Animal Characters in Watercolor for Children’s Books
A course by Julie Mellan , Illustrator
Explore the softness and playfulness of childhood through lovable anthropomorphic characters using watercolors
Watercolor allows you to paint atmospheres and bring a personal approach to any scene. Illustrator Julie Mellan uses it to create captivating illustrations for children’s books. She explores color, light, and shadow to paint images full of personality that have been published by the likes of Penguin Random House, Clavis, and Fleurus.
In this course, Julie guides you through creating watercolor illustrations of your own, featuring dynamic, expressive animal protagonists. Immerse yourself in your own private woodland and bring characters to life with watercolor.
What will you learn in this online course?
18 lessons & 14 downloads
- 98% positive reviews (686)
- 22,974 students
- 18 lessons (3h 16m)
- 14 additional resources (7 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: English, Spanish (Latam), French, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish
- Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch · Turkish · Romanian · Indonesian
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
Recommended software & tools for this course
Adobe PhotoshopWhat is this course's project?
Conceive, sketch, and paint animal characters for children’s books using watercolors.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
This course is for anyone with an interest in watercolor painting or children’s book illustrations.
Requirements and materials
No previous experience is necessary.
In terms of materials, you will need a sketchbook, paper, pencils, a lightbox, eraser, tape, watercolors, brushes, and other materials specified by the teacher in this course.
Reviews
Julie Mellan
A course by Julie Mellan
Julie Mellan is a French illustrator and self-confessed watercolor addict who specializes in illustrations for children’s books. She spent her childhood reading Beatrix Potter’s books and drawing animal characters from Disney movies, before going on to study classic drawing, painting, illustration, and animation at the French art school École Émile Cohl. After graduating, she continued to combine sketching and watercolors to create expressive animal characters, and eventually published her first book in 2013.
Julie uses traditional mediums to tell stories through her illustrations and create connections between characters. Her work has appeared in children’s books published by the likes of Penguin Random House, Clavis, and Fleurus.
Content
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U1
Introduction
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About Me
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Influences
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U2
Preparation
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Materials
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Playing with Watercolor
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Sketching Animals in a Dynamic Way
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Sketching Facial Expressions
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U3
Creating Your Animal Character
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Finding Inspiration and the Perfect Scene
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Final Sketch of Your Illustration
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Preparing the Painting
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Choosing Your Color Palette
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Painting the Lights and the Shadows 1
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Painting the Lights and the Shadows 2
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Painting the Colors 1
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Painting the Colors 2
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Painting the Colors 3
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Adding the Final Details
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U4
Refining and Sharing Your Work
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Scanning and Editing Your Illustration
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Sharing and Promoting Your Art
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FP
Final project
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Animal character design for children’s books with watercolor
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What to expect from a Domestika course
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Learn at your own pace
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Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
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Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
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Certificates
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Watch professionally produced courses
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FAQs
What are Domestika's online courses?
Domestika courses are online classes that allow you to learn new skills and create incredible projects. All our courses include the opportunity to share your work with other students and/or teachers, creating an active learning community. We offer different formats:
Original Courses: Complete classes that combine videos, texts, and educational materials to complete a specific project from start to finish.
Basics Courses: Specialized training where you master specific software tools step by step.
Specialization Courses: Learning paths with various expert teachers on the same topic, perfect for becoming a specialist by learning from different approaches.
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When do the courses start and when do they finish?
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.
What do Domestika's courses include?
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.
Have you been given a course?
You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.
Adobe Photoshop
Très bon cours sur toutes les étapes de création d'une scène. Beaucoup de bons conseils à appliquer et accessible pour les débutants.
I'm loving this course and this instructor. Her approach and explanations are very direct and understandable, and she has a very relaxed demeanor throughout. I definitely recommend this class.
I have mixed feelings. She is a wonderful illustrator and I love her work, however, the course... the course is more a curse or a nap-inducer... how is it possible that someone with her painting skills can be so absolutely terrible at teaching. An artist with 0 passion, 0 facial expressions.It's really hard not to fall asleep. On another note, the course is ok but is VERY basic and the downloadable pdfs are a filler.They don't add any value which is disappointing. I'll try her other course & see
I really love how she explained step by step which even a beginner like me can understand and follow the process
I love the way this course was set out. Following the steps was made easy. The lessons were good as a beginner I could understand the importance of good paper and for non bleeding and loved the lessons on drawing. Thank you.