How Can Teenagers Become Successful Artists?

Should you send your kid to art school?

Will their art be good enough even if they apply?

How could they develop their skills to the point that they can get professional work without drowning in student debt?
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Students work best when

guided by a professional mentor
competing and collaborating with talented peers
learning through structured lessons plans to cover all of the fundamentals
given freedom to explore their own unique creativity

Student Success Depends on 3 Things

Show their work - College admissions and employers want to see a portfolio of art
Who you know - Everyone needs a strong network of friends doing similar work. That way they can encourage each other, share resources, and help each other gain access to opportunities.
Meet the Challenge Attitude - How to work in a fun easy way while never failing to meet the challenge of a deadline.

To accomplish all this I am hosting Collaborative Art Projects.

11-18 years-olds Will Work Together to Produce an Original Choose-Your-Own Adventure Visual Novel Comic Game Prototype in 3 Weeks, Even if they have Never Learned Programming!

Kids can Collaborate, Connect, & Make New Friends while Making Comics & Developing Games together

Join our after school art project, twice a week, for three weeks for a total of 6 ninety-minute sessions.

As part of a team your creative son or daughter will get to choose whether to

draw new original characters for their team,
write an original choose-your-own-adventure story for their team,
and/or learn to use Python programming

to create an original, playable game prototype that each of them can then add to their art portfolio!

Project Based Learning

STUDENTS DON'T LEARN WHEN TEACHERS TEACH.
STUDENTS LEARN BEST WHEN STUDENTS DO.

So we team them up, give them the tools, and allow them to figure it out together.

Live Online classes - all the student needs is a PC/Mac laptop and an internet connection
Students build personal connections and make new friends by forming small teams
Create a Portfolio Piece: The art and game can be used as a portfolio to apply to art school or college.

Student Art Gallery

Click on the images below to see some of the art created by student teams for their original games.

Final Prototype Presentations

The video below was the final session of a 3-week collaboration in which the student teams each took turns presenting their final game prototype.

Comments from Parents & Students

This class was previously taught on Outschool and is currently taught by Tried & True through several non-profit college preparatory programs like Upward Bound and Talent for America.

My son loves taking classes with Shaun. Shaun has been a huge help in giving my son direction not only to improve his art but also for following his passion and working to turn it in to a career.

- Kristin

My son thinks it’s the best class he’s taken! He had so much fun learning and making his game.

- Maria J.

Great class!! My son really enjoyed this. He ended each class laughing and excited to create. Thanks Shaun!

- Sheri

Fantastic experience for artists who are looking to learn alot in a rather short period of time.

Vanessa D.

My 12 year old was so excited, he got off the class shouting "I'll never be the same again!!!!" (in a good way of course). He loved this class.

Natalie C.

My 12 year old twin daughters loved the course. They said that the information was just what they needed and the teacher was very helpful! We will be looking to take more from this instructor.

Alicia V.

I enjoyed this class. Mr. Shaun really helped me with a portfolio piece that I was struggling with and showed me in an easy and concise way. I feel like I came away from this class with an extended knowledge of perspective in a way that would be hard to teach in a typical classroom environment.

Jake C.

My daughter LOVED this class and said she was excited to try this out at school today. She is usually pretty shy, but it sounds like she was able to easily relate to the teacher and asked about taking this and some of his other classes.

Jessica G.

This was one of the most exciting classes I've ever taken, both online and in person, it was super engaging and and fun.The whole class made it seem as if I was sitting at home talking to an old bud of mine, personally I'm more into games, graphic design, and mostly photography, but one of my other class mates was more into art and drawing, and we were both equally taught, its not like one of us had less to learn than the other, All in all i would 100%% recommend this class for any one and every one!

Jenn

Easy & Flexible Scheduling

We know it is difficult to keep up with your son or daughter's homework, interests, and extra-curricular activities. With this in mind we try to keep keep life simple by scheduling workshops during after school hours.

And if something comes up, don't worry, we got your back. Make up sessions are available throughout the week.

One-on-one 45 minute tutoring sessions available upon request (limited to once a week).

Bi-weekly Meetings for 3 weeks

Classes will be held online live through zoom
Students can join in person at the teacher's office located in Cerritos, CA.
Live online sessions will be held Tuesday and Thursdays at 4:30pm Pacific Coast Time for 3 weeks during the month of August

Requirements

Student must have a personal computer or laptop running Windows or iOS
Student must be 11-18 years old.

Learn from a Professional

Each class is lead by a professional character animator and/or game designer as well as a sponsored artist (a student from a previous class with proven skills and ability to assist in teaching the lesson).
Each student will also gain full access to our suite of step-by-step fundamentals of drawing tutorials

Meet Your Teacher, Shaun D. McMillan

I'm a professional animator and game designer who worked at various studios doing animation, character design, storyboarding, game art illustration, graphic and web design.

I also taught middle, high school and college students these skills for 9 years.

Money-back Guaranty

If your son or daughter attends 6 sessions and their team does not produce an original game prototype, we will give you a total refund no questions asked.
If you are not happy with your child’s experience for any reason whatsoever we will refund you 75% of your money as long as you provide helpful feedback on how we can improve.

Benefits & Results

By the end of this 3 weeks your creative teen will learn how to...

Manage their time while having fun
Work within a team and divide up work
the Fundamentals of Storytelling, Game Design, and Python Programming
problem solving
Gain the self-confidence to show off a portfolio piece they are proud of
Gain the acknowledgement of their peers
Make at least 2-5 new friends they can trust to share their work with
Enjoy a social experience
Deal with their fears of anxiety and doubts about their skill as a creative
Learn more about Creative Career Opportunities

Added Bonus

Safe Secure Student Social Media Network

We built our own private social network for students to interact and encourage each other. I personally supervise it every day.
Drawing, Writing, and Python Programming Tutorials will be provided in the forum to support each student's learning.

Availability is Limited

To insure that each student has the best experience we like to provide supportive tutoring, flexible makeup sessions, and we provide live online interactive small group lessons (unlike most e-learning video lessons which only provide access to long asynchronous video lectures).

To do this we must tightly restrict class size. Classes shouldn’t be too small or too big but just right.

Only 9 seats initially available (12 students per class, but 3 seats are reserved for current art club members, 1 for sponsored student)
$45 reservation required to get on wait list once classes fills up.

$199 New School Year Special, (usually $299)

6 Sessions for less than $200 means each 90-minute session costs $33. If you consider that most SAT prep costs $70 per session you are getting a steal!

Most online courses don't provide live teaching
- they don't provide a secure social network
- or provide a collaborative team of students
- or make supportive makeup sessions/private tutor sessions available
- or provide access to a bundle of tutorial resources.

Register for the Fall 2024 Collaborative Art Project

We are currently recruiting for the next collaborative project coming up in August. To get an exclusive invite or early access simply register with your email.

Registration will put you on the list for next fall's access to the secure social forum, drawing tutorials, and event list for the upcoming collaborative game design project.

After School Comics & Game Design Project