Nickolas MacKay

Middling Productions is Edmontons newest, greatest, and most accessible art education and publication and production company.

Middlings publications are focused on classically illustrated comic book stories. The guiding principle at Middling is "art first". Books are released as completed and the stories reflect the values and artistic ambitions of the creators. Stories published by Middling are not syndicated and artists maintain ownership of their own stories post publication

Currently middling has one ongoing annual graphic novel magazine "Leonarda"

Middling offers private and public art lessons for child/youth and adult artists. Private lessons are tailored to reflect each artists style, interests, and ambitions.

Child/youth art lessons teach classic drafting illustration techniques and motivated young artists can take part in Middlings "zero to published" program. This program guides art lessons to be focused on a comic book story that can eventually see publication. Currently Middling has one title "The Great Demon Sage" published under the zero to published program.

Adult programs are typically guided by the artist booking the lessons individual goals. Middling has been commissioned to teach lessons on such varied topics as character design, video game design, and fashion illustration.

Middlings public art lessons are offered in coordination with the Edmonton Public School board. K-12 teachers in Alberta will book Middling artists to come in during class hours to teach drawing and cartooning fundamentals to a classroom. Middling offers this program digitally allowing us to offer the program to any schools throughout the province of Alberta.

Middling accepts art commissions and organizes art shows. Middling artists have had art commissioned for election campaigns, music events, advertisements, as well as personal commissions like landscapes and portraits.

Middlings most recently organized art show was a tribute to legendary Jazz pianist Bill Evans on June 21 2024 hosted at Edmonton's own Aviary and featuring live music

As a program specialist for the City of Edmonton I am responsible for designing and teaching a variety of art programs to be taught at various locations around the City of Edmonton.

My specialty is comic and cartoon art which I teach at both child/youth and adult levels in public art lessons hosted at various rec centres throughout the city of Edmonton.

The varied lessons that I teach for the city of Edmonton include:

Beginner Cartoons - An eight part, twelve hour program designed to introduce 8-12 year olds to the fundamentals of drafting and illustration. All approached through a cartoon lens.

Intermediate Cartoons - An eight part, twelve hour program designed for 8-12 year olds. This program builds off of the skills learned in Beginner Cartoons and introduced new mediums and artistic challenges such as character design.

Advanced Cartoons - An eight part, twelve hour program designed to introduce ambition 8 - 12 artists to refined illustration and story writing techniques.

Teen Cartoons - An eight part, twelve hour program designed to introduce 13-17 year old audiences to the world of illustration and cartooning. This program is designed to be a launching pad for teen artists of every skill level.

Adult Cartoons Lvl. 1 - A four part 12 hour program designed to introduce an adult audience to the skills and culture associated with cartoon and comic art. This program has adult artists leaving with a generalized overview of the techniques associated with comic creation and a basic understanding of the history of cartoon and comic art.

Adult Cartoons Lvl. 2 - A four part 12 hour program designed to develop on the skills that adult artists learned in Adult Cartoons Lvl. 1. This program focuses on teaching adult artists some basic practices to bring into their own projects to help make them more sustainable, affordable, and completable.

Human Anatomy Workshop - A two part 6 hour adult program designed to develop a nuanced understanding of the human bodies form and function on an illustrative level. This program goes over the skeletal, muscular, and surface anatomy of the human body as well as dynamic and stationary poses.

Character Design Workshop - A two part six hour adult program designed to teach an adult audience the basics of communicating character and personality visually in a cartoon format. This workshop focuses on subjects like clothing, expression, and communicating with simple shapes.

Animal Anatomy Workshop - A two part six hour adult program designed to teach an adult audience the basics of illustrating anatomically accurate animals. This class goes over skeletal and muscular systems of various mammals as well as the qualities associated with other families of animals.

Inking Workshop - A two part six hour program designed to introduce an adult audience to the techniques associated with working with liquid ink and dip pens as well as the various brush techniques associated with the same medium.