Award-winning artist, Somnath Pal has spent almost a decade in Animation and Production Design for critically acclaimed films.
Unherd.in and talent management company, Tulsea are collaborating with Somnath to offer a few students (13-to-20-year-olds) an opportunity to learn the craft of Storytelling through Comics and Illustrations.
In this exclusive one-of-a-kind online mentoring program, Somnath teaches you his comic-making techniques to create characters, world and stories that will hook your readers.
Mentorship Duration: 10 Live Online Sessions, 60 to 90 minutes each
spread across 2 Months (weekend sessions).
Program Dates and Timings: April 16 to June 18,
every Sunday, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM IST
Program Fee: Rs. 8250/- (all inclusive)
Session 1: Introduction to Storytelling
What does it take to tell a great story? What makes someone a good storyteller?
In this module, Somnath introduces you to value systems in stories and how you can refine your own value systems to share stories that matter to you. In addition, Somnath also shares his inspirations to create powerful characters in stories — a personal experience shared by the artist to help you think about what kind of stories you wish to share with the world.
Session 2: Story Structure
Be it films, comics or novels – every story has a structure that could form the outline or a framework for storytellers. For example, “beginning, something happens and the end.” However, writing stories could be more complex than one could imagine.
In this module, Somnath introduces you to the different forms of narrative structures with themes that help you to build a foundation for your own ideas.
Session 3: Characters Development
Characters are at the heart of every storytelling. But how does one bring a character to life? In this module, Somnath teaches you character development that leads to building a story. After completing this session, you will be confident to start building dynamic characters into your stories.
Session 4: Story Boarding
Some stories are told in a single act, like short stories, while some demand many acts. Most writers show loyalty to Three Act Structure, which is typical of most forms of rough storyboarding.
Somnath teaches you the rough imagery methods where your complete story structure unfolds over the course of the three acts. If you wish to learn ways to stay organized about your writing process – you do not want to miss this module!
Session 5: Elements of Comic Design: Grammar of Visual Communication
While most stories have characters and structure, there is another element that most industries spend a lot of their time on — Visual Communication. How can we convey our story ideas using colours, shapes and imagery that gives it meaning? Learn first-hand from artist, Somnath Pal about Elements and Principles of Design that will teach you the grammar of visual communication.
Session 6: Story Composition- Framing, Staging, Lensing
A great story might not work if not executed well – that is why storytellers need to learn story composition. How will the frames look? Do my panels convey the message? Learn how to effectively stage and lense your stories through various transition concepts that help your audience to navigate through your story.
Session 7 & 8 : Character Sketching
As a comic illustrator, one needs to sketch character postures to add depth and details to their comic work. In this module, Somnath teaches you the foundation of figure drawing and anatomy drawing which helps you to understand the professional techniques behind character composition. If you struggle with human anatomy and illustrating characters – this session is for you!
Session 9: Colour Theory
Storytellers have relied on colour dynamics as an effective way of getting their audience invested in the story. In this module, you learn Color Theory for Stories to highlight narratives that are effective to convey the significance of a panel, scene or character.
Session 10: Pitching/Jury
Put all your learnings into use to create a finished comic of your own! Students will be expected to present their work along with the thought process that went behind it.
Certificates from Somnath, Tulsea and Unherd.in will be awarded to students upon successful submission of their comic work learnt through the Mentorship.
What will I Learn?
You will get to work on creative assignments, write intriguing plots, build original characters and a whole lot more. While illustrators like Alicia Souza, and DoodleoDrama have mentored with us, our current mentor Somnath Pal demonstrates best practices through a mix of case stories, hands-on sketching and storytelling techniques.
The curriculum is specially curated by industry professional, Somnath Pal himself who plans on helping students make an informed career decision through practical assignments, cases, and real-world examples – a mentoring experience not typically found in high school or a college curriculum!
APPLICATIONS NOW CLOSED
CERTIFIED PROGRAM FEE: Rs. 8250/- (all inclusive)
The Mentorship Process
Apply online
Get selected
Based on your interest and an interview
Start exploring
A career in Comic-Making & Storytelling
Meet your Mentor
Somnath Pal
Somnath Pal is an illustrator, designer, and storyteller who did his Masters in Animation from IDC, IIT Bombay. He went on to work as an Assistant Director on Sons of Ram, where he supervised various aspects of pre-production and production. He later served as one of the Production Designers on the multi-award-winning movie, Court, directed by Chaitanya Tamhane.
Somnath’s debut film as an animation filmmaker, Death of a Father, won the prestigious Grand Gold at TBS DigiCon6, Asia’s premier short film competition. It was also considered the best short film of 2017 by Film Companion and was screened at various international film festivals including Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart (ITFS) in Germany, and Anima Mundi in Brazil. Somnath is currently working on developing multiple live-action and animation-based projects. See Somnath’s work on Instagram or visit his LinkedIn Profile here.
You can also see Somnath’s work on Behance here.
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About Our Partner, Tulsea
Tulsea is a strategic talent and content management company, based in Mumbai and Los Angeles, that represents India’s leading content creators. It is focused on supporting and enabling established talent while simultaneously nurturing promising young talent to become the stars of tomorrow. Tulsea’s clients are engaged in high-quality content across feature films, digital series, and emerging new media.
Through this partnership, Tulsea is working with Unherd as a resource partner to build a pipeline of talent in the creative industry by providing students with access to industry mentors, skill-training, and career counseling.
Confused about a career?
Unherd offers mentorship classes on diverse potential careers, for 13 to 18 year-olds, based on their current interest, potential and skillsets.