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How to Write and Illustrate Nature-Based Graphic Novels

Join writer/illustrator duo Tiffany Yap and Meital Smith for a crash course on wildlife and conservation graphic novels.

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How to Write and Illustrate Nature-Based Graphic Novels

How to Write and Illustrate Nature-Based Graphic Novels

Join writer/illustrator duo Tiffany Yap and Meital Smith for a crash course on wildlife and conservation graphic novels.

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Registrations Closed

About

Tiffany Yap and Meital Smith will detail their collaborative process and share tips and tricks from their experiences writing and illustrating their graphic novel "Tales of the Urban Wild: A Puma's Journey," described as a "beautifully illustrated novel with an urgent message about the survival of pumas and wildlife."

You'll split into two groups — writers and illustrators — where you can either brainstorm ideas and get started on a script with guidance from Tiffany, or turn a manuscript into a real illustrated graphic novel page with Meital. 

You should leave this class with, at the very least, an idea for a graphic novel. More advanced students could leave with a full outline or a completely inked page.

Details

  • All skill levels welcome. A passion and/or curiosity about graphic novels and nature storytelling recommended! 
  • Writers should bring a notebook and pencil or computer.
  • Illustrators should bring a sketchbook pencil and eraser, inking pen/marker and, if you want to work digitally, an iPad with Procreate loaded.
  • BARN will provide paper, and some pens for inking.
Instructor
Meital Smith

Meital Smith is an illustrator and artist from Seattle, Washington. She graduated from Cornish College of the Arts with a BFA in Design in 2021 and from Rhode Island School of Design with a MAT in 2024. She is now a high school art teacher at Seattle Academy. Meital has had comics work featured in the Washington Post's The Lily column, and in 2021, she self-published her graphic novella Yesh Lanu Machaneh, which documents oral histories that fellow campers experienced at her beloved summer camp.

Instructor
Tiffany Yap

Tiffany Yap is a conservation scientist and comic book author based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She strives to better understand the interconnectedness between people and the natural environment whether she is testing wild frogs and salamanders for disease, measuring marine fish for recreational fisheries, monitoring intertidal seaweeds and snails, surveying newts on roads, or fighting to protect endangered species. Tiffany holds a doctorate in environmental science and engineering and has published studies in Science, EcoHealth, and other scientific journals. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR.

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