Society Spotlight: Manchester University Comic Collective

Before the Easter break I went along to Manchester University Comic Collective’s class on ‘finishing steps and inking’. MUCC organises a series of lessons throughout the year for people who are interested in learning how to draw various styles of comic art. The classes consist of still-life drawing, sculpturing, outdoor sketching, photoshop and many other techniques in relation to comic making. They start at the very basics, and progress slowly, building up skills gradually so anybody can join, whether they are very experienced or just beginning. They incorporate lots of different styles so the work they produce is always varied. At the end of the year they produce an anthology containing their work which includes individual art pieces as well as collaborative work and stories.

As it is pretty late in the year the class was at a fairly advanced stage, which meant I could see the kind of work they have done and how far they have progressed. This lesson was about colouring and inking, about building up layers to make a drawing or character more life-like and three dimensional. The finished piece looked extremely accomplished and skilful. However, when Tobias Weinald, the tutor for this week’s lesson, stripped back the image on photoshop and showed us how it was layered gradually, it appeared a lot easier than I expected. Even though the finished picture looked complicated, it was actually fairly simple to create by building up layers of colour, shading and depth. After the tutorial I had a go at a simple drawing of a leaf, incorporating some of the skills that Tobias had showed us and was quite surprised at how life-like I could manage to make it look.

As well as the classes, MUCC have social events which include city tours, outdoor activities, convention and competition participations, parties and other socials.

If you are interested in seeing some of their work, last year’s anthology is on sale at lulu.com and this year’s will follow shortly. All profits go to local charities. Alternatively, visit their Facebook page by searching ‘MUCC – Manchester University Comic Collective’ where they also post up information about classes, events and socials.

MUCC will continue next year so if you’re interested in learning a new skill, or furthering your artistic experience then visit their Facebook page for more information.