Creative Techniques for Design and Illustration of Characters

A course by Gastón Caba , Character designer and illustrator

Character designer and illustrator. Calahorra, Spain.
Joined January 2017

Create a narrative universe for your characters based on your own experiences

  • Spanish with subtitles in English
  • 100% positive reviews (218)
  • 2762 students

Create a narrative universe for your characters based on your own experiences

A course by Gastón Caba

Gastón Caba is an illustrator, character designer and passionate about everything abnormal and nonsense of everyday life.

In this course, Gastón will teach you his technique of creating characters and then share a series of exercises to unlock creativity based on experiences, dreams and desires.

To do this, you will create a character from scratch, you will define the variables that help build your style and you will look for ideas without stopping (inspired by your everyday experiences) that you will write down in a notebook.

The goal is to learn to imagine complex universes for your characters and stories that allow you to create images with which to feed a blog or social networks daily.

As Gastón Caba says "Never believe that you have nothing to tell because there is a universe inside you" .

Read more ↓

What will you learn in this online course?

17 lessons & 9 downloads

Workbook and references
7 minutes, 12 seconds
Choice of the character
10 minutes, 39 seconds
Playing with our design I
17 minutes, 10 seconds
Playing with our design II
7 minutes, 26 seconds
Time as a design variable
3 minutes, 3 seconds
Configuring my universe
8 minutes, 39 seconds
Spanish with subtitles in English
  • 100% positive reviews (218)
  • 2762 students
  • 17 lessons (2h 26m)
  • 9 additional resources (3 files)
  • Online and at your own pace
  • Available on the app
  • Audio: Spanish
  • Spanish, English, Portuguese
  • Level: Beginner
  • Unlimited access forever

What is this course's project?

The project consists in creating a blog, a profile in social networks or a portfolio in Domestika where you publish your daily production of images around the life of a character invented by you.

Projects by course students

Who is this online course for?

To designers, illustrators, creators of video games, animators and anyone who wants to create characters in an intuitive and fun way, who wants to expand their capacity to tell stories and who wants to share their work with the world.

Requirements and materials

To carry out this course, no previous knowledge is required, just a lot of desire to experiment and connect with your inner world.

Regarding the materials, you will need: notebooks, pen, ink, brushes, markers, a scanner and a computer with Photoshop.


Reviews

2762 Students
218 Reviews
100% Positive ratings

Gastón Caba

A course by Gastón Caba

Teacher Plus
Character designer and illustrator

Gastón Caba is an illustrator, character designer, pattern designer and teacher. He currently lives and works in the city of Quilmes, Buenos Aires. His designs and characters are internationally recognized for his cheerful and colorful style and he has worked for brands such as Adidas, Benetton, Diesel, Coca-Cola, Orange or Sony Playstation, among others.

In 2005 he created an ambitious project called Ping Pong Remix, in which he invited more than 70 artists from around the world to reinterpret his work.

From 2010 he started with his project We Love Patterns, a series of group and individual illustration courses in companies and colleges and in 2011 he joined the teaching team of Daniel Roldán's illustration department at the UBA.

Since 2015 he has collaborated in the magazine Anorak with his adorable character Round Bunny, a classic strip of four panels and in 2016 Round Bunny became the protagonist of the book "Churro, the rabbit" edited by Edelvives.


Content

  • U1

    Introduction

    • Presentation
    • Influences
    • Workbook and references
  • U2

    Designing a character

    • Choice of the character
    • Playing with our design I
    • Playing with our design II
    • Time as a design variable
  • U3

    Drawing ideas without stopping

    • Configuring my universe
    • Diary of emotions and experiences
    • Pressure to the character
    • Diary of dreams and daydreams
    • Alphabet of images
    • Connecting with the culture of the moment
  • U4

    Selecting and formatting

    • Your community is your first editor
    • Thinking about the output format
    • Tips on scanning, painting and color palette
    • Opening of your project
  • FP

    Final project

    • Character design: create a narrative universe

What to expect from a Domestika course

  • Learn at your own pace

    Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.

  • Learn from the best professionals

    Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.

  • Meet expert teachers

    Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.

  • Certificates
    Plus

    If you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.

  • Get front-row seats

    Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.

  • Share knowledge and ideas

    Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.

  • Connect with a global creative community

    The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.

  • Watch professionally produced courses

    Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.


FAQs

Domestika's courses are online classes that provide you with the tools and skills you need to complete a specific project. Every step of the project combines video lessons with complementary instructional material, so you can learn by doing. Domestika's courses also allow you to share your own projects with the teacher and with other students, creating a dynamic course community.

All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.

The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.

You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.

If you're a Plus member, when you complete a course you've purchased, you'll instantly get your personalized certificate. You can see all your certificates in the Certificates section of your profile. You can download your certificates as PDFs and share the link online. Learn more about certificates.
Creative Techniques for Design and Illustration of Characters. Illustration course by Gastón Caba

Creative Techniques for Design and Illustration of Characters

A course by Gastón Caba
Character designer and illustrator. Calahorra, Spain.
Joined January 2017
  • 100% positive reviews (218)
  • 2762 students