From Idea to Outline
3 Week Online Workshop with Jake & Shawn
Launching January 14, 2026
Writing Your Graphic Novel
THE PROBLEM:
Having a great idea is easy. Figuring out what to do with it is hard.
You can have an amazing character, a fascinating world, or a killer premise and still not know what happens on page 20—or how the story ends. Instead of staring at a blank page and hoping the story reveals itself, this workshop gives students a proven, step-by-step process for taking an idea and developing it into a story they can actually make.
Planning won’t take the creativity out of making your graphic novel. It gives your creativity somewhere to go.
What You'll Learn
Turn an idea into a compelling graphic novel concept.
Identify what’s exciting about your idea and develop the hook, characters, setting, conflict, genre, and tone that make the project unique.
Build a story around a meaningful theme.
Define the central truth your story explores, the opposing belief your protagonist begins with, and use motifs—visuals, objects, phrases, and actions—to reinforce those ideas throughout the story.
Create stakes that make readers care.
Develop the external, internal, and thematic stakes of your story so your characters have something meaningful to gain, lose, and learn.
Define the scope of a graphic novel you can actually finish.
Make practical decisions about page count, format, dimensions, publishing approach, rendering style, collaborators, deadlines, and commitment level so the project fits your goals and resources.
Understand where your book fits in the market.
Find useful comparable titles and analyze their audience, genre, tone, themes, length, and market position to better understand what kind of book you’re making.
Pitch your graphic novel clearly and professionally.
Distill your story into a concise pitch that communicates the title, genre, comparable titles, protagonist, central conflict, unique setting, and theme.
What You’ll Create
The Pitch:
A concise professional description of the graphic novel, including its hook, audience/genre, main character, conflict, setting, theme, and comparable titles.
The Project Plan:
The intended scope and format of the graphic novel, including target audience, page count, format, and production approach.
The Story Plan:
The project's theme, motifs, stakes, characters, and major structural beats.
The Written Outline:
A complete beginning-to-end outline showing how the story unfolds.
Workshop Curriculm
Story Seeds: How to generate story ideas, identify what excites you about them, find the hook, and turn a loose concept into something worth developing.
Story Structure: Turning an idea into a beginning, middle, and end; understanding major story beats, escalation, turning points, climax, resolution, and character arcs.
Defining Your Characters: Developing protagonists, antagonists, and supporting characters with clear wants, needs, motivations, conflicts, relationships, and arcs.
Writing Scenes: Learning what makes a scene necessary and effective: goals, conflict, change, reveals, entrances and exits, dialogue, pacing, and visual storytelling.
Writing the Outline: Bringing everything together into a complete, scene-by-scene roadmap for the graphic novel that can eventually be turned into a script.
Defining the Project & Pitching It: Learn to set the scope, page count, format, comps, audience, and then distill the completed plan into a professional pitch.
How the Workshop Works
Throughout these three weeks, members of the workshop will have their own private chat group to share work and discuss comics. Access to the workshop recordings and course materials will remain for three months following the end of the workshop.
BONUS: Following the end of the workshop, members will be moved over to the SVSLearn community for a special two-month free trial.
Critique Package
You will receive a deep dive critique on the assignments from this workshop from one of your two instructors during the final livestream session. Copies of any notes or draw-overs on your assignments, including a link to the recording from the feedback session, will be sent to you following the last session.
Workshop Begins & Welcome Livestream
Join the welcome livestream and get to know your instructors and the other participants. You will also receive access to the course materials on the same day. Over the following week, you can watch the course videos and begin working on the assignments.
Q&A Livestream
A week later, during the second livestream, you will have the opportunity to ask the instructors questions about the course materials and assignments. This is not a feedback session, but it will give you a chance to ask questions about the content from the course.
Assignment Deadline
Assignments are due. Everyone who submits their work before this deadline will have their work showcased during the final livestream. For feedback on your assignments, check out the critique package option.
Feedback Livestream
During the final livestream, everyone’s work will be shared, and those who purchased the critique package will receive a deep dive critique of the work they completed as part of the workshop.
Community Experience & Content Access
JAN 21
JAN 26
JAN 28
JAN 14
Meet Your Instructors
Shawn Crystal
Illustrator/CartoonistShawn Crystal is an artist and a teacher. His creative passions stem from his love of hip hop, comics, street art, and illustration. His childhood dream was to draw comics for Marvel and DC Comics, a dream that came true on such titles as Batman, Spawn, X-men, Deadpool, Mother Panic, Guardians of the Galaxy and many more! He is also the Co-Host of The Inkpulp Podcast alongside Eric Canete and Matteo Scalera. Shawn has also created Inkpulp Instruction, an online educational resource that teaches anyone interested to improve their skills as a storyteller and illustrator. He is currently working in Comics and Video games as an illustrator and storyteller.
Illustrator/CartoonistJake Parker
For the last 25 years Jake has worked on everything from animated films to comics to picture books. For several years he worked for Reel FX and Blue Sky Studios on such projects as Horton Hears a Who, Rio, and Epic. He is the creator of the popular Inktober drawing challenge. Jake currently works as an illustrator and cartoonist on children's books and comics. He works out of his home studio in Virginia.
“Jake and Shawn were excellent instructors! Whether they were walking students through the importance of storytelling in comics or giving feedback on the illustration side of comics in office hours, they really did give it their all and we all benefited greatly from them.”
— Stephanie B , Graphic Novel Pro Student 2025
Who IS This Workshop For?
It’s especially useful for creators who:
Have an idea for a graphic novel, but aren't sure what to do next or keep getting stuck.
Want to write and draw their own graphic novel.
Want a structured process instead of trying to figure everything out through trial and error.
Want to develop a graphic novel idea into something they can confidently pitch, script, and eventually draw.
What Do I Need To Take This Workshop?
You do not need a finished manuscript, script, or fully developed story. Ideally, you’ll come with a story idea you’d like to develop into a graphic novel. This can be as simple as a character, setting, premise, image, or “what if?” idea.
No finished artwork, thumbnails, or specialized software is required. Just be prepared to write, brainstorm, research, and make decisions about your project throughout the workshop. By the end, that initial story seed will have been developed into a detailed plan and written outline for a graphic novel.
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Once purchased you will have access for 2 months to the class content
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The Sketch Smart Workshop is for both beginner and experienced artists. It's designed to be a resource you can revisit as you build your skills. Advanced artists and professionals can apply the techniques immediately to enhance their work, across many forms of visual art. It is adaptable to whatever kind of work you want to make.
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New class starts May 2. 2026. The first set of lessons will be released during Week 1 and the second set during Week 2.
During this time you can work on the assignments any time you like. There will be live feedback sessions every other day.
Class ends on May 16, 2026. -
There will be 10 lessons with each one designed to take around an hour or two to complete. Since this class is about process, most images will focus on principles and not finished work. The class is divided into two separate weeks with 5 lessons and assignments per week. Students can complete the work any time they want during the week.
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No, the Sketch Smart Workshop and the SVSLearn subscription have very different formats and goals. Sketch Smart is designed as a focused, 2-week program with multiple live sessions for students to ask instructors questions. SVSLearn, on the other hand, is geared toward building general illustration skills through self-directed learning.
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If you're not already a member of SVSLearn, a student account will automatically be created for you upon enrollment. This is where you'll access the class content, livestream details, and private group chat. Please note that the lessons will be released in two batches over the course of the class. You can do the lessons at your own pace, and you'll have the opportunity to join multiple livestreams with the instructor to ask any questions you may have.
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Most likely! This workshop includes multiple livestreams, where the instructor will answer questions and discuss common challenges students face. While the instructor often provides spot critiques, he may not be able to critique every student individually each session due to time and cost. Generally most students struggle with similar things. So the instructor can solve the problem for most students by highlighting a cross section of paintings and demos.
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The class is structured over 2 weeks, but you can take as much time as you need to complete it. Some sections, like certain painting techniques, may take longer than others, so the overall pace will vary from person to person. You'll have access to the content for 2 months after the class is over, so we encourage you to go at your own speed and focus on creating your best work.
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100% refund if canceled by the first day of class.50% refund if canceled by the third day of class.
No refunds after the third day of class.
But you’ll love it so much you won’t need one!
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Photoshop, Procreate, or ClipStudio all work great. The techniques do work for traditional media, but that makes it a little harder. The class is taught using Photoshop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Secure Your Spot Today!
$199
Workshop
3 Livestreams
Course Videos
Assignments
BONUS: 2 Months Community Access
$399
Critique Package
Assignment Feedback
3 Livestreams
Course Videos
Assignments
BONUS: 2 Months Community Access