Illustration for Children’s Books: Creating a Joyful Universe

Illustration for Children’s Books: Creating a Joyful Universe

“Thank you for choosing my course and coming along on this introduction to children’s illustration. Now it’s your turn to make your own illustration. Before you begin drawing, consider the many aspects that will help you make an original character. Proportions are key to making your child believable and relatable. Study anatomy in adults and then use what I have taught you about making a character older or younger. Proportion also affects how we interact with the world. The age of your child can be shown by how heavy they find an object. Make sure their environment says something about them. A tidy or messy bedroom says a lot about a child. Clothing is very important. Can we tell if they like to be indoors or outdoors? Do they like the clothes they’re wearing, or not? Catalogues are a great resource to make sure you’re not too dependent on your own nostalgia. And also consider how the colours of the clothes will look against the background. When you’ve considered all this, you’re ready to make the ugly sketch. This helps you overcome the fear of the blank page and is also a reference for the digital drawing. Don’t scan it but keep it on paper to remind you of your original idea. Then you’re ready to begin in Photoshop. I begin by making a loose sketch with a pencil-like brush to keep the essence of the ugly sketch. Add in details by drawing over your sketch and make changes to find a balanced composition. Now you’re ready to add colour. And remember a tree doesn’t have to be green! Once you unlock this, you can really start playing with colours. I put round blobs of colour on a separate layer and play around using ‘colour balance’ and ‘saturation’ bars until they begin to feel in sync. Create block shapes on a separate layer under the sketch. Build your shapes using lots of separate layers to keep them really editable at this stage. But as you progress, too many layers can become messy to condense all the facial features onto one layer. Once the base shapes are drawn, it’s time to add final touches like pattern, texture and shadow. Keep editing and be critical of what is and isn’t working. When you’re happy with your final piece and ready to post online, always make sure there’s a really clear way to look at more of your work and a way to contact you. And that wraps up my tips for you. Now it’s your turn to practice what you’ve learnt!

Remember that you can also learn from the other students. Share your tips and experiences in the forum, and I will check in to answer your questions from time to time. And you can also connect with me on Instagram @maddyology and #MaddyVianDomestika. It’s been a real pleasure to share my art and my process with you and I’m looking forward to seeing what you will make for YOUR final project. ”

Partial transcription of the video

“Final Project Thank you for choosing my course and coming along on this introduction to children's illustration. Now it's your turn to make your own illustration. Before you begin drawing, there are many aspects to consider to help you create an original character. Proportions are key to making your character believable and relatable. Study anatomy in adults and use what I have taught you to help your character get younger or older. Proportion also affects how we interact with the world around us. The age of your child can be shown by how heavy they find an object and make sure their enviro...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Illustration for Children’s Books: Creating a Joyful Universe

• Level: Beginner
• 99% positive reviews (69)
• 2119 students
• 4 units
• 18 lessons (3h 10m)
• 3 downloads

• Category

  Illustration

• Software

  Adobe Photoshop

• Areas

  Character Design, Children's Illustration, Digital Drawing, Digital Illustration, Narrative, Picturebook, Sketching, Traditional illustration