Illustration

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  • Photoshop Tutorial: How to Flatten Your Character
    Teacher Illustration

    Photoshop Tutorial: How to Flatten Your Character

    Learn the steps and techniques to color your illustrations on Adobe Photoshop, with Joel Santana Where do we start coloring our new character, once we've decided on how it will look? How do we choose the right color palette to communicate its personality? How can we apply all this to its digital illustration? Character design specialist Joel Santana (@themaddhattr) shows us how to color our creations with Photoshop, using the flattening technique, in the following video tutorial:

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  • Types of Watercolor Brushes and How to Use Them
    Illustration

    Types of Watercolor Brushes and How to Use Them

    Naranjalidad shows us the types of paintbrushes we should be using to paint in watercolor, how to use them for each type of stroke, and how to make sure they last longer Types of watercolor brushes Before starting to paint with watercolor, it’s important to prepare your basic palette of brushes. This will be your main work tool, so it’s important to know what types of brushes we can use for each case. For Naranjalidad, (@naranjalidad) illustrator and Domestika teacher, there are three types of brushes crucial to any artist: Round tip The top the list because they are indispensable. They are the most versatile brushes that are good to fill in large surfaces, but also to add details and fine lines. They come in different sizes but a medium-sized one will cover all your needs.

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  • 10 Wonderful Webcomics You Need To Read
    Illustration

    10 Wonderful Webcomics You Need To Read

    These online comics, which were created by illustrators from around the world, will both inspire and entertain you Webcomics are usually comics that were first published online and that are available to read on the internet. In many cases, once they’ve become successful, they are often published in magazines, newspapers or in books compiling a selection of the author’s work. These self-published comics are wonderful examples of their creators’ hard work, dedication, and creativity. We asked the Domestika community to name some of their favorite webcomics and then compiled a list of the top 10. Below, you will find a range of narrative and illustration styles: from dark humor to drama and suspense. Discover them all! Comics series Boyfriend of the Dead, by Ushio This comic follows a young, independent woman fighting for survival during a zombie apocalypse and her story of unexpected love. She faces the challenges of modern love with her boyfriend–a zombie. The first issue was published in 2017, and since then, there have been 247 more.

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  • Domestika Projects: Watercolor Portrait Notebook
    Teacher Illustration

    Domestika Projects: Watercolor Portrait Notebook

    Discover the creative process behind Carlos Rodríguez Casado’s watercolor portraits Here, I (Carlos!) am sharing my project from my second Domestika course, in which I show you tricks for making a notebook for portraits using simple watercolor techniques. Filling those first few pages of a new notebook can seem a daunting task: as those blank pages stare up at you, you feel nervous that you might ruin them with what you’re about to draw or paint. To combat this fear, you should use the first few pages as a catalog of techniques that you are going to use and different effects. You are going to work with watercolor pencils, watercolor paints, and a refillable brush pen (Pentel) filled with paint diluted with water. Save a section of this catalog for testing out what happens when you mix different techniques.

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  • Download Free Coloring Pages #StayAtHome
    Teacher Illustration

    Download Free Coloring Pages #StayAtHome

    Have fun with five Andonella's illustrations to color digitally or by hand Andonella (@andonella) is a self-taught Mexican illustrator and cartoonist. Her colorful style and unique sense of humor have made their mark within the contemporary illustration scene today. Her work is full of portraits inspired by real people and the scenes that arise from her imagination, characterized by plenty of irreverence and graphic humor.

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  • Tips for Starting out in Character Design
    Illustration

    Tips for Starting out in Character Design

    Joel Santana talks us through his career as a character designer and shares advice for starting out Character designer, visual artist and illustrator Joel Santana creates magical worlds inhabited by curious beings. Based in Florida, Santana grew up in New York where he was fully immersed in the city’s energetic art scene and “grittiness”. By his early teen years, he had already begun to paint landscapes and still life with oil paints, inspired by the likes of Bob Ross, Disney animation and, one of his all-time favorites: Norman Rockwell. It was during these early years that he got to grips with traditional techniques and developed an understanding of color that he would later apply to his character designs.

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  • Illustration Tutorial: Applying Sumi-e Techniques to Watercolor Painting
    Teacher Illustration

    Illustration Tutorial: Applying Sumi-e Techniques to Watercolor Painting

    Learn the basic elements for using the Japanese illustration technique with illustrator Flor Kaneshiro Although traditionally done with Indian ink, the Sumi-e drawing technique includes a series of strokes that can be applied using other materials, such as watercolor. Its delicate and soft strokes (which should be carefully controlled if you're just starting out in the technique) make it suitable for anyone who wants to widen their watercolor skill set. In the video below, illustrator Flor Kaneshiro (@florkaneshiro) goes over the most important considerations for anyone starting out their journey in Sumi-e, taking into account pressure, speed, direction, and rhythm of the brushstrokes.

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  • Photoshop Tutorial: 6 Great Brushes for Digital Painting
    Illustration

    Photoshop Tutorial: 6 Great Brushes for Digital Painting

    Discover illustrator Joel Santana's favorite Photoshop brushes for character design Using Adobe Photoshop for digital illustration is one of the most common applications of this software, which allows artists, creatives and designers of all levels to build characters, scenarios and objects out of their imagination. The use of custom brushes can also give extra character to our drawings and illustrations. In the following video tutorial, character designer Joel Santana (@themaddhattr) shares his favorite Adobe Photoshop brushes for digital painting. Santana uses them for creative tasks ranging from sketching to color application, and they give a good example of the wide variety of textures offered by Photoshop custom brushes. Find out below:

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  • Tips For Transforming Your Illustrations into Pins, by Charlotte
    Illustration

    Tips For Transforming Your Illustrations into Pins, by Charlotte

    The talented Mexican illustrator shares, step by step, how she transforms her beautiful drawings into pins Karla Hernández, better known as Charlötte (@charlotte.khm), is a graphic designer and illustrator who has a passion for color, fauna, flora, climate, and all other aspects of nature. Influenced by Asian folklore and the artists Koralie and Conrad Roset, she has found a visual style that draws on figures from nature and women. Charlötte has focused on bringing together these different areas of interest into her designs, with certain elements becoming key features in her work. She uses a palette of soft and shiny colors, finding inspiration in shapes and details from her day-to-day life. Her pins stand out among her creations. Here Charlötte walks us through her process for transforming her beautiful drawings into pins.

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  • Challenge: Draw a Character in 5 Minutes Using Photoshop
    Illustration

    Challenge: Draw a Character in 5 Minutes Using Photoshop

    Joel Santana, the character designer and illustrator, faces the Domestika Challenge Joel Santana's career (@themaddhattr) extends from illustrations for advertising campaigns, to packaging and toy design. He has developed projects for well-known brands such as Walt Disney World Orlando and Champs Sports. But now he faces a challenge he has never faced before... In this Domestika Challenge, the illustrator only has five minutes to draw a character from scratch using a graphic tablet and Photoshop. Will he succeed? Find out in the next video:

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  • Malika Favre: Feminine Vector Illustration
    Illustration

    Malika Favre: Feminine Vector Illustration

    We spoke with the French illustrator Malika Favre about her creative process She is one of the most successful illustrators in the world at the moment and her style is 100% recognizable. She has designed almost a dozen front covers for the New Yorker and has worked with big brands and publications across the planet. Her work is purely vectoral and, between negative spaces, the optical illusions and plays on perspective tend to hide themselves in the female form, which has become a staple of her illustrations. We spoke with her about her work and her creative process.

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  • Domestika Creatives: Lauren Tamaki
    Illustration

    Domestika Creatives: Lauren Tamaki

    Illustrator, designer, and art director Lauren Tamaki has mastered how to adapt her unique style to a range of mediums: from editorial illustration to animation and portraits You’ve probably spotted her work when you’ve opened The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, or come across her commissions for Apple, Google, Nickelodeon or the agency Pentagram. Lauren Tamaki’s unique and vibrant style and passion for acrylics have made her one of the most interesting US illustrators of recent years. Tamaki recently welcomed us into her New York studio to talk about her passion for fashion design, her celebrity portraits, drawing from a feminist perspective, and her greatest feat: drawing Bill Cosby’s trial. Discover more in the following video:

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  • Creating and Applying Color Palettes to Vector Illustrations
    PLUS Teacher Illustration

    Creating and Applying Color Palettes to Vector Illustrations

    Camipepe teaches you to create color palettes in a way that's fast and easy, and then how to apply them to your illustrations in a single click Plus, find out how to select the right color palette, shapes and other details that make vector illustrations work. Sometimes, selecting a color range for a project is something that comes naturally, but in other cases you might need inspiration from photos or images to convey the right mood for the project. To make this process easier, Chilean illustrators Camipepe (@camipepe) teach you to create, select and apply color palettes to vector illustrations in Adobe Illustrator in a way that’s effective and simple:

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  • 6 Tips for Starting Out as an Illustrator
    Illustration

    6 Tips for Starting Out as an Illustrator

    Discover the essential tips for getting your illustration career off the ground Over the course of her career as an illustrator, Carla Berrocal from Üstudio Mol+Carla has faced all sorts of challenges. For her, the biggest one has been starting out as an illustrator. Carla knows all too well how difficult it can be to take that giant leap and so, as an act of solidarity, she has decided to share her essential tips for getting your illustration career off the ground.

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  • A Quick Guide to Sharing Your Creative Work on Instagram
    Illustration

    A Quick Guide to Sharing Your Creative Work on Instagram

    Discover the best times to publish and other key tips for creatives looking to improve their Instagram page Nubia Navarro, better known as Nubikini (@nubikini), is a Venezuelan graphic designer and lover of typography, letters, and photography. Since discovering her true passion while taking a course in experimental typography, she hasn’t stopped experimenting, working on projects for Adidas, Coca-Cola and UNICEF. Instagram has become her favorite platform for sharing her lettering work, given that the social media network allows her to show her creative process and passion for letters, and connect with her followers. Standing out on Instagram isn’t just about creating quality content, you also need to know which are the best times to publish it, and familiarize yourself with the different formats you can use to generate engagement. Drawing on her own experience, Nubikini has created a list of her top tips for presenting your creative work on Instagram:

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  • Challenge: Draw Marina Abramović in 10 Minutes
    Illustration

    Challenge: Draw Marina Abramović in 10 Minutes

    Artist José Rosero accepts Domestika’s challenge to draw an express portrait of the famous conceptual artist José Rosero (@rosero) has faced many challenges over the course of his career. He is a renowned illustrator who has had work published in various magazines, newspapers and other publications. He is also the director of CasaTinta (Bogotá), a space dedicated to illustration and visual arts. The task we challenged him to was just another excuse to pull out all the stops. Will he manage to draw the famous conceptual artist Marina Abramović in 10 minutes? In 5 minutes? In 1 minute? Find out by clicking on the following video!

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  • How to Install New Brushes in Adobe Photoshop
    Illustration

    How to Install New Brushes in Adobe Photoshop

    Here, we explain how to install new brushes in Adobe Photoshop so that you can expand your collection Photoshop is the go-to program for editing images, given its wide range of tools and options for improving and adding effects to your photos. That said, it is also among the most popular software tools for digital illustration. The Brush is perhaps Photoshop’s most useful and versatile tool. While the program offers a great range of default options, once you discover that you can load and create personalized brushes, the possibilities become endless. This means you can expand your library with more options, different thicknesses, brushstrokes, tips, opacities, and even textures–your drawing options are infinite. Installing new brushes in Adobe Photoshop is extremely easy. Here we explain how it works, step by step:

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  • Exercises for Working with Volume in Photoshop
    PLUS Teacher Illustration

    Exercises for Working with Volume in Photoshop

    Gemma Román gives you the secrets to testing the opacity and flow of Photoshop brushes and improving volume. Photoshop has become a tool that’s very helpful for digital illustrators thanks to the amount of options that it offers and their potential. One of digital artists’ favorite tools within the program, are its brushes. Although the default brushes might seem somewhat basic, they have incredible potential. Gemma Román (@gemmaroman) shows us a clear example of this in this series of exercises for working on depth, color and shadow through flow and opacity with Photoshop brushes. By observing the global value of the brushes and how they behave, you can study the parameters that you need to keep in mind to create gradients in your illustrations that will make them infinitely more interesting and give your work a professional finish.

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  • How to Create a Pencil-effect Brush for Sketching in Photoshop
    Illustration

    How to Create a Pencil-effect Brush for Sketching in Photoshop

    We explain, step-by-step, how to create a graphite pencil brush for sketching in Adobe Photoshop Sketching is an essential part of the design process. Transferring your first idea to paper enables you to get a first glimpse of what will become the final work; make changes; and remove and redo parts of your design, illustration, artwork, or architecture plan. Every creative process related to drawing includes this essential step. With digital production booming, paper is almost becoming redundant, which is why professionals such as Mercedes deBellard (@mercedes_debellard) create ways to work in Photoshop using traditional processes. Mercedes is an illustrator with a passion for colored pencils who has developed a technique for creating digital textures that mimic traditional pencils. Here she explains how to create a brush in Photoshop that mimics the texture of a graphite pencil so that you can use it to sketch digitally:

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  • Free Download: Pencil Package to Illustrate Your Next Photoshop Portrait
    Illustration

    Free Download: Pencil Package to Illustrate Your Next Photoshop Portrait

    Illustrator Oscar Giménez shares a set of pencils with the Domestika community that will improve your Photoshop portraits considerably With 13 years of experience in illustration, Oscar Giménez (@oscargimenez) is passionate about music and the world of graphics; he combines these areas in his work, playing with different elements so that each of his pieces stand out. In recent years, he has specialized in portraiture in his personal project for concert illustrations compiled in the book Sold Out. He also often contributes to Yorokobu Magazine’s biweekly 'Rock n' Draw’ section in which he creates music-inspired portraits. He takes the essence of his characters from photos and other references and then transforms them into something totally different. His talent has secured him clients like Adobe, Playboy, Universal Music, Rolling Stone and Audi, and he has done everything from press pictures, TV and advertising, to murals, book and album covers, and posters.

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  • How to Illustrate a Great Children’s Book Character
    Illustration

    How to Illustrate a Great Children’s Book Character

    A few concepts that will help you create fascinating characters for children’s books Children are one of the most demanding audiences that exist. Dedicating your life to children’s illustration requires a mix of absolute passion and drawing know-how that will allow you to illustrate the stories that thousands of children will grow up with the way they deserve. But what are the most important concepts to consider when designing a character for a children's book? Teresa Martínez (@teresa_mtz), an illustrator specializing in children's and youth publications, shares her professional advice which will help you build attractive and charismatic characters aimed at children's audiences.

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  • 10 Incredible Illustrated Children’s Books for Kids and Adults
    Illustration

    10 Incredible Illustrated Children’s Books for Kids and Adults

    Among the classics of children’s literature, there are those titles that stand out for their illustrations Inspiration can be found anywhere but books are no doubt one of our greatest creative resources. That’s why we recently asked our Instagram followers to tell us their favorite children’s books. The response, as expected, was varied. Here is what we concluded were the top ten must-read books for any lover of illustration and stories. Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince), a book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a pilot, creator, author and illustrator of one of the books that has captivated the most readers the length and breadth of the world. A story considered by many a children’s book but the background of which is a critique of adulthood through the meaning of life, loneliness, friendship, love and loss. In 1968, the Morgan Library in New York acquired the original manuscripts and drawings, over 30,000 words, original watercolors and coffee-stained sketches with cigarette burns through them.

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