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Draw a Cartoon Pin-up (follow-along class)

with Emilie Decrock
4.1 (91)
Learn to draw a Marilyn Monroe pin-up in a stylized manner from photo references.
French (original audio), English English, French, 1 more Spanish [Auto]
1+
hours
10
lessons
Intermediate
level
Emilie Decrock

Your Instructor

Emilie Decrock is a French artist and character designer focusing primarily on pin-ups. She is also the publisher of her own comic series since 2009.

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1+
hours
10
lessons
Intermediate
level
French (original audio), English
English, French , 1 more
Subtitles
  • Spanish [Auto]

What you’ll learn

  • How to use photo references & transform them into cartoony proportions
  • How to draw a stylized basic structure of the female anatomy
  • How to clean up your sketch so that you can use it as lineart
  • How to color with a digital drawing software step-by-step
  • How to lay your flat colors, adding shadows and lights to add volume
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Description

Curious how the pros go about drawing gorgeous pin-up illustrations that look so clean and elegant? Well, follow along with French artist, Emilie Decrock, and find out how!

Pin-ups are a timeless theme through the ages, eras and fashions and many things can be expressed through pin-up artwork, such as strength and fragility. For Emilie, pin-ups is one illustration style which she likes to use in her artistic expression, including revisiting portraits of great female figures, like Marilyn Monroe, Dita von Teese, Audrey Hepburn, Betty Page, etc.

In this course, you’ll discover the methods and techniques Emilie uses to draw a lovely pin-up from start to finish. Learn from a pro how to find inspiring references, choose pleasing color palettes, adjust your sketch with Photoshop tools, improve the character’s resemblance and all the other steps along the way!

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Who is this course for

  • Artists who want to draw their own pin-ups using photo references
  • Artists who want to color and render digitally in a cartoon style
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This course includes

  • 1+ Hours of on-demand videos
  • Certificate of Completion
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Used in course

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What you'll need

  • Digital drawing software such as Photoshop or similar (see examplesAffinity Photo, ArtRage, Artweaver, Astropad, Clip Studio Paint, Corel Painter, Krita, Inkscape, IbisPaint, GIMP, Rebelle 4, Photoshop, Paintstorm Studio, Procreate, MediBang Paint, SketchPad, SketchBook, TwistedBrush, Vectr...)
  • You'll learn more if you have a drawing tablet
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Lesson Plan

Expand all sections
01

Introduction

07:20

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Emilie, who has been an artist for 20 years, introduces herself and shares her artistic background, ranging from architectural drawing to creating her own art blog, to her current career in comics. Emilie discusses how pin-ups is a versatile and timeless theme and why she personally enjoys drawing them.


1.1
Introduction
04:16
1.2
The pin-up theme
03:04
02

Sketching from photo references

26:17

In this fascinating lesson, Emilie demonstrates how to find photo references that inspire you most and how to start off your sketch, combining elements from several photos.

Discover useful techniques for defining the character shape and anatomy, adding details to create structure, and creating a compelling resemblance to the reference photo.

You’ll also learn two methods of rendering the clean line-art: one best suited for comics and one with sketchy, pencil-like feel.


2.1
Finding photo references
01:17
2.2
Sketching from photo references
07:49
2.3
Refining your initial sketch
05:51
2.4
Finishing your sketch
05:37
2.5
The clean method
05:43
03

Colors and shadows

13:18

Follow along as Emilie shows how to apply flat colors to her illustration, add contrast and create highlights and shadows with a soft shading technique, giving shape, volume and life to the pin-up.

Cool feature: You’ll discover her personal color palette (which also looks great in print) that she uses regularly in her published work.


3.1
Laying down your flat colors
05:07
3.2
Laying down the shadows
08:11
04

Finishing touches

06:54

The final stage: Adding those extra details and effects to give your artwork a professional look and appeal, such as correcting some small mistakes, using the Curves tool to adjust the colors and brightness, and much more.

Well done on completing this course! Looking forward to seeing your artistic creations.


4.1
Finishing touches
06:54

Student Feedback

91 customer reviews & ratings

4.1

Course rating

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5 star
51 %
4 star
27 %
3 star
14 %
2 star
4 %
1 star
7 %
Best Suited for
Intermediate
The level is determined by a majority opinion of students who have reviewed this class. The teacher's recommendation is shown until at least 5 student responses are collected.

(Based on 91 reviews)

Most Liked
Great step-by-step process 56
Clarity of Instruction 48
Inspiring 48
Showing 10 reviews of
91
reviews & ratings
S
Sam

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
This was excellent.
I recommend it for All levels
1 person found this helpful
MV
Matija V.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
Great step-by-step line-art process of creating pin-up style female characters.
I recommend it for Intermediate
1 person found this helpful
AH
Amanda H.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
I can't seem to work in Photoshop without getting shaky lines, but all of this can be applied to ProCreate or Paint Tool SAI. Great instruction.
I recommend it for All levels
1 person found this helpful
XIMENA X.

2 years ago

Verified Purchase
Great Course! love it so much! very inspiring
I recommend it for Intermediate
1 person found this helpful
CO
Carlos O.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
all around great Course.
I recommend it for All levels
Lisa D.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
I liked the process. It was clear and easy to follow. I wish she drew other characters or expressions but aside from that it was great. Thank you Emilie!
I recommend it for Intermediate
RC
Ralph C.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
Worth it only if you have somewhat experience in drawing
I recommend it for Intermediate
Reine H.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
Inspiring course of a great artist. I’ve learned a lot. The use of multiple references, colourpalette, some sketching techniques. Looking forward to a new course. ;-)
I recommend it for Intermediate
Oxana B.

2 years ago

Verified Purchase
Perfect step-by-step video ! Not too long and shows everything from beginning to end. The voice sound in the video was a little too low, but other than that everything was perfect.
I recommend it for All levels
Jaime L.

2 years ago

Verified Purchase
I loved the subject, just adorable finished project.
I recommend it for Intermediate
See more reviews

About the Instructor

Emilie Decrock
Illustrator & Colorist 1 course

Emilie Decrock is a French artist and character designer focusing primarily on pin-ups. She was born in Martinique and moved to Lyon, France when she was 5 years old. Emilie has worked for Hachette Education, PlayBac, Disney Hachette Presse and others, contributed to several French comic books and published her own comic series since 2009.


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Emilie Decrock Draw a Cartoon Pin-up (follow-along class)
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