Arts on Fire

Who It’s For

Designed for students who have completed Digital Art Foundations or have equivalent experience. This 10-week course is ideal for students ready to move beyond the basics and begin producing more polished, intentional digital artwork. Level 1 introduces intermediate tools, more structured workflows, and higher expectations for detail, consistency, and creative problem-solving.

Students must bring their own iPad + stylus with the Procreate app downloaded.

What They’ll Learn

Digital Art Level 1 deepens students’ skills in both digital illustration and frame-by-frame animation, preparing them for more advanced portfolio work.

Digital Illustration – Intermediate Skills

Students will learn to:

• Use advanced brushes, opacity control, and textured strokes for professional-looking artwork
• Work with multi-layered compositions, masks, and blend modes
• Build stylized characters using anatomy basics, proportions, and clean linework
• Apply color intentionally through palettes, shading, highlights, and lighting effects
• Create more complete pieces such as character sheets, icons, posters, and environment sketches

Animation – Level 1 Foundations

Students will:

• Animate simple characters with squash & stretch principles
• Create walk cycles, blinking loops, and expressive head turns
• Learn timing charts, spacing, and how to use animation assist tools
• Produce short animated moments that demonstrate fluid motion and storytelling

Why It Matters

Digital Art Level 1 builds the technical and artistic discipline needed for higher-level illustration and animation. Students begin learning the industry-standard principles used in concept art, visual development, character design, motion graphics, and animation studios.

They gain skills that translate to:

• youth portfolio submissions
• post-secondary design and animation programs
• creative tech careers (graphic design, game art, UX/UI, VFX, illustration)

This level has a clear shift from “learning tools” to applying tools with intention, helping students grow as emerging digital creators.

Instructor Bio

Led by Marissa Pinti, who is currently completing her fourth year at Seneca Polytechnic, specializing in Animation and Visual Development. Passionate about storytelling through digital art and animation, Marissa brings characters and worlds to life with her drawings and designs. She loves sharing her enthusiasm for creativity and hopes to inspire the same love of digital arts in her students, encouraging them to see art as both self-expression and a pathway to exciting future opportunities.

Progression

Prepares students for Portfolio Track Digital Art and Animation Level 2 course.

Class Format & Schedule

🗓 10-week session
📅 Thursdays 6:30 - 8pm. Jan 15, 22, 29, Feb 5, 12, 19, 26, Mar 5, 12, 26

📍 Arts on Fire Studio, Ajax