Animal Character Design for Picture Book Illustrators
Nina Rycroft
1:19:17
Description
Animal Character Design for Picture Book Illustrators – Techniques and tips for designing characters with a narrative.
In this class, award-winning picture book illustrator Nina Rycroft shares techniques, tips and tutorials for effective story-driven animal character design. Inspired by Nina's latest picture book This Is The Dog and her Draw-a-Dog-a-Day 100-Day Project, Nina will walk you through the fundamentals of animal character design.
Nina will be demonstrating techniques with the help of her chihuahua Valentino, but you're more than welcome to use your own four-legged friend. With a focus on dogs, our besties will help shed light on the fundamentals of animal character design.
In this class, you will …
- Learn how to move away from reference and closer to your unique style.
- Explore, experiment and design animal characters.
- Sharpen your observation skills.
- Learn how to ‘build’ animals characters using shape, proportion and placement.
- Learn the art of caricature design.
- Learn how to develop and apply a narrative to your animal characters.
In this class, Nina will walk you through...
- How to distance yourself from ‘copying’ reference by using a three-phase blind drawing exercise.
- An observational drawing exercise, drawing the front view and ¾ view.
- The essentials in caricature design
- A mind-mapping process – brainstorming ideas for an animal character design with a narrative
- Sketching ideas – in a series of thumbnails sketches
- Designing and drawing your final animal character illustrations
- Adding colour, texture and shadow
Whether you’re creating character design concepts for a book, a comic or a series of greeting cards, what you learn in this class can be applied to any animal character.
SKILL LEVEL
As you progress through the lessons, the skill level increases from beginner to intermediate. Please keep in mind that this class is more about the process and development of ideas more than the finished illustration.
Nina will be using Procreate, on her iPad and an Apple Pencil. Basic Procreate knowledge is necessary to complete the ‘Pictures and Words project for this class. If you are new to Procreate, you may find Nina's Learn how to Use Procreate to Design and illustrate a Bear Character class helpful.
Feel free to use an HB pencil and printer paper to complete the exercises, Nina recommends using Staedtler Mars 780 Technical Mechanical Pencil 2mm.
Interested in character design?
Below is my series of Skillshare classes that walk you through the entire process of how to illustrate a character from start to finish. Use this series to either brush-up on a particular skill or work your way through, for a comprehensive guide.
Nina's Skillshare Character Design Series
- Face Facts: Beginners Guide to Drawing a Self Portrait
- Face Shapes: Draw a Series of Character Using Simple Shapes
- 101 Guide to Drawing Eyes
- Emoji Me: The art of Facial Expression
- How to Draw the Head From Every Angle: Part One
- How to Draw the Head From Every Angle: Part Two
- How to Draw the Head From Every Angle: Part Three
- Draw a Circus of Characters: Exploring Body Shape and Proportion
- Draw a Circus of Movement: Simple Techniques to Bring Characters to Life
- Draw a Circus of Line & Gesture: Design a Picture Book Character From Start to Finish
- Watercolor Magic: One Character Five Ways
- Illustration Masterclass - Exploring Technique and Style
- Learn to Use Procreate: Design and Illustrate a Bear Character
What You'll Learn?
- Illustration
- Drawing
- Character Design
- Sketching
- Creative
- Caricature
- Picture Book
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Nina Rycroft
Instructor's CoursesPlease link up, subscribe and follow me on: Facebook I Instagram I Pinterest I Website
Hi! I'm Nina Rycroft, a picture book illustrator. I worked as a graphic designer in Sydney and London before turning my hand to illustration, with my first picture book Little Platypus received a CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) Notable Book Award in 2000. Since then, I've had more than a dozen picture books published worldwide, winning some awards along the way.
If you're interested in learning how and design and develop character, illustration techniques and picture book illustration, then please follow me...or even better...try one of my classes :)
My dozen or so Skillshare classes >>> taken in this sequence <<< will walk you through the entire process of how to design and develop character. From learning the basics in face proportion, facial expression and how to draw the head from every angle, all the way through to learning simple techniques to bring your character to life...I guarantee that once you've completed my series, you'll be drawing with more ease and confidence.
WHAT I TEACH
Being self-taught, I've learnt the hard way – but I also believe that learning through my mistakes has made me a much better teacher. I know from experience how difficult and frustrating a creative path can be, which is why I'm so passionate about fast-tracking you with everything that I teach here on Skillshare.
Below, I've placed my classes into categories. Working your way from the bottom to the top, you'll be taken through the process that I use when working on a picture book, from designing and drawing the face and body of a character to deciding what illustration technique to use.
COMING FULL CIRCLE WITH JACKIE FRENCH
The first book that I ever illustrated was an early reader 'Charlie's Gold' for the well known Australian author Jackie French, this experience became a stepping stone for illustrating my very first picture book. It wasn't until a dozen years later, I was given the opportunity to finally Illustrate a full-colour children's picture book for Jackie French...Dinosaurs Love Cheese (Harper Collins).
The book launch for Dinosaurs Love Cheese was celebrated at the Centenary Festival of Australian Children’s Literature showcasing the complete, behind-the-scenes works. The entire collection is now home at the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature. Here, Dr Bell Alderman speaks about Dinosaurs Love Cheese being a part of the Lu Rees archives (2:35).
JOIN ME IN CLASS
Whether you're brushing up on specific areas or working through the entire series, my classes are thought-provoking, fun and full of ideas to help you explore and develop your own illustration style.
If you have any questions, please post them in the class discussions. I love hearing from you and I look forward to seeing you (and your projects) in class :)
Bye for now - Nina x
SkillShare
View courses SkillShare- language english
- Training sessions 10
- duration 1:19:17
- English subtitles has
- Release Date 2024/01/10
