Our Artist Scholarship: NATTO (National Art & Trade Tuition Opportunity)

In keeping with our goal to provide egalitarian art education, we're pleased to continue the National Art & Trade Tuition Opportunity scholarship. Sponsored by Joseph Coco, and hosted by comic artist Becca Hillburn, the NATTO scholarship will give three student artists a financial opportunity to fund their pursuit of art education.  Open to anyone interested in taking classes.

This year, we're shaking things up a bit. Last year, we received so many wonderful portfolios, it was difficult to pick just one winner. So we're going to give three aspiring art students—high school, college, or postgraduate students—funds to help pay for tuition, materials, or books. This scholarship is applicable to both in-person and online art education.

If you're going to be a college student in 2018 and are interested in comics, animation, or story boards, you should definitely apply for the NATTO scholarship.

Last year's winner was Eliana Falcon, the creator of Cosmic Fish, a beautiful digital webcomic.  We asked Eliana to share a little about her experiences with the NATTO Scholarship:

Because of the Nattosoup Scholarship, I’m able to continue my studies and improve my comic and freelancing career. Although I was greatly delayed due to hurricane Maria back in September, and only recently was able to get back on my feet, I’m still eager to finally be able to pursue continued education using online and local courses now that things have normalized. I genuinely cannot thank Becca and Joseph enough for the opportunity, their understanding, and giving artists this push to continue to try harder and improve.

Eliana Falcon

The funds for this scholarship were donated by Joseph Coco, who also handled the arrangements with Going Merry. Promotion, portfolio, and essay assessment will be handled primarily by me, Becca Hillburn.

"I set up a small scholarship fund (on behalf of Becca Hillburn) called the National Art & Trade Tuition Opportunity. It's for any artist interested in sequential art (comics, animation, storyboards) who wants to study art in college (undergrad or grad). You can apply if you have an online portfolio before July 1st, and should expect to hear back sometime in July. You don't need to be the best to win, so if you're on the fence about submitting, please do and help spread the word if you have any artists in your life. College is too expensive, so here's hoping I can help an artist not go into too much debt."

Joseph Coco

Inspired by Joseph's generosity, Tyler James of ComixLaunch agreed to award each NATTO scholarship recipient a ListLaunch course voucher, which aims to aide comic artists and writers in building an engaged audience willing to support their work. Thank you Tyler for helping a new generation of comic artists get a head start on their careers.

What is Going Merry?

GoingMerry is a new company which hopes to not only simplify and aggregate the process of applying for scholarships, but also to allow individuals and corporations to easily create scholarships. Its founders are courteous people who were fed up with the existing hunt-and-peck system of applying for scholarships and saddened by the number of students required to reject college acceptance letters due to financial concerns.

Who can apply?

Anyone looking to return to school or resume education with a strong interest in sequential art—comics, children's books, animation, storyboarding.

What schools are eligible?

Any school with an art program, including online art courses such as Schoolism.

However, this is not for one off, inexpensive online education services like Skillshare. As an example of eligible schools, check this list. Applicable MoMa classes and SVA classes, as well as Watts Atelier would also be acceptable, as well as local community college classes.

What we're looking for

A portfolio of work (hosted through a website, do not send us images) with up to 12 pieces of art.  Portfolio should include examples of sequential work, but this is not necessary for submission. Some example free portfolio sites include: DA Portfolio; Webflow; Tumblr.

A short essay of no more than 500 words on the type of sequential art you hope to make or to continue making in the future. Please mind spelling and grammatical errors when submitting through Going Merry.

Deadline: June 30th, 2018

How to apply

1. Go to GoingMerry
2. Click "Apply Now", enter your e-mail address and click "Notify Me"
3. You will receive an e-mail shortly after from our host site, Going Merry. Please click on the invitation link in the e-mail.
4. This will take you to a sign up page. Complete the information on there and click "Sign Up"
5. Go to "Qualified Awards" and select the National Art and Trade Tuition Opportunity Scholarship.

I'm having trouble submitting

Going Merry has a brief waiting list for account creation, but they have been responsive to any issues which arise. They can be contacted through email via support@goingmerry.com.