Illustrated Children's Stories: Characters and Settings

Get ready to see the world through your imagination's magic lens. This is an invitation for you to reinterpret stories, follow your ideas, and discover your path in children's book illustration. Giovana Medeiros, an illustrator of stories ranging from everyday life to fantasy who has worked for clients such as Chronicle Books and Harper & Collins, will be your guide in this adventure.

In this course, learn the whole process of creating your own illustrated story, adapted from a classic tale. Giovana shows you the steps and secrets to complete the first pages of a children's picturebook, combining manual drawing techniques and digital editing.

Start by meeting Giovana Medeiros, who tells you about her career as an illustrator, the artists who influence her, and the work you will develop in the course.

In the second unit, start by reviewing the materials you will use for your project. Study the chosen classic tale and make the first sketches to use them as visual references. Giovana also shows you how to set up a mood board to gather all your inspirations in one place.

Give shape to your drawings, starting with composition studies for your miniatures. First, sketch the characters and animals and then, the rest of the elements that make up the scene.

Next, scan three possible compositions, choosing one of them to do the color study in Procreate. Learn how to create textures with gouache paint to scan them and use them separately in Photoshop, thus facilitating your final edit.

In the last unit of the course, see how to finish the file of your project, combining the textures created by hand with gouache, brush textures, and line details in Photoshop. Finally, Giovana tells you how to deliver your work to clients and gives you some tips on the industry and the use of social media so you can successfully promote your project.

Make three composition studies with characters and scenes from a classic story of your choice, and a finished illustration in Photoshop with manually-made textures using gouache paint.

Anyone interested in illustration and creative processes, illustrators who want to work in the children's sector, and people looking to learn new Photoshop techniques.

To take this course, you’ll need basics drawing knowledge.

As for the materials, you will need gouache paint and other materials of your choice for manual drawing. To digitize your creations, you will need a computer with Adobe Photoshop, a graphics tablet, and a scanner. It is recommended to have an iPad with Procreate installed, but it’s not mandatory.