Creation of an Illustrated Foldable Book
A course by Roger YcazaIllustrator and musician
A course by Roger Ycaza, Illustrator and musician
Create a music-based story and learn how to use illustration as a narrative tool for your book
When traveling the path of experimentation, one finds very interesting and necessarily innovative creative opportunities. The illustrator and musician Roger Ycaza found his space of action as an author and co-author of books—mostly for children and teenagers—in which he tells his illustrated stories influenced by art and music, and full of personality that is reflected in both their formal and conceptual aspects.
In this course, Roger shows you the process of making an illustrated book with music as the starting point. You will look for references, understand the creative process, and guide the development of your book from a song, a phrase, a book ... find the trigger for your idea and make it come to life! Define the concept, characters, setting, sequence of the story, and get down to work on the illustration. Explore color, composition, typography, and how to capture them, to finally digitize your pieces and assemble your book.
What will you learn in this online course?
19 lessons & 37 downloads
What will we do during the course?
1 minute, 33 seconds
Detonating
5 minutes, 31 seconds
Folding and formats
6 minutes, 5 seconds
materials
2 minutes, 25 seconds
Selecting the theme
4 minutes, 57 seconds
Concept
4 minutes, 11 seconds
What's included in this course?
Start the course by getting to know Roger, his career as an illustrator and musician, and his main influences.
Review with him some of his projects to analyze how he works and his decision-making in the creative process. Learn how to find an idea for your story and discover the types of folding books that are available before selecting the best option for your final project. Take a look at the materials you'll be working with and discover Roger’s favorites.
Find the theme you want to narrate, using a particular song as the trigger, which will set the pace for your fold book. Then, go on to conceptualizing by establishing the character of the project: define your characters and sketch several options. Then, look for the atmosphere that best fits your story, always according to the song.
Think and experiment with various color options and work on the composition, visualizing it with some image and narration exercises. Find the right rhythm and balance, taking into account an accordion format with the front and back sides, to make it attractive and dynamic.
Apply everything to your project. Prepare the support, work on the book sequence with storyboards, define the best color range and specific tone for the book, and decide on the fonts. Finally, scan your project and clean it up image by image in Adobe Photoshop, and then assemble your project from the definitive files.
What is this course's project?
Create an illustrated foldable book.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
All those who want to learn other ways of storytelling, experimenting, and sharing.
Requirements and materials
It takes passion and connection to books and music. Regarding materials, you will need acrylics, brushes for acrylics, white 250 to 300-gram cardboard, a fine tip pen or marker, a colored pencil, a notebook of any size, a glass or a cup, paper towels, a metallic ruler, and an Exacto knife.
Reviews
- 3 months ago
I really enjoyed this course. I liked the short video's and the teacher's straightforward way of explaining things. I liked learning about the foldable book format and dry painting with acrylic paint, although I decided to collage my work because collage is my creative focus. I found creating all the pictures challenging but I'm glad I was able to complete the work.
- 11 months ago
Cours très intéressant, j'ai beaucoup aimé faire le lien entre divers arts, musique, arts plastiques... Merci !
- 11 months ago
This was one of the best courses in creative book layout and design that I have ever taken! There were such great ideas for inspiration, book formats, illustration and even the basic digital process of cleaning it up (if you choose to). Not a technique course, but mainly a process course. The lessons were the perfect length and bite-sized enough to not overwhelm. I loved it and I have so many ideas for different illustrated stories I want to create! Thank you!
- 1 year ago
Innovative - very original, I recommend it!
- 1 year ago
A well presented and understandable course for everyone. Thank you!
As time went by, he realized that he could connect his passion for music and illustration, professions he learned on a self-taught basis. Roger is always experimenting, something that is reflected in his work. He is author or co-author for publishing houses such as Fondo de Cultura Económica, Océano Travesía, Panamericana, Loqueleo, SM, Castillo, Pato Lógico, El Naranjo, Amanuense, Editora Do Brasil, GatoMalo, among others.
Content
- U1
Introduction
- Presentation
- Influences
- What will we do during the course?
- U2
First thing's first
- Detonating
- Folding and formats
- materials
- U3
Filling the blank sheet
- Selecting the theme
- Concept
- Characters
- Setting
- Chromatic
- Composition
- Rhythm and sequence
- U4
Headed
- Layout
- Sketch
- Color part 1
- Color part 2
- Typography
- Development
- FP
Final project
- Creation of an Illustrated Foldable Book
What to expect from a Domestika course
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Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
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FAQs
You’ll learn how to conceptualize, develop, and produce illustrated books, covering visual storytelling, traditional and digital illustration techniques, and how to blend text and image to create children’s and young adult editorial projects.
The course is designed for those with intermediate skills in illustration, drawing, or visual storytelling. It’s perfect if you have some basic experience and want to dive deeper into creating illustrated books or picture books.
You’ll need acrylic paints, brushes, paper or cardstock (preferably A3 size), colored pencils, a craft knife, a plastic palette, sketching materials, and access to digital tools to digitize your final work.
The course covers acrylic painting, digital illustration, brush and ink drawing, comic pen techniques, textures, and color composition tailored for children’s and young adult projects.
Yes, you’ll learn how to choose themes, develop characters, build settings, and turn ideas or creative sparks into coherent and imaginative visual stories.
Picture books are defined by a deep relationship between image and text, where both work together to tell the story. In other illustrated books, images may accompany the text but aren’t necessarily central.
Yes, the course walks you through creating an accordion-style fold-out book step-by-step—from concept to mockup, sketching, painting, layout, and digitization.