Illustration

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  • Challenge: Designing an Album Cover in 15 Minutes
    Illustration

    Challenge: Designing an Album Cover in 15 Minutes

    Designer and Illustrator Steve Simpson takes on the Domestika Challenge Steve Simpson (@stevesimpson) has worked with major clients such as Disney Pixar, Adobe, and The Wall Street Journal, and has won over 50 awards from organizations like the Association of Illustrators. His distinctive and whimsical style has been applied to everything from children's toys, postage stamps, whiskey bottles, and hand-lettered packaging. In this Domestika Challenge, the illustrator only has 15 minutes to design a custom album cover commemorating Queen’s 50th anniversary. Can he quickly come up with an original take on such a classic cover? Find out in the video below:

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  • What is Sumi-e?
    Illustration

    What is Sumi-e?

    Illustator Flor Kaneshiro tells us about Sumi-e painting, a Japanese illustration technique of Chinese origin Sumi-e is a Japanese word formed by the terms "sumi" (ink) and "e" (painting). It is a centuries-old drawing technique that came to Japan with Buddhist monks from China, and has since been combined with other techniques and original interpretations In the video below, the Japanese illustrator Flor Kaneshiro (@florkaneshiro) talks about sumi-e, its characteristics and most common uses.

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  • Architectural Illustration Tutorial: How to Add Shadows in Photoshop
    Teacher Illustration

    Architectural Illustration Tutorial: How to Add Shadows in Photoshop

    Learn how to add shadows to an architectural illustration, and why they’re so important, with Carlo Stanga There are a million tiny details that set different cities apart, but one important one that we often forget about is their light. The warmth of Mediterranean sunlight, or the cool evening of a colder climate helps to create an atmosphere that makes each location unique. Even the same city can look radically different depending on the season or time of day. The importance of adding shadows to your architectural illustration goes beyond making your image look three-dimensional, says award-winning Italian illustrator Carlo Stanga (@carlo_stanga). By playing with light, we can better define the elements, materials, and shapes that compose a scene, adding personality and context. In this tutorial, Carlo demonstrates how we can use Adobe Photoshop to create shadows in an architectural illustration that are both realistic and whimsical, illustrating not just a place but also an atmosphere.

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  • Materials: Watercolor Painting
    Illustration

    Materials: Watercolor Painting

    For watercolor beginners who want to know what supplies to start with, storyboard and watercolor artist Alex Hillkurtz shares the materials that he uses every day The everyday toolkit of an artist is a very personal thing. Built through experimentation and trial and error, knowing what materials they use each day can help us learn more about their technique and give us ideas about how to experiment with or advance our own. For over 20 years Alex Hillkurtz (@alexhillkurtzart) has worked as a storyboard artist and illustrator for feature films, television, and commercials. His urban sketches and watercolor paintings have been exhibited internationally. In the video and guide below, he shares the materials he reaches for everyday, and explains how he uses each in his work. Whether you’re putting together a watercolor supply kit for the first time, or simply curious about what materials you can add to your practice, here are a few ideas.

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  • Junk Journal July: A Creativity Challenge
    Illustration

    Junk Journal July: A Creativity Challenge

    Journaler Meg Journals invites you to participate in this creativity activity Without a doubt, sketchbooks are one of the most useful and rewarding tools any creative can have. Being alone with your pages lets you pour your ideas, experiences, plans for future projects, and many things more. Meg Journals is an illustrator based in the UK whose love for journals goes way beyond the paper. We talked to her about her passion and Junk Journal July, a creative challenge you can participate throughout July.

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  • Meet Illustrator Ulises Mendicutty
    Illustration

    Meet Illustrator Ulises Mendicutty

    The Mexican illustrator with a passion for pink, street culture, skulls and perreo Ulises Mendicutty is an illustrator, art director, and visual artist from Mexico who has been living in Barcelona for over a decade. Passionate about pink, street culture, unique anecdotes, traditions, cinema, the future, skulls and perreo (among many other things), Ulises loves to participate in diverse projects that push him out of his creative comfort zone and experiment with different formats: “I love to draw and see my strokes in magazines or blogs, but I am also a fan of seeing them on a wall or transformed into a ceramic object”. While he studied communication and philosophy at undergrad, art had always been his passion. A postgrad in illustration confirmed that he was destined to draw. He has been commissioned by the Spanish national newspaper El Pais, Slanted Magazine, Vips, and Penguin Random House and his work has been exhibited in Italy, Scotland, Spain, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Here we share a selection of Ulises’ work, from portraits to murals. 365 Fuegos Ulises teamed up with author Bebi Fernandez to create this weekly 2020 calendar. Throughout its pink pages, you’ll find flaming illustrations by Ulises and sassy quotes written by Fernandez. The 2020 calendar was published by Motena under Penguin Random House.

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  • Free Download: Brush Bundle for Procreate
    Illustration

    Free Download: Brush Bundle for Procreate

    Designer Nubikini is temporarily sharing a free download that you can use to create unique letters for social media Layering letters on top of a unique photograph can transport us to unexpected places. The work of Nubikini (@nubikini) does exactly this. She channels emotion through letters and creates visuals that are both mesmerizing and fun. Nubia Navarro–a graphic designer living in Bogotá (Colombia)–has a passion for typography, letters, and photography. Since discovering her fascination with letters after attending a lecture on experimental typography, she’s been experimenting with them non-stop. Nubikini has worked with such international brands as Adidas, Coca Cola, and UNICEF. Always enthusiastic to share her knowledge and love of letters, today Nubikini is offering up her favorite Procreate brushes to the Domestika community. Try them out and be transported to wherever your imagination takes you.

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  • The Narrative Visuals of Siames Escalante
    Illustration

    The Narrative Visuals of Siames Escalante

    Discover the graphic world of the Mexican illustrator and designer Siamés Escalante (@siamesescalante) is from Merida, Mexico. Her illustration style is characterized by innocence and melancholy, with each piece telling a fantastical tale. Siamés recalls developing a love for illustration when she was a child; she was introverted and spent a lot of her time entertaining herself with coloring books and children’s books.

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  • Toon Me Challenge with Procreate
    Illustration

    Toon Me Challenge with Procreate

    Marcos Chin, an illustrator specializing in digital techniques, uses drawing software Procreate as he faces the Toon Me Challenge In recent months, the creative community has taken part in a new social media challenge that’s been dubbed “Toon Me.” It consists of an artist using a photo of their own face, and then illustrating over part of it to create an image that reflects their creative style and blends photography with drawing. Marcos Chin (@marcoschinart) is an illustrator whose work has appeared in books, magazines, album covers, advertisements, and fashion catalogs, and his clients include Google, Starbucks, and The New Yorker. Because the Toon Me challenge fuses imagination and humor, and Chin is an expert in both, when we challenged him to ‘toon himself he couldn’t resist. Check out the results below.

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  • Photoshop Tutorial: How to Scan or Import Your Character Sketch
    Teacher Illustration

    Photoshop Tutorial: How to Scan or Import Your Character Sketch

    Learn different ways you can digitally import your sketch with Joel Santana It probably sounds obvious, but it bears repeating: how you handle the first steps of any creative project will make a huge difference, not just in the outcome but also in terms of how easy or difficult your process is. From preparing your canvas (either digital or physical) to putting together a mood board that will serve as your guide once you begin to paint, these steps are crucial and, thankfully, they don’t have to be complicated. In this tutorial, character designer Joel Santana (@themaddhattr) explains the best ways to import your sketches into Adobe Photoshop so that you can begin working on them.

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  • Domestika Diary: Álex de Marcos
    Illustration

    Domestika Diary: Álex de Marcos

    The illustrator Álex de Marcos opens the doors of his house/studio to tell us how he has lived the last few months What happens when your house becomes your painting studio? That is exactly what has happened to illustrator Álex de Marcos (@alex_de_marcos), who, in analog or digital format, has worked for clients all over the world cultivating his particular style of oil painting. During the last few months, Álex has had to combine work and home, but thanks to his motivating routine and the constant pursuit of his artistic goals, he has managed to keep productivity up. In the following Domestika Diaries, the illustrator opens the doors of his house to tell us about his routine, his career... and introduce us to his pet.

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  • Spark AR Tutorial: Transform Your Illustrations With Augmented Reality (AR)
    Teacher Illustration

    Spark AR Tutorial: Transform Your Illustrations With Augmented Reality (AR)

    Learn to add new dimensions to your illustrations with Naranjalidad using Augmented Reality Would you like your illustrations to jump off the page and take on new dimensions? Spark AR doesn’t only allow you to create filters that warp human faces, it is also a tool that you can use to transform your illustrations using augmented reality. In this tutorial, Beatriz 'Naranjalidad' Ramo (@naranjalidad) explains step by step how to transform your illustrations with Spark AR and leave the two-dimensional world behind. Separate your illustration into different layers and save each one separately onto your computer. Now you can create your own filter!

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  • Free Download: Photoshop Brush Pack
    Illustration

    Free Download: Photoshop Brush Pack

    Felixantos shares over 70 brushes for illustration and concept art Víctor Félix Díaz (@felixantos) is a Peruvian concept artist and illustrator. He specializes in the creation of characters and settings, as well as portraits and caricatures. He has worked in advertising, animation and video game projects. His concept art style consists of turning everyday characters into the protagonists of stories with attractive narratives.

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  • Keep track of your creativity and learn to sketch characters with Caio Martins
    Illustration

    Keep track of your creativity and learn to sketch characters with Caio Martins

    Turn your sketchbook into a paper lab for character design Whoever thinks that ideas are born ready to be shared is dead wrong. Every spark of creativity must be polished again and again, built little by little, and improved until it reaches its final version, especially when it comes to projects involving the conversion from analog to digital. Caio Martins (@caiorfmartins) is a visual artist specializing in character design and storyboarding who has worked for studios like DreamWorks, Netflix, and Disney Jr. Today he is sharing some tips for working with your creativity on a sketchbook using a simple guide:

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  • Creatives For Black Lives Matter
    Illustration

    Creatives For Black Lives Matter

    Get to know the pieces that some artists have made for #BLM After the Black Lives Matter social movement was revived in recent weeks, the international art community added their voices to the cause. We gather below some samples of these pieces of art, in which we find techniques of embroidery, painting, drawing, lettering, photography and illustration.

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  • How to Make a Paper Cut Out Effect in Adobe Photoshop
    Illustration

    How to Make a Paper Cut Out Effect in Adobe Photoshop

    It looks like a paper cut out, but it's done digitally from start to finish. We show you how to create this effect using Adobe Photoshop A paper cut out effect tries to achieve the look of several superimposed layers of paper to create depth in a design. Cutting paper has proven to be a highly versatile technique in advertising, pop-up books, and mask making. It is the perfect example of how, with the simplest tools, such as paper, scalpel, glue, and scissors, you can create spectacular and highly complex work of art. The technique is simple, but, in the real world, it requires significant manual labor and the appropriate materials. Here, we will show you how to create the same look completely digitally, using only Photoshop:

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  • Domestika Diary: Nathan Jurevicius
    Illustration

    Domestika Diary: Nathan Jurevicius

    The multidisciplinary artist shares his process for working at home and finding inspiration in the everyday Working from home can sometimes feel like it limits your creative opportunities, especially if you’re used to looking for inspiration in the outside world. But just because you’re stuck indoors, doesn’t mean you have to suffer from a creative block. Nathan Jurevicius (@nathanjurevicius) is—among other things—an illustrator, toy designer, author, creative director, and concept artist. His colorful characters, lushly imaginative worlds, and diverse projects (which include glass sculpture collaborations with IKEA, a film, toys, and graphic novels, and more) are all a testament to his boundless creative energy. In this Domestika Diary, he shares how he deals with the challenges of working from home and how he manages to find endless inspiration no matter where he is.

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  • Domestika Creatives: Petra Eriksson
    Illustration

    Domestika Creatives: Petra Eriksson

    We spoke with digital artist Petra Eriksson and explored the colored universe of her illustrations Petra Eriksson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, but her career has taken her to Malta, Dublin, and, finally, Barcelona. Despite originally studying fine art, her wish to use art as a practical vehicle to "solve problems" led her to the world of graphic design and editorial illustration, where she has experienced a meteoric rise thanks to her personal style. This distinctive aesthetic has seen her work appear in publications like Vice, Buzzfeed, and The New Yorker, and on the cover of Mackenzie Lee's book Bygone Badass Broads, a collection of celebrated women's stories and biographies. Petra Eriksson welcomed us into her Barcelona studio to talk about her career, her rise, and her approach to art. Watch our interview in the video below:

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  • Illustration Tutorial: Coloring With Watercolors
    Teacher Illustration

    Illustration Tutorial: Coloring With Watercolors

    Learn how to apply color to your illustrations quickly and easily with Paula Bossio A good way to bring your illustrations to life is by coloring with watercolor. It is a very flexible technique that allows you to give your illustrations a unique style. If it fits your aesthetic, it is worth taking the leap and experimenting with it. If you are ready to try it, the graphic designer, illustrator, and author Paula Bossio (@paulabossio) will explain in this tutorial how to quickly and easily apply it to your drawings. Get your sketches ready, and let's go!

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  • Challenge: Illustrate in Procreate with Just Two Colors
    Illustration

    Challenge: Illustrate in Procreate with Just Two Colors

    Samuel Rodriguez, an illustrator specializing in Procreate, has just ten minutes to, using two colors, create a digital illustration To say that Samuel Rodriguez (@samrodriguezart) is an illustrator focused on creating portraits would be an understatement: the American artist has made a name for himself by cultivating a unique style in which the human face is fused with typography, all through the digital drawing tools of Procreate. With clients from a wide variety of backgrounds, Rodriguez's work hangs in museums and features on the covers of various publications. But will he be able to overcome the Domestika Challenge? In this case, we asked him to create a digital illustration in Procreate with a time limit of ten minutes... using only two colors. Find out if he succeeded in the video below:

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  • What is Negative Watercolor Painting?
    Illustration

    What is Negative Watercolor Painting?

    Find out what watercolor in negative is and how to use it to create light and depth in your illustrations Unlike other painting techniques, with watercolor, you can’t use white paint to add light and depth to your illustrations like you can with oil or acrylics. Instead, you must learn how to manage the white of the page on which you are painting to your advantage. One of the most effective ways to do this is by painting watercolor in negative: leave principal elements of your illustration unpainted so that they jump out at you. Instinctively, the most important elements of our paintings seem like the parts that we should be painting most. Painting in negative turns that idea on its head requiring you to paint everything but the object you want to highlight. Examine the picture below:

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  • Top 10: V&A Illustration Awards
    Illustration

    Top 10: V&A Illustration Awards

    We select some of our favorite entries from this year’s shortlist and winners One of the UK’s most prestigious illustration competitions, the V&A Illustration Awards were established in 1972 and celebrate art across four categories: Student Illustration, Book Cover Design, Book Illustration, and Illustrated Journalism. To celebrate this year's competition, we have selected some of our favorite entries from the 2020 shortlist. Open to UK residents, those who have had work published in titles within the UK market, or who are attending university in the UK, the competition takes place annually and is free to enter, generously supported by the Enid Linder Foundation and the Moira Gemmill Memorial fund. Each winner receives £3,000, and the overall winner of the competition is awarded the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year Prize of an additional £5,000. The student runner-up receives £2,000. Given the level of talent and the number of entries, just to be shortlisted is a huge achievement. Here are some of our favorite entries from this year’s shortlist. You can see the shortlist and winners in full here.

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  • Domestika Diary: Emma Hanquist
    Illustration

    Domestika Diary: Emma Hanquist

    The Swedish illustrator shares her daily routine and how she incorporates creativity into her everyday Editorial illustrators face an interesting creativity challenge—not only do they need to consider the practicalities of page design, but they also have to create images that are visually striking and contribute to a larger conversation. Emma Hanquist is a Swedish illustrator who specializes in editorial illustration and who has also worked with brands such as Airbnb and Spotify. In today’s Domestika Diary, she talks not just about her daily routine, but also the places where she finds inspiration, and what she’s doing to foster her children’s creative habits.

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  • Download These Exercises and Learn How to Draw the Female Body
    Illustration

    Download These Exercises and Learn How to Draw the Female Body

    7 drawing exercises by Violeta Hernández for practicing the female figure The best way to learn to draw and improve your technique is to practice with different exercises. Violeta Hernández (@soyvioleta) is an illustrator and designer that frequently draws inspiration from the feminine and the organic, fascinated by the perfection of nature. Here she'll share a series of exercises that will help you improve your technique when drawing the female anatomy.

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