Fantasy Illustration

I have a new class! It’s called Visual Storytelling from Your Imagination

I’m teaching it on Skillshare HERE

If you click on the link above, you’ll be able to watch the class for FREE AND get 2 months free of Skillshare Premium where you can choose from thousands of other classes for creatives. They will ask for your credit card to get the 2 month free trial, but as long as you cancel before the time’s up, you won’t be charged for anything.

Procreate is the most affordable professional-level drawing and painting program for the iPad. When combined with the Apple Pencil , it’s a pretty effortless art-creating experience.

In my class, I go from first sketches to final illustration and talk about composition, design, and inspiration. Using the affordable, yet professional-level app Procreate, I’ll show you how to bring your digital drawing and painting to life. This class is suitable for all levels of artists, including complete beginners.

if you upload projects in the project area, I’ll comment and give you helpful feedback!

Here are a few more details about the class:

1. CHOOSE A FANTASY SCENE TO ILLUSTRATE.  Would you like to create a dragon rider like me or another fantasy scene?  If you don’t know where to start, check out my suggestions for inspiration and brainstorming in Lesson 1.

2. FIND REFERENCES. Hunting for references an important part of my creative process.  I’ll give you my favorite tips for findings ideas and organizing visual references. How do you find references for things that don’t exist? I’ll have plenty of answers for you in Lesson2.

3. FIRST SKETCHES AND THUMBNAILS. Commit yourself to drawing out different ideas. Don’t worry if things are ugly. It’s fine for things to look ugly at this stage. We’ll discuss thumbnails, composition, rule of thirds, and positive and negative space.

4. COLOR, LAYERS, SHADING, and DETAILS. This is a fun stage to work on. We’ll add color and I’ll share tips that you might want to consider when choosing colors that work together in harmony. This video will also talk about special brushes and Procreate’s blending modes that can help with painting more realistic people, animals, and clothing. I’ll be showing you some nifty tricks with clipping masks that will help you finalize your forms and you’ll see your realistic 3d drawings emerge out of your 2d sketch!

5. FINAL TOUCHES: LIGHTING, LAYERS, TEXTURES, and STORY  This final video will show you how to make decisions about lighting (screen, soft light, hard light, multiply, etc), varying colors and tools to try new ideas to really make the scene come alive.  We’ll also think about the final storytelling details for your piece. These details help people want to know more and really get into your world.

Here’s an intro I made for the course: