Description
Ideal For:
Students ages 9+ who are interested in digital drawing, character design, visual storytelling, and introductory animation. Suitable for beginners as well as students with some traditional art experience who want to explore digital media while continuing to strengthen their core art skills.
What They Learn:
This course combines traditional art foundations with digital drawing and creative technology. Students learn how to develop ideas from sketch to finished digital artwork while building skills in composition, colour, character design, environment design, and visual storytelling. Introductory animation is also included to help students explore movement and bring their artwork to life.
Skills Developed:
- Traditional drawing foundations, including line, shape, proportion, form, and observation
- Composition, perspective, colour, light, and shadow
- Digital drawing and painting techniques
- Using layers, brushes, selections, and other digital tools
- Character design, expressions, poses, clothing, and personality
- Background and environment design
- Visual storytelling and scene development
- Moving from paper sketches to finished digital artwork
- Basic storyboarding and planning for movement
- Introductory 2D animation and simple frame-by-frame techniques
- Short looping animation and simple character movement
- Presenting artwork and explaining the creative process
Example Activities:
- Sketching original characters on paper before developing them digitally
- Creating character expressions, poses, and costume designs
- Designing imaginary environments and backgrounds
- Practicing colour, lighting, and digital painting techniques
- Creating digital illustrations from traditional sketches
- Developing simple visual stories and storyboards
- Making short looping animations such as blinking, movement, or changing expressions
- Exploring basic frame-by-frame animation
- Final project: original digital illustration or short introductory animation project
Goal:
To help students build strong art foundations while learning how to use digital tools as part of the creative process. Students develop the ability to move from idea and sketch to digital artwork, while strengthening creativity, visual communication, and technical skills across both traditional and digital media.
Materials & Equipment:
Traditional art materials used during class are included in the course fee.
Students are required to bring their own compatible digital device and accessories for digital projects. An iPad or compatible tablet with an Apple Pencil or stylus is recommended. A laptop with a drawing tablet may also be suitable.
Any required apps or software will be discussed before the course begins.
Weekly Class Schedule:
Thursdays 5:30–7:00 PM
Sundays 10:00–11:30 AM
We offer limited spots in each small class. Please email [email protected] to check availability.
