World Building & Compositional Techniques for Illustration

Course final project

A course by Ben Newman , Illustrator

Illustrator. Hastings, United Kingdom.
Joined March 2022
100% positive reviews (47)
1,259 students
Audio: English
English · Spanish · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch

About the final project for: World Building & Compositional Techniques for Illustration

World Building & Compositional Techniques for Illustration

“Thank you so much for trusting me to guide you through this adventure! I really hope you’ve enjoyed learning how to create a complex and fully-developed world in a single-page illustration! It is such a fantastic feeling to free yourself from pressure and just let your creativity flow. Now, let me show you an example of what I would like to see in your presentation: The First Steps Finding reference materials for your location - the key starting point. Then, break down your complex reference into consumable shapes. Sketches Start making initial sketches. I showed you some handy timed exercises to free you from the fear of starting a complex composition by sketching out the basics quickly.

Developing the Project Next, start developing your image. I highly encourage you to develop the location further first. Then, decide on your ideal composition.
The Characters It's time to add characters and their interactions.
Blocking Out and Coloring Then begin blocking out your world with shapes. Last but not least, it's time to step is the best - adding colour.
Last Details With the image complete, add in texture and 2D depth, as well as think about ways to reflect and come back to an image after time away to see it with fresh eyes and make any final changes.
Don't be afraid to let your imagination take the lead! If nothing works as planned, don't worry; practice makes the master! Once your project is ready, share it on the forum by clicking the "Create your project" button. I will look at your publications as soon as possible and answer any doubts that need clarification. In the meantime, I encourage you to see what your fellow students have been up to and comment on their posts! See you soon!”

Partial transcription of the video

“Thank you so much for joining me on this course. I really hope you've enjoyed learning how to build and create a complex, busy, single-page illustration. It's such an incredible feeling to free yourself from pressure and let your creativity flow. So, let's quickly recap. We started by finding reference material to select our key anchor point for our image. From this, we thought about color, too. We began to break down our reference material into simple shapes. From there, we used handy timed exercises to free us from the fear of building a complex, busy image by working quickly with our ini...”

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


Course summary for: World Building & Compositional Techniques for Illustration

  • Level: Beginner
  • 100% positive reviews (47)
  • 1259 students
  • 4 units
  • 15 lessons (2h 18m)
  • Category

    Illustration
  • Software

    Adobe Photoshop
  • Areas

    Character Design, Children's Illustration, Digital Illustration, Drawing, Traditional illustration

Ben Newman

Ben Newman
A course by Ben Newman

Teacher Plus
Illustrator

Ben Newman is a freelance illustrator based in the UK. He has worked with the likes of the New Yorker, Apple, BBC, and Google - but his true passion lies in illustrating children’s books and games. Inspired by children’s space books he flipped through while working in a bookshop, he co-created a book series with his friend, Dr. Dominic Walliman, called Professor Astro Cat. It has since been translated into 28 languages and has been turned into spin-off series for different age groups. He has also written two books inspired by his sons — the sounds Wilbur made to imitate crocodiles motivated him to write Snip Snap, while Rumble Tumble was inspired by Ernie’s frequent accidents while learning to walk.

Growing up, Ben loved watching Pink Panther and Tom & Jerry reruns on television and reading American Superhero comics. Those references have stuck with him throughout his career and he hopes his characters and worlds will be passed down to the next generation in the same way.


  • 100% positive reviews (47)
  • 1,259 students
  • 15 lessons (2h 18m)
  • 11 additional resources (0 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

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World Building & Compositional Techniques for Illustration. Illustration course by Ben Newman

World Building & Compositional Techniques for Illustration

A course by Ben Newman
Illustrator. Hastings, United Kingdom.
Joined March 2022
  • 100% positive reviews (47)
  • 1,259 students