2026 Workshops

09/12/2026 | 11:00am – 12:30pm | Glen Echo Room

This unique workshop from Ashley Jablonski offers you a chance to delve into watercolor, and depict your time at SPX through diary comics. With a pre-made four-panel template, it’s a perfect momento/keepsake to remember your time here. This workshop is great for all ages! No experience necessary!

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Panelists: Ashley Jablonski

09/12/2026 | 11:00am – 12:30pm | Forest Glen Room

Roll The Dice! Comics Storytelling Via D20 (W)

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM * Forest Glen Room

Artists of all ages/skill levels welcome! Join Miss Lasko-Gross (Faculty BFA Comics, SVA) as we will be rolling D20’s to design an original character and then drawing a one-page comic (with provided pencils/template). Depending on how fast attendees make it through the prompts, we will either have a critique or a quick gallery. Attendees will take home their comic page.

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Panelists: Miss Lasko-Gross

09/12/2026 | 12:30pm – 2:00pm | Forest Glen Room

Why is it that everyday color can be so mundane it escapes notice, yet sometimes bursts forth so intensely it can create permanent memories? Do scientists and artists always agree on the rules colors must follow? What’s the difference between an RGB and a CMYK color space? What exactly is a color space anyway? In this workshop with Ria Garcia, we’ll examine ways humans have come to understand color as well as the powerful expressions color can evoke. We’ll then explore how these expressions can shape our perception of even non-visual phenomena such as gender, language, and movement. Finally, we’ll look at practical methods to incorporate these explorations into our own creative work.

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Panelists: Ria Garcia

09/12/2026 | 12:30pm – 2:00pm | Glen Echo Room

We all have an inner critic! The Inner Critic asks: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? But the critic has no idea who you are. The critic only knows who you’re not. In this workshop, Tom Hart from SAW (Sequential Artists Workshop) will show the techniques he has used to train it to see you as you are, to learn new habits to help you use that voice to stay creative and curious.

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Panelists: Tom Hart

09/12/2026 | 2:00pm – 3:30pm | Forest Glen Room

“The Itchy and Scratchy Show,” “Tales of the Black Freighter,” “Galaxy Quest:” what do these things all have in common? They’re all imaginary works of art that live inside another work of fiction: a TV cartoon featured in The Simpsons, a horror comic that a character is reading in Watchmen, a Star Trek-like TV show that aliens mistake for a documentary. In this workshop, Matt Madden will give you some strategies for making up your own fictional comic book and will help you create a cover for your imaginary comic book. You might even decide to draw a strip or a comics page. You’ll come away with a made-up comic book character that you can sneak into your own comics to build up your own metafictional world.

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Panelists: Matt Madden

09/12/2026 | 2:00pm – 3:30pm | Glen Echo Room

Learn how to apply figure drawing to making more confident, believable, and dynamic comics characters! This will be a live figure drawing workshop, so be prepared to draw! Hosted by cartoonist/lecturer Danielle Corsetto, and cartoonist/model Babs New(d). 18+ and please be respectful; we will have a live nude model.

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Panelists: Danielle Corsetto, Babs New(d)

09/12/2026 | 3:30pm – 5:00pm | Glen Echo Room

Quenya, Na’vi, Klingon, Dothraki – constructed languages and alphabets are often some of the most iconic aspects of works in popular culture. But what is behind their creation? When, and why should you make your own? What other aspects of language use can help strengthen your worldbuilding? In this workshop, C. S. García Martínez, medical translator, conlanger, and linguist, will walk you through the basics of language science and how they can be applied to fictional languages and alphabets.

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Panelists: C. S. García Martínez

09/12/2026 | 3:30pm – 5:00pm | Forest Glen Room

Comics are a world on the page. The walls, the floors, the horizons, and the space in between the aforementioned are what make that world feel real. Whatever your skill level, hitting that mark is among the most elusive targets. In his annual SPX workshop, SVA’s Josh Bayer (Unended, Utzy and Dusty, Tomorrow Forever, Abysmallation) allows you to find a way into the page through studying easily accessible resources and committing to the mechanics of this craft as he sees it.

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Panelists: Josh Bayer

09/12/2026 | 5:00pm – 6:30pm | Forest Glen Room

Making comics is a marathon. But when you’re trying to finish your graphic novel (or even a minicomic) by putting “work on comic” on your list every day, beating yourself up, and despairing you’re not a more organized person, that isn’t gonna get you there.

This workshop led by Jessica Abel (La Perdida) is about how you actually do finish long, demanding projects: with a creative habit built to fit the life you have, not the one you keep wishing you had. You’ll design one personalized habit on the spot, and build a plan for the days it falls apart, because that’s how you keep it going long term.

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Panelists: Jessica Abel

09/12/2026 | 5:00pm – 6:30pm | Glen Echo Room

Living a creative and productive life centered around a sketchbook, digital device, desk, or small-scale work area can be liberating for your mind but hard on your body. Hours of daily writing and drawing can lead to repetitive stress injuries, eye strain, stress, and all sorts of pain. This workshop, led by Kriota Willberg, explores the relationships between your creative environment, tools, hand/wrist alignment, and posture when working with traditional or digital equipment. Learn some ergonomics hacks and how to prevent eye strain. Explore ways to make drawing and writing postures easier on your body. Practice some self-care techniques that will loosen tight muscles and reduce stress.

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Panelists: Kriota Willberg

09/13/2026 | 12:00pm – 1:30pm | Glen Echo Room

Reputedly raised by wolves, circus act ROMO the WolfBoy is gifted with extraordinary talents. He runs faster, sees more, hears better, and he really smells! But what if YOU’d never known other humans? Who or what could you be? Award-winning cartoonist ILYA helps you spark your imagination and shows you how to explore your own ideas, either in words and images! ILYA, author of Romo the WolfBoy, will help you develop your own animal selves!

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Panelists: ILYA

Special Guests: ILYA (Ed Hillyer)

09/13/2026 | 12:00pm – 1:30pm | Forest Glen Room

Bugs are the BEST! Come make creepy crawly (yet informative) comics with Coco Fox and August Driussi! We will BEE developing jokes around cool facts about the bugs and critters we love. You’ll leave class with a finished comic starring one of your favorite species of bugs. We cANT wait to draw worms, caterpillars, bees, ladybugs, and all the little critters you can find under a log. This class is for all ages and all drawing levels.

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Panelists: Coco Fox, August Driussi

09/13/2026 | 1:30pm – 3:30pm | Glen Echo Room

No matter what we are doing, the shapes of our bodies are determined by the positions of our bones, the contraction and stretch of our muscles, and the contours of our tissues and skin covering the anatomy underneath. Understanding anatomy helps us create real or imaginary characters—in any style—that are consistent and physically believable. This workshop explores drawing the body based on the anatomy of movement. Kriota Willberg will—literally—draw on Babs New(d), our live model, tracing muscles and bones for participants to draw in any style they choose. 18+ and please be respectful; we will have a live nude model.

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Panelists: Kriota Willberg & Babs New(d)

09/13/2026 | 1:30pm – 3:00pm | Forest Glen Room

Join New Yorker cartoonists Hilary Campbell and Sofia Warren in this single-panel cartooning workshop. We’ll walk through the process from start to end: brainstorming, composing, iterating, editing, crying, despairing, knocking your head against the wall, cursing your life choices, having a sudden epiphany, frantically rushing back to the paper, feverishly scribbling, and drafting the finished toon.

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Panelists: Hilary Campbell, Sofia Warren

09/13/2026 | 3:00pm – 4:30pm | Forest Glen Room

In this workshop with SAW’s Carly Shooster, participants will use colored pencils to explore complementary, triad, monochromatic, and shades as a mode of coloring comics. Supplies will include colored pencils, pre-printed comic pages, and guides on how to use the color wheel.

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Panelists: Carly Shooster

09/13/2026 | 3:00pm – 4:30pm | Glen Echo Room

Orion Martin is the publisher of Paradise Systems, and a tax advisor who works with many freelancers and artists. In this talk, he will go over the basics of self-employment taxes and the most important things for artists and publishers to be thinking of. Bring questions!

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Panelists: Orion Martin

09/13/2026 | 4:30pm – 6:00pm | Forest Glen Room

Choose Your Own Path stories provide a fun way to make zines come to life in the reader’s hands! In this workshop led by Bread Tarleton, you’ll learn about what makes these stories work and how to create interactive zines that are funny, scary, or personal. By the end, you’ll have an 8-page zine with branching paths, a story with multiple endings, and the knowledge of how to make them yourself!

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Panelists: Bread Tarleton

09/13/2026 | 4:30pm – 6:00pm | Glen Echo Room

Oh no! The events of the plot have hurt the protagonists. What do they do next? What can they do next? Medical professionals Dr. Yue Peng (She Makes Hungry) and Chloe Cunningham (Cargo) may be able to provide some inspiration with a discussion about the basics of CPR, bleed control, and first aid. See how comics make use of these actions, and then put it together with a skills simulation and time to draw others acting out emergent scenarios. You’ll be able to brainstorm your ideas with us as well!

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Panelists: Dr. Yue Peng, Chloe Cunningham