About the Class

Advanced Inking Techniques is an accredited college course offered at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, MI and taught by Taylor Mazer, an award winning full time freelance illustrator and fine artist. 

Class is currently running for the Fall 2022 semester at KCAD.

This class will cover all aspects of pen and ink with an emphasis on technique exploration for use in illustration, fine art, comic art, etc. Students will be using micron pens, copic markers, a zig clean color brush, a quill tip pen with india ink, brushes, etc. They will be using literally any form of pen and ink. 

Students spend a good amount of time on the basics; clean line work, precise layouts, design drawing, perspective, which are all important in ink. This class is about rendering with line. We discuss how things are built, to have a better understanding of shape and form so that students can produce a series of 3-dimensional objects with lines In a way that makes sense to the viewer. We spend a good deal of time discussing composition. The goal is to Get the viewer sucked into your piece and staying there for as long as possible. I want students to think, "what is the point of this drawing?" and craft everything around that. 

I go through a massive amount of illustrators, fine artists, and comic book artists discussing with the class how each of their compositions are laid out, what tools they used, and how they used them. My goal is for students to leave my class with a solid and complete understanding of the medium and how to make money with it.

- Utilize the medium of pen and ink in virtually any form (comic art, illustration, fine art, etc.). 

- Render organic and non-organic shapes with line. 

- Have a better understanding of perspective drawing and atmospheric perspective. 

- Have an understanding of all aspects of framing and presentation of their art. Including: framing materials, archival framing methods, how to cut mat board, selecting pre-made frames, how to build a frame, etc. Although it is not required, I highly encourage students to frame one of the assigned drawings during the semester so that I may offer any help that is needed through the framing process.

While the main pen used in class will be microns, nearly every type of pen or marker will be presented. If it makes marks with ink, it will be discussed. Having said that, I encourage students to branch out and try different types of materials depending on what they are interested in.

As much as This class is about drawing with lines in ink it is equally about being creative with the medium student's choose to draw in; breaking the mold of “pen and ink.” Just because the general consensus of this medium is a black pen and paper doesn’t mean that’s what student's are required to do. it is about Being creative, and drawing something in a way no one has ever seen before.