Fantastical Character Illustration for Children’s Books

Fantastical Character Illustration for Children’s Books

“ We have reached the end of the course! I want to thank you for walking this path with me. I hope that the experimentation techniques you learned will be useful to you and that you can invent new ones to lose the blockage to the blank page. Before we say goodbye, let's review the key phases of the project. It would be great if you briefly explain what you have done in each one and accompany the explanation with one or more images. Experimentation and choice of technique After experimenting with the three techniques we saw, I chose the one you like the most to continue with your project. I chose the inkblot technique because, in my case, the results I find are more unexpected, but I discovered which one gives you the most possibilities for experimentation and new results. You can do different tests, on several sheets, and thus have your laboratory of ideas. They will serve as inspiration for other projects.

The characters Once you have chosen the technique you will use, begin to discover new characters and add all the necessary details to give them personality. You can test different types of expressions, such as eyes, nose, and mouth, and work on their body parts and features that will make them unique. For me this is the most fun part of the project. The world of your characters You already have your characters! Seeing them all together, they will surely inspire you and you will want to invent a world for them to inhabit. Create elements for that unique scenery. It can be a forest, a city, the bottom of the sea or whatever you want to imagine. Miniscript It's time to write a mini-script. Do not be afraid! Let your characters and scenery tell you a story. My characters inspired me to invent one with a bit of mystery: the search for someone who was lost in a forest and the decision to go looking for him, even if they don't know the way. Surely they want to tell you something different, because they come from your world. There can be many stories for your characters. I wrote some alternatives until I chose the one that best fits your world. Assembly And we are almost done! Take a photo or scan your illustrations to digitize them and finish completing your page incorporating textures, testing colors and composing with typography what will be the final double page of your book. This stage is also one of experimentation. You can make several compositions until you find the right one, vary the tones, add shadows and lights to give more depth, etc. As for the typography, you can use the ones you have or make your own typography by hand, which will give your final illustration another touch of personality. Now share your final project with the community by clicking "Create your project". Remember to share both the final result of your project and the steps that have led you to it and that we have just reviewed. And I would love to see all the processes you did to get to this result, so I can give you my feedback. I also invite you to see the productions of the rest of the students and discover their processes and their final results. I will be very happy that you tell me about your experience and see what you have achieved throughout the course. See you on the forum! ”

Partial transcription of the video

“Final project We have reached the end of the course And first of all I want to thank you for being here. I hope they have served you the experimentation techniques that we learned and that you can invent new to unlock your fear of the blank page. Remember that everything can become a character. Observe the objects around you. Go out into nature and invent unique characters that have connection with your view of the world. Don't stop producing. Take it as a daily exercise without the need to reach a result, but as a game. You will see that later, by themselves, great ideas will appear. Don't...”

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

Course summary for: Fantastical Character Illustration for Children’s Books

• Level: Beginner
• 100% positive reviews (70)
• 2041 students
• 4 units
• 15 lessons (2h 40m)
• 15 downloads

• Category

  Illustration

• Areas

  Character Design, Children's Illustration, Design, Drawing, Narrative, Storytelling, Traditional illustration