Animation Portfolio Concept Art Masterclass

Concept Art Masterclass for Animation Portfolio Development

Create a fully developed concept package that will make your animation portfolio stand out!

If you or your teen loves animation and dreams of attending Sheridan, Seneca, Calarts or Ringling then sign them up for this 6 week intensive summer course! Learn from masters in their fields all about how to design unique characters within a well composed and drawn scene. Deepen your understanding of the structure and anatomy of your characters. By the time you have completed this course you will have a full concept development package of character style sheets, perspective scenes, composition studies with value and colour design plans. 

PortPrep Students Get Accepted to Top Ranked Art Schools in North America

Our focus is on teaching the skills needed to make art portfolios for application to art and design colleges and universities. PortPrep students get accepted into the top ranked animation schools like Sheridan , CalArts , Ringling or Seneca . And our students interested in illustration and art have been accepted to these fantastic schools: Sheridan Illustration, OCADU Illustration, or Emily Carr BFA Illustration, Pratt, Parsons, RISD, or SVA. We are also specialists in architecture and interior design portfolios for schools like Ryerson, Waterloo, Carleton, RISD, Humber, OCADU, Dalhousie, and Laurentian. 

Creativity, Confidence, and Skill Development

All of our courses balance fun and creativity with focused instruction on sound foundational skills in drawing and design.

Our series of courses give plenty of one on one instruction and group interaction with opportunities to develop individual styles while collaborating with others to dream up truly inspiring art works and imaginative stories and designs. Our virtual classrooms are designed to replicate as close as possible the in person camp experience, complete with opportunities to build lasting friendships. 

By the end of this course you will have:

• A great foundation in character and scene design and drawing.
• A complete development package for 2 characters, storyboards, scenes, anatomy and character studies, perspective studies, compositions, and final concept art digital painting for use in your portfolio.
• Gain skill in digital painting
• Ability to draw and understand perspective of scenes that encompass linear and natural elements
• Understand visual storytelling via the use of composition, scene dressing and how to use the hierarchy of contrasts, edges and colours effectively
• Well designed and executed scene in black and white and colour
• A short well designed storyboard
• Understanding of anatomy of human and non-humanoid characters
• Well drawn characters in action
• Character design development sketches for 2 characters (1 humanoid and 1 non-humanoid)

Schedule of Instructors per Week Over the 6 Week Course:

To reassure you that you or your teen will be in good hands, we have gathered a variety of  skilled professional artists that are professors and graduates of Sheridan, Seneca,  Humber Colleges and the University of Guelph.

Garth Laidlaw: Mondays: PortPrep's main animation/illustration/game art instructor and Sheridan Animation Alumni

Zen Rankin: Tuesdays: PortPrep's youth animation, illustration, mindset mentor, & character design instructor and faculty member of Humber College and Sheridan Illustration Alumni.

Wednesdays: no class; student work day

Karen Kesteloot: Thursdays: PortPrep's drawing foundations and perspective instructor and faculty member from Humber and Sheridan Colleges

Werner  Zimmerman: Fridays: Guest Professor from Seneca Animation for anatomy of animals and humans, award winning Canadian author and illustrator of children's books

Visit our website to read detailed descriptions of each course and camp. https://www.portprep.com/

We use a combination of tutorial videos, virtual classroom group live streaming web conferencing, recordings, demonstrations, constructive input from instructors, creativity challenges, group, pair and individual activities. All the information needed will be sent to the students via email and shared documents giving detailed instructions. Material are straight forward, mostly just pencils and paper. For more information visit our website and email our director, Karen Kesteloot to receive detailed materials lists and instructions. Got questions? Call Karen at 519-803-2539