How to Create an Illustration with Parallax Effect
Add depth and dynamism to an illustration with this step-by-step technique
Illustration
New skills, projects, ideas and fun facts about the world of illustration
Illustration
Categories
Popular tags
-
-
José Rosero: The Infinite Possibilities of Illustration
Editorial is just one of the many fields in which José Rosero feels comfortable working as an illustrator José Rosero (@rosero) is a Colombian visual artist whose graphic talents are so varied, it’s impossible to list them all. While he has worked as a painter, in theater, teaching, management, and research, it is as an illustrator that he has achieved his highest levels of success and built up an impressive career. This choice of career path has never narrowed his work opportunities, in fact, it has done the opposite. He considers being an illustrator a bit like being a platypus–in that it's made up of different parts of other animals–since you have to be able to speak different languages, all at the same time. Here’s how Rosero has used illustration across different mediums:
-
7 of Our Favorite Children's Illustrators
Discover seven of the most talented artists to illustrate our childhoods Kids are a demanding bunch and illustrating for them isn’t as simple as you might think. There are masters of the craft whose hands have created visual worlds that have captivated and calmed young minds for decades. Here is a look at seven of the most celebrated children’s illustrators and their wonderful artwork. Quentin Blake The scrawling illustrations of Quentin Blake are inseparable from Roald Dahl and the stories he wrote, ostensibly, for children. In 2008, David Walliams, of Little Britain fame, managed to persuade Blake to use his inimitable style to illustrate his book The Boy in the Dress, the story about a young boy who likes to crossdress and the reactions this provokes in his friends and family.
-
Teacher IllustrationIllustration Tutorial: How to Refine Drawings of Urban Objects and People
Learn the basics of how to enrich an architectural illustration by including different elements like urban objects and people, with Carlo Stanga Creating an architectural illustration is more than just mastering straight lines and buildings. Being able to fill these compositions with local details, through distinctive objects and people from that place, is key to being able to capture a location’s atmosphere. In this video, architectural illustrator Carlo Stanga (@carlo_stanga) explains how to prepare and sketch urban people and objects, which you can later include in your final composition. From how to use them to create depth, to why they’re so key in giving life to your illustrations, here he shares his own process for how to create these studies of objects and people to create engaging and unique architectural illustrations.
-
How to Create a Portrait in Photoshop in 8 Easy Steps
Spanish illustrator Elena Pancorbo gives a quick tutorial for portraiture in Photoshop
-
Catalina Estrada: How She Broke Into the Illustration World
Learn how she discovered her illustration side after collaborating on social projects and ended up working with big international clients
-
Domestika Diary: Lapin
The urban sketcher visits Madrid’s Retiro Park to share his process and capture the Palacio de Cristal Art, at its core, is a form of expression and observation, filtering the outside world to create something that reflects an individual’s own unique viewpoint. Urban sketching is a popular format for those looking to capture and enjoy their surroundings, jotting down everything from travels to faraway lands to scenes of everyday life. A vibrant community of artists, urban sketchers create pieces that offer a unique blend of observation and personal reflection. A pioneer in the online urban sketching community, Lapin (@lapinbarcelona) has published over 30 books, many of which illustrate his travels across the world. In this Domestika Diary, he visits Madrid’s Retiro park to sketch the Palacio de Cristal and talk about his process and why he believes urban sketching is such a powerful format.
-
5 Essential Courses to Get Started in Illustrated Storytelling
Learn to use illustration as a narrative tool from these experts today Illustration can be as powerful as the written word. Used alongside common narrative forms, it can become an essential tool to reinforce a story and give it nuance and intention. It can also be the absolute protagonist in a narrative. Learn how to visually tell stories with help from 5 experts in the field of illustrated storytelling. They will guide you through the theory and give you practical exercises that will unlock your creativity and help you convey personal emotions and feelings using environments, characters, and worlds. Visual Storytelling with Graphite for Beginners, a course by Siamés Escalante In this course, illustrator Siamés Escalante will share with you the essence of her style. Full of innocence and melancholy, it has propelled her to work with brands such as Vans, Izzi, Telecom, or Disney, among others. Learn with her how to tell stories without using words and build your own visual narrative.
-
Free Download: 5 Photoshop Brushes for Digital Painting
Samuel Smith shares a collection of his favorite brushes for digital illustration The possibilities of digital painting are only getting better and more exciting. Visual Development Artist Samuel Smith (@samuelsmith), after some years of hard work and dedication, achieved an understanding of this creative discipline, and he started to work on important animation projects and was hired by SPA, Spain, as a color artist. He has worked on many commercials, TV shows, and two feature films: Klaus for SPA Studios and another upcoming animated film for Illumination Studios.
-
5 Timelapses That Highlight Photoshop's Possibilities
Illustrated portraits, spectacular photomontages, and character design are some of the things Photoshop allows you to do You know it as the go-to app for photo retouching, but Adobe Photoshop offers endless possibilities that are impossible to cover at first glance. In this compilation of timelapses, you will discover some of the most incredible uses of this unmatched design and retouching program, which most professional illustrators and photo editors choose to work with. Drawing Grimes with Felixantos (@felixantos) Starting with a photograph of the famous singer and a blank canvas, illustrator Felixantos shows us the complete process of drawing a real-life character. Beginning with the main lines and then adding color, highlights, and shadows using the tools Photoshop offers, he finishes a portrait with caricaturesque touches that highlight Grimes's most striking features.
-
7 Artists Exploring Our Relationships With Our Screens
Seven powerful images exploring our relationships with screens and technology Screens. We have a love/hate relationship with them. While they are a window to an infinite world of information, tools, possibilities, and interactions, being dependent on our device can be harmful to our quality of life. While certain apps might make life easier and unlock a vault of creative potential, being bombarded by messages and alerts has been proven to increase stress. During lockdown, our dependency on our screens became even more intense. They provided tools to combat loneliness and stay connected to the world, while churning out overwhelming information and monopolizing our attention. Life events were shared over webcam–birthdays, bachelorette parties, even funerals–and cultural events were live-streamed to audiences watching from the comfort of their own sofas. Here we round up seven artworks that explore our relationships with screens, reflecting on both the good and the bad.
-
The Importance of Taking Notes
Turn your intuition into a creative tool to give substance to your ideas and emotions with Fito Espinosa Fito Espinosa (@fitoespinosa) is a painter, illustrator, and ceramicist. During a career that spans 20 years, he has managed to create a fantastical universe of characters, mixing his ingenious style with his own ideas and philosophical reflections.
-
What Is and How to Apply the Rule of Thirds in Illustration
For centuries, we have known that geometry plays a fundamental role in the composition of an image Throughout history, the golden number has been heralded and, in most visual and aesthetic terms, it can embody an almost mystical perfection. The Ancient Greeks explained everything sacred through geometry, art, and mathematics, using the golden ratio as a symbol of excellence and divinity; this ratio is constantly repeated in nature and has been replicated in art over the centuries.
-
Learn to Use Masking Fluid with Watercolor Paints
Painter Ale Casanova teaches us how to create interesting effects with watercolor paints and masking fluid Leaving areas blank when painting with watercolors can be very complicated–just a drop too much water and the paint will run all over your page. This is where masking fluid comes in–it’s a liquid that enables you to protect areas of your drawing so that they stay clean and dry. Painter and teacher Ale Casanova (@alecasanova) shows us how to use this tool in our watercolor paintings so that we can achieve original effects, textures, and styles that enhance our final piece. Learn more below: To carry out this exercise, we will need: –masking fluid –an old toothbrush –a nib pen –watercolor paints, brushes, water, paper towels, a portrait to paint
-
Teacher IllustrationTutorial Illustration: How to Use Shapes to Create Vector Drawings
Learn the basics of how to draw over your original sketch using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator, with Nathan Jurevicius Making the jump from a sketch to a digital illustration doesn’t have to be as daunting, or require as many tools, as you might think. Using just a mouse and the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator, multidisciplinary artist Nathan Jurevicius (@nathanjurevicius) demonstrates how to create shapes which will serve as the building blocks for your vector drawings. In this video, learn how to add detail to your illustration using the pen tool, how to keep your workflow organized, and how to build on your original reference sketch.
-
The Adventure of Publishing Your First Children's Book, by Flavia Z Drago
We spoke with this talented Mexican illustrator about how she got her children's book published Flavia Z Drago (@flavia_zdrago) studied Graphic Design but specialized in illustration and children's books. She has illustrated more than ten books, a Hermès carré (scarf), a Frida Kahlo coffee pot, and cups for Chocolate Abuelita, among many other things. This year, Walker Books published her first book as an author and illustrator, titled Gustavo, the Shy Ghost, a dream that has haunted her for over a decade. We talked with her about her passion for storytelling, her influences, and the experience of preparing her first book.
-
Meet Illustrator Lapin and his Fantastic Universe
Meet the French illustrator and urban sketch artist with a passion for dinosaurs, planes, and travel
-
5 Sumi-e Illustrators and Painters To Follow
Discover the books, artists, and films to add to your reference library for Japanese art Whether you already have a project in mind or are looking for ideas to inspire your next creation, getting to know and studying the work of other creatives will always help to awaken your imagination. Illustrators Mika Takahashi and Flor Kaneshiro share a selection of inspirational artists using Indian ink and watercolor to create Japanese-style illustration and sumi-e painting. Flor Kaneshiro’s Influences Flor Kaneshiro (@florkaneshiro) is an Argentinian illustrator specializing in traditional Japanese illustration. Her work features chiefly in video and editorial illustration projects.
-
Meet Visual Development Artist Samuel Smith
He worked as a color artist on Klaus, the animated film that tells a different version of the legend of Santa Claus Samuel Smith (@samuelsmith) is a French independent illustrator and visual development artist for animation. As a visual development artist, Samuel’s job is to translate the director’s vision into images, focusing specifically on light and color. He paints color keys–reference images that prioritize details such as lighting and material–that serve as guides for the lighting department so that they can work out how to light a certain scene. Color key artists have similar roles to background artists; however, they focus on these specific details. After studying at a 3D Art School, Samuel’s big break came when he was hired by SPA Studios in Spain to work on their first movie, Klaus, as a color artist. He spent a year and a half painting more than 450 color keys, learning a lot about light, cinematography, and movie-making.
-
Domestika Diary: Hugo Barros Costa
The Portuguese architect, illustrator, and urban sketcher takes us on a tour through the streets of the city he has called home for years, Valencia, taking us to the places that inspire him most First, there were the buildings, the attractive details of the facades, the lush roofs, and the ingenious solutions achieved by so many architects throughout history. Then, the surrounding landscape, the trees, the street benches, and public spaces. Finally, the people arrived: the everyday protagonists of the scenes that make a city come to life. For years, these elements have combined to broaden the vision of Portuguese architect Hugo Barros Costa (@yolahugo) in his home of Valencia, as an artist, an illustrator, and an urban sketcher. In the most recent episode of the Domestika Diaries series, Hugo takes us on a tour of the places in Valencia that inspire him to create the drawings that have brought him fame and exhibitions in many different countries, opening up his creative process to us. In addition to his work as an artist, he teaches at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de la Universitat Politècnica de València and at the prestigious Parsons in New York. Discover more in the video:
-
References From Popular Culture: In Search for Inspiration
Reference material from day-to-day and familiar imagery is a perfect source of inspiration for all creatives
-
Fito Espinosa: 3 Creative Approaches
Be inspired by the work of this Peruvian artist and illustrator Fito Espinosa (@fitoespinosa) has been cultivating his prolific portfolio for 25 years in painting, illustration, and ceramics. In the last few years, he has also contributed to advertising campaigns, participated in collective and individual exhibitions, as well as a number of painting competitions, many of which he has won. He has published five books and collaborated on a number of other publications. Below, we present a collection of his vibrant and varied art.
-
Challenge: Can You Paint a Portrait with Just One Color?
Alejandro Casanova takes on the latest Domestika Challenge: can he paint a portrait with only green watercolors? How does one bring a face to life using only one color? How do you build features, the shadows, and textures without being able to use anything but green? Of course, patience and mastery are needed, virtues that can only be learned with constant practice and which Alejandro "Ale" Casanova (@casanova_ale), a multi-award winning painter and teacher, has plenty of. In the following video, Casanova faces the Domestika Challenge: will he be able to paint a watercolor portrait using only green watercolors? Find out below:
-
Free Download: Easy Doodle Exercises to Learn to Draw
Puño shares with you easy exercises to warm up your hand Puño (@puno) is an educator and illustrator who has worked in advertising, animation, photography and editorial illustration, including the publication of several books of his authorship. Puño teaches daily to draw that they thought would never be possible, and he trusts that the idea is to simply lose his fear of the sheet and the pencil.
-
Self-Publishing: An Art and a Challenge
Cartoonist and screenwriter Albert Monteys has some advice for those who want to publish their own work independently Albert Monteys (@albertmonteys) is a cartoonist and comic scriptwriter with more than 25 years of experience. He was trained in fanzines and spent almost two decades at the weekly illustrated satirical El Jueves, which he also directed for four years. He then embarked on digital comic projects such as Orgullo y Satisfacción and "Universo!", the latter being nominated for an Eisner Award, and winner of the Best National Comic Award at the Barcelona Comic Fair (2019).
-
How to Find Images When Creating a Digital Collage
Learn about different sources of royalty-free pictures and learn to search by color or resolution Israel G. Vargas (@israelgevargas) is a Mexican designer and visual communicator who graduated from the UNAM Faculty of Arts and Design. As an editorial designer, he has worked for different Mexican magazines, including Picnic, where he was a graphic editor for seven years. Israel is also an illustrator whose work has been featured in various international magazines and brands such as Wired, Texas Monthly, Atlanta, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, The Atlantic, Adidas, Tbrand Studio from The New York Times and Metaleap Creative, as well as in Mexican publications such as Tierra Adentro, Expansión, Accent, and Chilango.
-
Teacher IllustrationDomestika Diary: Catalina Estrada
The Colombian graphic designer shares her creative routine and the landscapes that have inspired her to create her award-winning prints. Catalina Estrada has only been in Colombia a few months. Having lived for years in Barcelona, she became stranded in her home country while visiting her mother. Not that she’s complaining, since the varied landscapes, lush colors, and natural beauty of Colombia are where she draws much of the inspiration behind her internationally award-winning prints. The stylish graphic designer and illustrator says that beauty and optimism are the trademarks of her work, thanks to her experience growing up surrounded by these striking landscapes. In this Domestika Diary, recorded in her home in Colombia, she shares how her surroundings have impacted and enriched her creative work.
-
Ana Victoria Calderón’s Favorite Watercolor Painting Materials
Ana Victoria Calderón shares her favorite materials for illustrating with watercolor To browse Ana Victoria Calderon’s work (@anavictoriana) is to submerge yourself in a world of watercolor illustration. She creates little universes with ink and water on all kinds of canvases–collaborating with brands and publications around the globe. We spoke to her about her favorite materials so we could share the tips and tricks of a seasoned pro and help you get the right material for your own watercolor creations.
-
Teacher IllustrationChallenge: Make a Digital Illustration Look Handmade in 10 Minutes
Alex de Marcos, illustrator and expert in digital painting techniques, faces the Domestika Challenge Alex de Marcos' career is broad and varied: he has worked in everything from editorial illustration to advertising, and regularly collaborates with major international brands such as Nike, Oysho, Movistar, Levi's and Ron Barceló. In this Challenge Domestika, the illustrator puts all his skills and experience to the test: he has just 10 minutes to make a digital illustration look like it was made using traditional methods by hand. Will he succeed? Find out in the following video:
-
Simple Exercises for Drawing Perspective
Puño shares three useful exercises that will help beginners to get better at drawing perspective When it comes to drawing, there are some universal rules based on how human beings perceive things and their cultural norms. Whether you choose to respect these rules, break them, or experiment with them, there’s no doubt that they are essential for every illustrator. One of these rules is perspective, a technique in figurative art to show the volume, location, and position of an object or person depicted in a drawing. It allows the viewer to see the subject in three dimensions and understand its shape.
