scad comics arts forum
sometimes saying yes to something scary can lead to life changing experiences
I had the wonderful opportunity and privilege of being a guest speaker at SCAD’s Comics Arts Forum (CAF for short) this year! I was over there from Feb 11-15. It was such a special experience and I’m ever so grateful to have been a part of it!! Being asked to do any sort of talk or public speaking of any kind is extremely terrifying to me… but saying yes to this was the best thing I could have done for myself.
Again, thank you to the school, and namely Professor Chuatico (my “twin” Dani) for inviting me over take part in CAF. Thank you to the sequential arts department and all of the grad student volunteers for sacrificing your time and energy to organize everything and take care of us guests. And thank you to all the students that applied to speak with me, came to my workshop, and asked me questions throughout the week! It was such a pleasure to see everyone’s work and get to know everyone in the department. Very cool and epic moment… Saving this in my core memory bank!
The sheer amount of coordination and organization by the SEQA department was so impressive. It’s incredible that the school could fund this event, but even more impressive was how streamlined the schedule was and how much they squeezed out of us across the 3 full days we were in town for (we didn’t have to do anything on the days we flew in and out). We were so freaking tired everyday!!! So I can only imagine how exhausting it was for all the people who were directly involved in every part of it. And what an opportunity for those students to have so many chances to speak with a handful of professionals throughout the event! Education is cool and I’m kind of inspired by this whole experience (and being on campus).
There was one student that came into my one-on-one meeting not really knowing what to do with their life post graduation despite being a senior- which is fine. Sometimes school doesn’t inspire a career right away, and that’s fine. But they came to my zine workshop afterwards in the same day and the whole interaction was so funny… I hope they figure out what they wanna do and I wish them good luck!
I drew that comic like 5 minutes before I needed to get up and board my plane, so she’s kinda messy. I just really needed to immortalize the interaction because I thought it was so funny… Most of the students gave me their business cards, but I don’t remember most of their names (there were so many!!! I’m sorry!!!) but I really want a copy of that zine- like, SO BAD. Maybe someday I’ll find it somewhere on the internet or something and try to buy it.
Speaking of funny little incidents. I spilled my hot bevvy all over one student’s laptop immediately as I finished giving him notes and I was mortified. How could I do that?! Why did that happen?! About a day later, I got an email from him saying it was ok. I thought I owed someone a whole ass laptop (fear). Sorry again to that student, damn.
Going back to zines: I chose to run an x-fold zine workshop! For the most part, we just needed to show up to SCAD and the department would take care of anything and everything for CAF- but we needed to prepare one thing each: a workshop! I was told to make sure there was an interactive section, so the only thing I could think of that wouldn’t just be a lecture: was making zines. The other guest speakers prepared much cooler and more informative workshops haha, and I really wish I could’ve attended them myself!! But I hope the students that came to my workshop enjoyed it regardless. I did a few storyboard demos in sbpro for them, too. Secret little treat heheh.
This was the slideshow I came up with for the workshop so that the students would have some kind of visual guide besides me folding and talking along with them:
I brought a bunch of x-fold zines from my own personal collection to show as an example! The main one I used in the slideshow “The Space Between” is by Haewon Lee, also known as bigandchewy. Check their work out! I’m a big fan… most of my tattoos were designed and tattooed by them. :-)
Now that I’ve had a taste of teaching… I’m yearning for more!!! I’d really like to run it back and do a zine workshop here in LA. Or help out with some existing workshops? Or teach something else that is specific to my skillset and interesting to maybe learn… if anyone has any suggestions or any workshop ideas that they’d wanna learn from me- please reach out!! I’d love to know and gauge interest. Teaching and learning is cool and neat.
Speaking of learning, I’m planning on taking another storyboard class this year. The last class I took was Trey’s class at CDA, back in late 2019/early 2020. I took that class and ended up fruitfully working for a few years! And with how dry and desolate the industry feels these days, I reckon it’s time I go back and learn some more. I’m still part of the study group, but my main focus for this “semester” is to work on my sketchbook and finally climb towards doing plein air. Every year I tell myself I’m gonna learn how to plein air paint… and I fail every year… it’s been years… so I’m just doing sketches and ink drawings when I go out, or draw from photographs. Hoping to dabble in watercolor eventually. Mike Dutton is a big inspo for plein air and Yon Hui Lee is a big inspo for watercolor paintings in general. I wanna somehow emulate whimsy in my paintings like they do eventually…
Instead of resting in between all the work we did at SCAD and dinner (I think the period of 5pm-7pm) I wandered the halls of magnolia hall and drew in my sketchbook. I wish I had the opportunity to draw more and explore the haunted ass town of Savannah! But we were all exhausted and there wasn’t a ton of extra time. It’s a cute town with very cute little victorian houses and lots of greenery, so I would love to see it again someday!
Please take some time to check out everyone’s work and maybe give them a follow and support their comics! They’re all incredibly skilled and talented and wonderful human beings. I’ll link their instagrams through their names, and add their respective website/portfolio links beside it:
Again, I had the most amazing time and I feel so lucky to have had this opportunity to 1. play a part in these kids’ education and 2. meet these wonderful people whom I now consider lifelong friends… I don’t even care if they feel the same way, I love them all so dearly now haha! I really hope we all run into each other again someday. ^_^
Truthfully, my health was deteriorating rapidly while I was over there. I had this crazy flareup on my neck and was generally swollen for most of the trip. I felt like a zombie lowkey… and my lymph nodes were swollen… I’m still adjusting to my new normal of extreme inflammation these days, among other bullshit. And despite all the pain, I endured. And I endured because it was a worthwhile thing to do (to go out there and teach a little) and I wanted to show up as best as I could, despite it all. And I’m glad I endured, because I am now left with these beautiful memories. And I will continue to endure!
Thanks as always for being here! Thanks for reading all my comics and ramblings. It’s always a joy to draw and write these. If you’re able to, please consider supporting my work monetarily! I’m still looking for my next boarding gig, and my health is keeping me from doing as many baking popups as I did last year. But I have lots of stickers and zines available on my shop! And you’re always welcome to support me through substack directly. Otherwise, keep reading my stuff! See you in the next one. :-)
-nicey
So cool!!!
Wow SCAD sounds so cool! Have you heard of Crucial Comix run by Shay Mirk? They do online classes and workshops and artist talks, I took their Memoir Comics class and was amazed how intimate and lovely it was even online! Doing a workshop for them could be a nice teaching opportunity maybe??