Character Creation from Observational Drawings
Choosing Colours and Materials and Composition
A course by Sarah van Dongen , Illustrator
Joined March 2020
About the video: Choosing Colours and Materials and Composition
Overview
“It's time to decide how to portray our unique character. We will sketch out different options, choose a colour palette and our materials.”
In this video lesson Sarah van Dongen addresses the topic: Choosing Colours and Materials and Composition, which is part of the Domestika online course: Character Creation from Observational Drawings. Draw and paint unique characters inspired by the world around you using a variety of artistic materials.
Partial transcription of the video
“So in this lesson we will start sketching, we will make some thumbnails and we will decide on what colors to use and what materials. In the previous lesson, we decided what our character is going to be. the grandmother with the cats, So now it's time to think about how we're going to put her on the page. So let's start sketching and make sure that we have a few options to choose from. So for the sketching, I do use my graphite pencil right now. So let's take the mechanical one. And the first thing that I like to do is to sketch the sketchbook. So I'm going to use a portrait-sized sketchbook...”
This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.
Course summary for: Character Creation from Observational Drawings
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Category
Illustration -
Areas
Character Design, Drawing, Sketchbook, Traditional illustration

Sarah van Dongen
A course by Sarah van Dongen
Sarah van Dongen is a Dutch illustrator based in Amsterdam who is passionate about telling stories. She began her studies in comparative literature but enrolled in the MA in Children’s Books Illustration in Cambridge, UK after realizing she wanted to pursue a more creative career.
Sarah’s illustration work can be found in children’s books, stationery, newspapers, and magazines across the globe. Her clients include Flow Magazine, Adobe, Tiny Owl Publishing, and Ragged Bears Publishing, among others. Sarah enjoys exploring themes like gardens, food, social interactions, mental health, and her childhood. She doesn’t shy away from subjects like insecurity, loneliness, and loss, she expresses them in her sketches to help make these feelings more comprehensible.
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