Let’s Workshop a Little!

What is it like to take a Max the Mutt workshop?

-by Grace Gardner-


For the uninformed, workshops are short courses focusing on a skill development or program training. In this case, Max the Mutt (MTM) holds workshops based on creative arts and the programs used to make art! Their appeal lies in the fact that MTM class sizes are small with a direct focus on each attending student, there are a variety of offered courses that can run for a number of classes to single sessions for all ages and skill levels, and MTM also offers workshops that can be brought into your high school’s art class!

You’re probably now asking yourself – Why should I attend a MTM workshop instead of just googling a tutorial on YouTube or something? 

  1. Well, MTM’s workshops offer courses taught by an experienced art teacher, who is often working in the industry related to the skills offered by the course. So as you can already guess, receiving instruction from an Industry Professional is more trustworthy than from someone uploading YouTube videos where you have no way to check their credentials, experience or background.
  2. MTM workshops cover the basics for artistic tools and techniques to give you a fundamental understanding of the skill being taught. The MTM workshop courses are a good choice for beginners or hobbyists with some courses designed especially for kids to teens. While being a skilled self-taught artist,  is entirely possible, you will get farther and have more luck with concept construction after you have a full grasp on the important fundamentals, and this is something MTM’s instructors are trained to provide.
  3. MTM workshops can fit into most schedules as well, with workshops lasting from one day class to multiple weeks for a more in-depth course. MTMs workshops are good for established artists or industry professionals as well for this reason. If you ever need a refresher, you can easily take a day and get a fresh perspective to hone your skills or, to update your skills, MTM offers professional development courses that run for longer periods.

Now if I haven’t convinced you yet, it’s probably because it sounds like I’m just talking up Max the Mutt without backing up my facts. Well to help change that notion I will now give to you some examples of the kinds of workshops offered at Max the Mutt and how they can help to open up the world of art for you.

Portfolio Development

The Single Session Life Drawing

A segment that follows the various teachings of Kimon Nicolaides and is a wonderful workshop lasting for, as you can guess, one session. This workshop focuses on teaching you how to draw the human figure, this workshop is good for anyone looking to add to, or refresh their knowledge on gestural figurative drawing. These classes often include nude models and encourage you to show your artwork to receive feedback from this accomplished illustrator.

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Student work by Daniela Jung, Kylah Heykoop, Jordan Marshall for “Intermediate Life Drawing” class

 

Extended Portfolio Development Program

Max the Mutt also offers a full Portfolio building course, taking place for six hours once a week for 12 weeks. This course offers many foundation art skills and encourages developing pieces to create your portfolio. This includes fundamentals like principles of drawing, the basics of color theory, composition, gestural life drawing with nude models, perspective and of course how to get through an application process with your art portfolio. This program concludes with a one-on-one portfolio review by the instructor for feedback!

 

Kids & Teens

“Who’s that Character?”

An 8-week course focused on thinking up creative ideas and putting them onto the page. Run by Elizabeth Carey, an accomplished illustrator and MTM Illustration for Sequential Arts Graduate. You’ll be given lessons in character design that can be used for things like comics and graphic novels. They’ll provide examples of pre-made characters and break them down to learn what makes them tick to give you the tools so you can make one of your own.
Open to anyone ages 8 and up!

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Art by – Elizabeth Carey – MTM Alumni and Instructor

 

Introduction to Traditional Animation

This workshop covers the fundamentals of animation which can be applied to future animation projects, personal or professional. Taught by Bryce Hallett, an independent animator with 20+ years of experience in animation. This course will teach you the techniques of traditional animation, ending with a full bipedal walk cycle to take the knowledge home with you.
This is a beginner-level 2D animation course open to anyone ages 13 and up!

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Art by – Bryce Hallett, MTM Instructor

 

Professional Development

Digital Painting for Professional Development

This 3 hour workshop is focused on providing teachers and instructors with techniques for teaching digital painting to a class or for personal use. Taught by Maya Ivanova, an instructor at Max the Mutt and will cover the process of developing a design, drawing a layout, and much more while also introducing activities for teaching in a classroom setting.

Please note that for practice and demonstration purposes, the class will be conducted in Adobe Photoshop, though students are welcome to utilize a similar alternative program.

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Art by – Maya Ivanova, MTM Instructor

 

Introduction to Autodesk Maya

This workshop is an introduction to animating in 3D. You’ll learn the interface as well as the tools and hotkeys that you will need to start animating in Maya. To get students familiar with the program, they will begin by completing a simple bouncing ball animation. These skills will be built upon by eventually exploring a bipedal character! With the completion of this workshop, students will have developed the skills and knowledge to move on to doing more complex 3D character animation.

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3D model example by MTM Instructor, Mike Shiell

 

Some courses are also offered in a miniature form for high school classes if you’re an interested teacher or school administrator contact – outreach@maxthemutt.com – or to learn more about MTM student workshops, contact workshops@maxthemutt.com.

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