# Introduction to Oil Paint Illustration | Domestika

> A course by David de las Heras · Illustration · Intermediate
> 19 lessons (3h 17m) · 95% of the 198 student ratings are positive

Illustrator and plastic artist David de las Heras has collaborated with different international magazines and publications, although his greatest contribution to the publishing world is in the form of book covers. With his illustrations, he dresses up the ideas hidden in those books, hinting wordlessly at what lies within its pages.

In this online course, he teaches you to use pictorial techniques and oil paints to create illustrations capable of transmitting an idea to the viewer, either for editorial use or any other graphic field.

## Who is this online course for?

Illustrators eager to learn techniques that open up new possibilities, and anyone with a taste for oil painting.

## What is this course's project?

Create the cover of a book using oil painting techniques.

## Requirements and materials

No prior knowledge of painting is necessary for this course, although notions of drawing are advised to successfully carry out the final project.

As for materials, you need paper, a pencil, charcoal, colored pencils, masking tape, brushes, acrylic paints, oil paints, a cloth, white spirit or solvent, Liquin, and a palette to mix the colors.

## Content

### Introduction

In this unit you can see a small presentation about me and my work. The most outstanding works of my professional career and which have been my biggest influences.

### Prepare the trip

In this unit, as the title says, we will prepare our 'trip'. The first thing will be to show you examples of book covers of different authors that work. Next I will show you all the material you will need for the course. Finally we will do a small exercise in which we will see the importance of color.

### To land

In this unit we will take the first steps to design our cover. The first thing will be to decide the book we want to cover. Once we have the book, we will start with the sketches where we will find the idea that we want to illustrate and that best suits the spirit of the story. Finally once we have the final sketch, we will document, look for the necessary references to make our cover, and we will make a kind of 'collage' with them in photoshop.

### Trip

In this unit we will give shape to our cover. The first thing will be to use the tracing to have the drawing of it. Then on that drawing and always having the reference by hand, we will give the first layers of acrylic that will help us to intone everything and we can proceed to the last part that will be finished with the oil technique.

### The takeoff

Once we have our cover painted, we will scan it, correct if necessary something, how can be the color, levels or some stain that over. We will also see how to design it and leave it ready to print.

## Audio and subtitles

**Audio:** Spanish, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish

**Subtitles:** Spanish, English, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Turkish

[Introduction to Oil Paint Illustration](https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/196-introduction-to-oil-paint-illustration)