Upcoming Workshops

Graphic Resiliency

At the Center for Cartoon Studies, July 7-11, 2025

What are the stories you need to tell? In this workshop taught by Natalie Norris, we gather to create a brave space to face the personal narratives that we find difficult to tell but feel compelled to share. This workshop focuses on harnessing the resiliency that grows out of personal stories about adversity, illness, and survival. Over five days, students will learn a set of drawing and writing techniques to help them tell their story in a way that feels accessible, transformative, and trauma-aware.  By the end of the workshop, students will draw their own personal resiliency comic. The the workshop will be capped at eight students for a small, individualized class feel.

Drawing Diary Comics Devoted to Love

Online with SAW, April 25, 2025 7PM EST

Join the Sequential Artist Workshop’s weekly Free Friday Night Workshop and practice drawing diary comics devoted to love. We will examine the nuances of recording intimate moments from your relationships and explore the joys of capturing loving moments on the page.

Graphic Resiliency Student Testimonials

  • "Don’t hesitate if you’re hesitating. I almost didn’t come, and my life would have been much poorer if I hadn't. It couldn't have been more wonderful. Natalie is an amazing instructor. She notices the little things that mean a lot, and maybe because of that she also has an uncanny ability to always ask the right questions - the ones that get you to write and draw what you need to be writing and drawing."

    JonArno Lawson, summer 2024 student and author of Sidewalk Flowers and Over the Shop

  • "The Graphic Resiliency class was so meaningful to me. I am very much a beginner and I felt completely welcomed. I am really happy with what I was able to complete and I'm actually considering taking the course again. Natalie very skillfully broke down the creation process into smaller, more manageable steps and the way she addressed emotional resiliency is something I think about all the time and hope to bring to my own teaching some day."

    Tracy G, summer 2023 student

  • "[The workshop] not only connected me to the stories I knew I wanted to share, it gave me ideas for future stories. The mix of lecture, lessons, and activities gave me a deeper sense of history, process, and allowed me to explore how I connect to comics. The small group was quite helpful in building trust and getting vulnerable."

    CS, summer 2024 student

  • "I needed time, safe space, and community in my exploration of memoir work. I got all that and amazing lectures, tons of library time, and drawing exercises I’ll be sharing with my own students. Huge thank you for proviging a space for what I needed, this place is remarkable."

    Valerie L, summer 2024 student

  • "The Graphic Resiliency Workshop was a transformative experience in my journey as a cartoonist. By learning and creating with others under the guidance of Natalie, I found my voice and discovered ways to use comics to tell my story, understand my feelings, and express my humanity."

    Eric G, summer 2023 student

Past Online Workshops with SAW

  • Mapping Out Memoir

    Learn how to map out our memoir comics and approach the past from a birds eye view.

    Watch Here

  • Drawing a Comics Letter to the Past

    Learn how to explore graphic memoir by drawing a comics letter to someone from your past.

    Watch Here