Visual Storytelling for Compelling Illustrations

Reference Photos with Yourself as a Model

A course by R. Kikuo Johnson , Illustrator and Cartoonist

Illustrator and Cartoonist. New York, United States.
Joined January 2022
100% positive reviews (43)
1,720 students
Audio: English
English · Spanish · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch

About the video: Reference Photos with Yourself as a Model

Overview

“Next, I will discuss how to shoot reference photos using yourself as a model. This exercise is intended to help you visualize your characters in a more natural way and imbue realism into your illustrations, using yourself as a reference point. ”

In this video lesson R. Kikuo Johnson addresses the topic: Reference Photos with Yourself as a Model, which is part of the Domestika online course: Visual Storytelling for Compelling Illustrations. Learn how to tell a complete story in a single image by exploring narrative illustration and drawing exercises in the style and medium of choice.

Partial transcription of the video

“ Reference Photos with Yourself as a Model Now that we've got our sketch to a point where the story's pretty much working, next, we'll add those realistic details, the naturalistic details that will give your figures and the gesture life. The way I like to do that is through photo reference. In this lesson, we'll talk about how to shoot photo references using yourself as a model. The pose in the sketch is pretty simple. It's not one that I would need a photo reference for. The times I like to use a photo reference is an awkward position or to get a gesture that might be hard to imagine. A ...”

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


Course summary for: Visual Storytelling for Compelling Illustrations

  • Level: Beginner
  • 100% positive reviews (43)
  • 1720 students
  • 4 units
  • 13 lessons (2h 18m)
  • 7 downloads
  • Category

    Illustration
  • Software

    Adobe Photoshop
  • Areas

    Digital Drawing, Digital Illustration, Drawing, Editorial Illustration, Traditional illustration

R. Kikuo Johnson

R. Kikuo Johnson
A course by R. Kikuo Johnson

Teacher Plus
Illustrator and Cartoonist

R Kikuo Johnson is a cartoonist and illustrator from Hawaii. He fell in love with drawing at a young age as a way to tell stories and went on to study illustration at art school where he started his first graphic novel, Night Fisher. After graduating, he published a second novel and landed his first major illustration job—a two-page illustration in The New Yorker.

Since then, Kikuo has collaborated with clients including Airbnb, The Atlantic, Coca-Cola, The Guggenheim Foundation, Marvel Comics, The New York Times, Newsweek, Nike, Puma, and Penguin Random House. His illustrations have earned two gold medals from the Society Of Illustrators, and his most recent graphic novella, No One Else, won the 2021 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.


  • 100% positive reviews (43)
  • 1,720 students
  • 13 lessons (2h 18m)
  • 22 additional resources (7 files)
  • Online and at your own pace
  • Available on the app
  • Audio: English
  • English · Spanish · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch
  • Level: Beginner
  • Unlimited access forever

Category
Areas
Visual Storytelling for Compelling Illustrations. Illustration course by R. Kikuo Johnson

Visual Storytelling for Compelling Illustrations

A course by R. Kikuo Johnson
Illustrator and Cartoonist. New York, United States.
Joined January 2022
  • 100% positive reviews (43)
  • 1,720 students