Graphic Drawing Workshops

For 2021 University of Bedfordshire have teamed up with Nicole to offer more drawing workshops for schools/young people in Luton. Workshops will be delivered online via zoom, and there will be a series of short video tutorials posted on this page. Nicole hopes to inspire young people to get drawing and create their own short graphic stories. We are inviting young artists to send us their comic drawings to be included in a digital publication and summer exhibition inside the Mall in Luton. Anyone can take part in this project, and submit their own one page story to be included in this latest edition. More details on how to submit your story are at the bottom of this page. The gallery above has just a few examples of the brilliant drawings created by young artists from Luton.

The deadline for submission is June 7th 2021.

There is a free downloadable 4 page guide on how to create your own graphic short story.

To download your free 4 page workshop click here; How to Draw a Short Graphic Story

Graphic novels, zines & comics are a great way to express yourself through sharing a story inspired by your experiences. Visual storytelling improves the sharing and learning of ideas, values and cultures. Drawings and illustrations increase the impact of words and helps the reader understand and empathise with the characters better.

This creative education project is being supported by the Aspire Higher Programme and the Luton LCEP (Local Cultural Education Partnership). To read more about the Graphic Novel for Luton project & exhibition, click on this link.

To help you get started here is a series of 15 minute and 30 minute drawing exercises you can do to practise and improve your  comic drawing skills.

To download a pdf of four drawing workshops instructions for classes click here; DRAWING Zoom workshop by Nicole Mollett

Useful links and resources about comics & learning how to create a graphic novel:

  1. Understanding Comics (the Invisible Art) by Scott McCloud link here
  2.  Making Comics by Lynda Barry. Read a review with excerts here
  3. Upside Down comics, this website has great tips and a random story generator to get you started here
  4. Broken Frontier, a website which reviews all the latest comics and graphic novels here
  5. Laydeez Do Comics or LDComics, the largest women-led comics forum in the UK here

This project is being adapted to meet the current Covid regulations, and therefore some of the live face to face workshops will now be delivered online.   The worksheets will be printed and delivered to secondary schools across Luton, when the pupils return to learning in school.

HOW TO ENTER

If you work in a school or community youth group and want to receive more information/register your interest in booking an artist lead workshop, please contact:

Jitty Marwaha – LCEP Project and Partnerships Officer jitty.marwaha@beds.ac.uk

To submit your comic drawings for the publication or exhibition please contact Jitty. To take part in the exhibition we need the drawings to be on paper either A4 or A3 size to fit in the frames. If you do not have the access to a scanner or a good camera, contact us and we can help arrange to have the artwork scanned.
Submit your entries for publication or exhibition accompanied by the completed LCEP Event-Activity Registration form..LCEP Event-Activity Registration Form
(The form is for monitoring purposes only, so that we can understand who is taking part in the project. You will not be contacted and your details will not be shared for any other purpose other than described. Please ask your parent or guardian to fill this in and email it with the jpeg of your work)