Playful Illustration Techniques for a Visual Diary
A course by Diego BiankiIllustrator
A course by Diego Bianki, Illustrator
Learn a creative approach to illustration using unconventional tools and techniques while exploring your style in a sketchbook
In this online course, learn how to communicate through the universal language of drawing. Illustrator Diego Bianki, founder of the publishing house Pequeño editor, explains how he started handcrafting his own notebooks to always have one on hand and guides you through the process of creating your own.
He teaches you to hone your observation skills, view the world from a different perspective, and turn your surroundings into art.
What will you learn in this online course?
15 lessons & 21 downloads
What Is a Logbook?
12 minutes, 16 seconds
Materials
2 minutes, 34 seconds
Intervention
16 minutes, 35 seconds
Personalization
11 minutes, 4 seconds
What Is Pareidolia?
5 minutes, 38 seconds
Collecting Objects of All Kinds
4 minutes, 18 seconds
What's included in this course?
Diego Bianki begins by telling you about himself and how he switched from illustrating for major media outlets to working as an independent editor and illustrator. He also shares the influences that have shaped his professional career.
Discover what a visual diary is and how to create your own. Diego shows what materials you need to get started and how to make it one of a kind by customizing the cover and inside pages.
Open your mind to the vast array of elements you can include in your diary and see how to fill its pages with fun drawing exercises that sharpen your sense of observation.
Next, review your work from front to back and add any finishing touches you think it needs to be complete. Finally, Diego shows you a sample of projects published in book format that evolved from experimentation in his diaries.
What is this course's project?
Craft your own illustration diary to fill with daily entries using unconventional tools and techniques.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
Anyone who wants to unblock and explore their creative process and discover their own voice by experimenting with illustration.
Requirements and materials
No previous drawing experience is required, just bring your curiosity and come ready to experiment.
For materials, you need a small travel kit consisting of a glue stick, tape, markers or pens, scissors, paintbrushes and your choice of mediums for color, such as tempera paint, watercolors, or colored pencils.
Reviews
- 6 months ago
la creatividad es mi tema favorito, me encanta este curso y todas sus posiblidades para desarrollar la creatividad.
- 8 months ago
Es divertido, colorido y entretenido
- 8 months ago
Adorei o curso! Respondeu a várias perguntas que me fazia sobre os sentidos das bitacoras. Os recursos adicionais são muito ricos em idéias. É um curso super recomendado! Obrigada e muito sucesso!
- 8 months ago
Muy ameno el curso y variados los ejemplos. Muy bueno tambien el aporte a traves de los textos y Links desde los cuales podemos seguir indagando y despertando imaginación. El curso está impartido por un dibujante,por lo cual para los que no lo somos, y sólo tenemos (por ahora) la herramienta de collage, de trabajar con papeles, objetos etc, se hace difícil trabajar en esa direccion. Sería bueno un cursillo basado sólo en el collage, pegado, tridimensionm, etc, es decir, crear sin dibujar.
- 8 months ago
Me encantó. Muy orgánico y sensible. Para mí, totalmente útil y aplicable a mi trabajo.
He also shares his passion with the world by organizing entertaining workshops and events for children and adults. On top of it all, he has written speeches and articles about editorial design, illustration, and editing, and his client lists includes major newspapers like La Vanguardia and Público from Spain and Clarín in Argentina.
Content
- U1
Introduction
- About Me
- Influences
- U2
Making Your Own Logbook
- What Is a Logbook?
- Materials
- Intervention
- Personalization
- U3
Completing the Logbook
- What Is Pareidolia?
- Collecting Objects of All Kinds
- Resignifying Graphic Elements
- Including Natural Elements
- Working with Recycled Materials
- Jumping to Three Dimensions 1
- Jumping to Three Dimensions 2
- U4
Final Advice and Future of the Logbook
- Finishing touches
- From Logbook to Illustration
- FP
Final project
- Playful Illustration Techniques for a Visual Diary
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
PLUSIf 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
An art journal is a notebook where artists and designers jot down ideas, experiments, and processes. It’s a tool for exploring techniques, reflecting on your work, and gathering visual and material inspiration.
The course is aimed at people with intermediate art or design skills but is also accessible to motivated beginners eager to explore visual experimentation and handmade bookbinding.
You’ll need an old notebook or book, scissors, glue, brushes, assorted papers, labels, souvenirs, tempera paints, markers, and recycled or everyday materials for collage and creative interventions.
The course covers hand cutting, gluing covers, pressing, sanding edges, and techniques for joining covers to build sturdy structures, plus methods to personalize and transform books or notebooks.
You’ll learn how to incorporate everyday objects, labels, tickets, and recycled materials into collage compositions, exploring new meanings and visual experimentation with Dadaist and Surrealist techniques.
Yes, the course includes playful exercises, pareidolia exploration, graphic interventions, object collecting, and creating characters from stains and accidental shapes.
The course teaches manual typographic composition, handmade cover design, and mixed media techniques to create a unique visual identity for your journal.