Well, I just recently finished my very first semester of teaching online, and am now halfway through the second semester. It has been an extremely rewarding experience, and with that I felt I wanted to share with you what some of the students have said. Every now and again it is ok to pat oneself on the back, and I am doing so here because of how proud I am of the students for their dedication and the 9 week course I have put together. My next semester starts in January, and there are only 3 spots left, My next semester will follow in March.



Silver; thank you so much for this class. I have a degree in illustration and have been a professional artist in the video game industry for 11 years. I learned more from you in nine weeks than I have in years. Your straightforward way of explaining your process and the principles of character design was both refreshing and inspiring! You really opened a new door for me.

Barry Prioste

I have had a incredible time. Prior to this course I had just completed a three year animation degree and after these past nine weeks I feel I have learned more invaluable practices and techniques with you than i did during my time at university. You are a true master of your craft and working alongside you has been a dream come true. I feel I have grown more as an artist than ever before and have a new found drive to become not only a great character designer, but a great all-around artist as well. I cannot begin to put into words how appreciative I am of the priceless knowledge you have shared with me and I will always remain incredibly grateful for granting me this fantastic opportunity.

Ben Williams

I just wanted to personally thank you for the time and effort you've put into these lectures and our critiques and everything. I know my drawings have improved and are more confident. I now have some experience in turnarounds and clean up and feel as though I was able to skip a lot of the heartache of trying to learn it on my own. I really enjoyed having a lecture each week to look forward to and being able to watch the other student's videos was a real treat. I've already recommended schoolism.com to a lot of my friends and fellow students.

Chris Houghton

As artists we are always looking for ways to grow and inspire us. Well what better way than to be mentored by a professional/master, who is at the top of his game, like Stephen Silver. Character design is a complicated mix between capturing a unique personality while applying appealing design elements to each character. There are many ways to study design, but the best is to be provided with in-depth instruction and valuable critiques. However, it is often difficult to find someone who is a master at the craft as well as an excellent teacher. Stephen Silver is just that, an amazing character designer by right, but also a priceless teacher. I could not possibly sum up the value of this class. Each lesson is packed full of beneficial fundamental information that placed alone would be worth taking this class. But combined with all the information you get one on one attention with informative critiques that will open your eyes to what you need to work on to improve your work. I recommend this class to people of all ages, amateurs to professionals; there is something for everyone in Stephen Silver’s character design class offered at schoolism.com.

Brittnie Bruner


Thanks for the class. It was really great, the course covered so much from basic drawing issues to ways to approach and analyze design. Your crits were very
Informative and gives you an insight on what pros see and do. Thanks agian.

Arree Chung


Stephen's character design class is fantastic. Each lesson is loaded with insight and inspiration. Stephen goes beyond just tricks and gimmicks to focus on mastering the fundamentals. His passion for drawing is contagious, and his one-on-one feedback was extremely helpful. Stephen raises the bar high and then comes alongside you to help you achieve it. I would highly recommend this class to anyone who is serious about becoming an animation character designer.

Cedric Hohnstadt


Thanks for all the lectures and in-depth analysis of my work, I truly feel I've grown so much as an artist in the past 9 weeks - and at a much faster rate than I would have on my own over several years. Really, I mean that.

You've helped me gain an understanding of a myriad of techniques and processes I can explore to broaden my skills, and most of all, re-ignited a spark that I had as a kid - my love for drawing and just having fun with it all.

I no longer feel intimidated by a blank sheet of paper, and have no fear of failure or producing bad drawings, because you've shown me through this course that each one gets me closer to a better one and deeper into the art form.

Rafi Nizam

I just wanted to say how valuable this course has been. Just the fact that I got to work with a personal hero of mine on assignments every week for the past couple of months has been incredible. Learning from someone who is actually working in the industry and going through everything that he teaches is a wonderful way to trust every critique as being correct. I never once found myself questioning anything that Mr. Silver was saying about my work. I found myself watching the videos multiple times just because my pen couldn't take notes fast enough. I would highly recommend this course to anyone (and I already have).

Steve Umbleby

I had a fantastic time on this course and have learnt so many new techniques and exercises that I will be using daily for the rest of my life. Stephen Silver is an incredible teacher who makes learning enjoyable and easy to understand. His 1 on 1 critiques are superb, and he really goes to great lengths to make sure you understand what is being taught and leaves no stone unturned when it comes to guiding you in the right direction to strengthening your designs. My drawings have improved so much over the last 2 months thanks to Stephen Silver's Character Design Course. I highly recommend this course for anyone interested in learning character design, you will NOT be disappointed. Thanks for all your help and guidance, Stephen. Kind Regards.

Justin Cook.

As many of you know, I am a big advocate for encouriging artists to get involved in the artist community, and being a part of cartoonist organizations wherever you may live. It is a great way to network as well as meet some great talent, hear some good stories, look at beautiful art and make some good friends. I am personally involved in the (NCS) the national cartoonists society, (www.reuben.org)the (NCN) the national caricaturist network(www.caricature.org) and (CAPS) The comic art professional society,(www.capscentral.org) that meets in burbank once a month. Anyway, last year I helped organize a banquet where we honored the great Jack Davis. This year I have helped organize a banquet where we will be honoring the great Stan Lee Next month. One of the things we do is have all the artists of CAPS, do an original drawing for the person that we present to them in a beautiful leather bound book and honor them with the Sergio award. Based on Sergio Argones, one of the founders of the group and who attends each month. Anyway, This was my sketch for Stan.

Well, I've been in the industry for quite some time now, and people always say, "Why don't you pitch your own show". Well there are many reasons, but here is a little section of a development piece that my creative partner Frank Rocco and I have been pitching.

A COUPLE OF 5 MINUTE POSES FROM THE LIFE DRAWING BOARD.