Cartooning Folklore & Family History With Zawadi Noël
In this six-week workshop, you’ll learn the elements of cartooning while crafting a visual narrative born from family history and lore.
Course Description
Each of us has a unique story or two to tell. Some of these stories have been passed down from limb to limb of our family trees, while others emerge from lived experience; others are born from a blend of history and imagination. In this six-week course with cartoonist and educator Zawadi Noël, you’ll learn how to illustrate these narratives in a series of panels—from family history to personal journeys, combined with a bit of mythology—as a means of inviting others deeper into our own worlds. We’ll explore a range of drawing techniques, visual problem solving, and practice composing images from session to session. At the end of this course, you’ll have a strong understanding of the elements of visual storytelling, as well as a complete illustrated narrative of your own to share.
No prior cartooning experience necessary.
Syllabus at a Glance
There are six total sessions included in this purchase, each lasting for two hours on six consecutive Mondays beginning March 8.
Session 1 (Monday, 3/8, 7–9 PM ET): Exploring character
Session 2 (Monday, 3/15, 7–9 PM ET): Exploring story
Session 3 (Monday, 3/22, 7–9 PM ET): Exploring setting
Session 4 (Monday, 3/29, 7–9 PM ET): Developing pages
Session 5 (Monday, 4/5, 7–9 ET): Drafting pages
Session 6 (Monday, 4/12, 7–9 PM ET): Presenting pages
Between Sessions
Students will be assigned short, weekly cartooning assignments exploring character, setting, and storytelling. The comic panels you create from these assignments will be incorporated into a larger comic you'll create by the end of the course.
Atlas Obscura Online Courses
Our online courses offer opportunities for participants to emerge with new skills, knowledge, connections, and perspectives through multi-session classes designed and taught by expert instructors. Courses can take one of two forms: Seminars are intimate, interactive classes—capped at nine to 25 students—exploring topics and crafts through discussion, workshops, assignments, and in-class activities. We also offer lecture series that can be attended live, or viewed via a recording that will be shared within 72 hours after each session airs. Class recordings for lecture series will be available with a temporary password for up to two weeks following the final session of the course.
To learn more about our current course offerings, please visit www.atlasobscura.com/online-courses.
Once registered, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Eventbrite that will provide access to each class meeting. Please save the confirmation email as you’ll use it to access your course via Zoom on each scheduled date and time.
Zawadi Noël is a cartoonist, illustrator, and educator with 18 years of experience in the field. Since receiving a degree in cartooning from The School of Visual Arts, he has taught art to all age groups, and has created artwork for clients such as Marvel and Disney. Zawadi’s main focus is personal visual narrative. Through his company, MyHeroComics, Zawadi has illustrated comics for individuals to honor and celebrate loved ones.
This is an interactive, small-group, seminar-style course that meets over Zoom. Students may be invited to participate in discussions, workshop their projects, and receive feedback from the course instructor.
In most cases, instructors will use Google Classroom to communicate with students outside of class. While students aren’t required to use Google Classroom, instructors will be using this platform to post resources, discussion questions, and assignments, when applicable.
There are 14 spots available on this experience.
This course is geared toward adults (18+), but can accommodate younger students.
