WA” and was able to find Randy Wood, a teacher at Gage Academy and Pratt Institute; and working two-blocks away from us! I gave him a call and he was happy to explore the world of comic strip teaching over a cup of coffee.
“self promotional” by Randy Wood
Randy has been a self-taught comic artist since he was ten years old, and hasn’t held up since. Recently, he’s been teaching all types of different groups from young energetic children to experienced artistic adults, but they all want to learn the same thing, as he mentions, “They’re all different, but they’re all the same”. Contrast to my philosophy of comic strip creation, Randy has a different approach which draws from his several years of experience. He feels that starting with drawing initially makes more sense since the students are expecting it. If you’re a comic teacher out there, I’d love to know what you think. And just to give you an idea, the following is a typical workshop with Randy:
- Introduction to comics
- Visual art / drawing
- Developing characters
- Developing story
- Creating a comic
Although the curriculum is flexible from group to group, everyone gets a good idea of creating a comic strip. He enjoys teaching people about the art he loves and getting the gratification that someone learned something new. And after teaching it for several years, he feels like he’s learned as much from the classes as his students have, “Teaching makes me a better artist”. There are several resources he mentioned that have been helpful in his classes and maybe helpful for any aspiring artist in our community:
One piece of advice Randy gave to me as a young artist is, “DRAW, draw, draw, draw, and draw!” and I really feel thats what an artist should keep constantly doing. If you’d like to take one of his classes, he’s teaching a comics class at the Pratt Institute:
Happy learning!