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Maria is an illustrator and story artist from Turin, Italy. She has a BA degree in Magazine Publishing from the University of the Arts London, has studied Traditional Animation at the International School of Comics in Turin and attended a masterclass in Storyboarding at the online school CGMA.
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English, Spanish
English, Spanish , 1 more
Learn to draw a cartoon character from start to finishLearn how to get references to fuel your creativityLearn to easily convert realistic shapes & proportions into "cartoony" onesPlan ahead your colour palette & experiment with layers & brushes How to achieve the effect of a line art free artworkHow to use line art & multiply blending in Photoshop CC to blend a cartoon line art into the artworkAdd the final touches & imperfections that make a cartoon character look more realUse lighting & shading to make your artwork pop out of the page (or the screen)!Have you ever dreamed of drawing amazing cartoon characters? In this course the talented artist and illustrator Maria Malandrino will go through the process of drawing a cartoon portrait starting from a reference picture. She will guide you through the entire workflow, covering all stages of the creative process: sketching, colouring, shading and refining your artwork.
You will see Maria using her favourite app Procreate, and an iPad but all you need for this tutorial is a digital drawing software (like Photoshop or any other suitable alternative that you like) and a graphic tablet to be able to follow her through the colouring process.
Maria’s tips and tricks will help you develop and improve your own drawing style and you will be amazed at the final result!
At the end of this course you will have created a beautiful cartoon character of your choice!
1+ Hours of on-demand videos
5 Work-in-progress images (JPG)
5 Downloadable resources in total
Certificate of Completion
Meet Maria Malandrino, a talented Italian illustrator and animator, who will show you how to draw a cartoon character from start to finish!
Using her iPad and the Procreate app, Maria will give you great tips on how to get references and approach the stages of sketching, colouring and final rendering!
In Lesson 2 you will understand the importance of drawing inspiration from different sources in order to feed your imagination and creativity and to give your figures realistic posing and anatomy.
Maria will show you how to create a canvas, draw a mannequin and use sketching to convert realistic shapes and proportions into “cartoony” ones, without losing real anatomy details.
See how drawing exercises can help you improve your hand-eye coordination and retain the freshness of the sketch in the clean drawing!
Drawing hairstyles, jewellery, clothes and shoes can be challenging, as you need to convey tridimensionality, realistic visual strength and add details that flesh your character out.
Before moving to the colouring stage you first need to create your own palette! In this lesson Maria will show you how to work more efficiently using a restricted number of colours. She will then teach you how to pick the right colour scheme to obtain the desired effects, and will explore a colouring technique that makes it easier to add tone variations, additional details, dynamic elements and special effects.
Did you know that shading and lighting is very much about refining and erasing rather than painting?
In this lesson you will learn to create the illusion of shade using the available settings of your design software!
Maria will share her tips about adding shadows according to the source of light on your canvas, adding reflected light effects and experimenting with various lighting settings until you are happy with the overall result.
This is a time-lapse of the full illustration process, in which Maria recaps her take-home messages and adds some useful tips and final considerations.
5 work-in-process Images (JPG) included
1 final image (PNG) included
Course rating
(Based on 177 reviews)
6 courses
Maria is an illustrator and story artist from Turin, Italy. She has a BA degree in Magazine Publishing from the University of the Arts London, has studied Traditional Animation at the International School of Comics in Turin and attended a masterclass in Storyboarding at the online school CGMA.
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