1. Go at your own pace in this 20-week online course
2. Artistic guidance & pointers from the instructor
3. Supportive peer community exchanging feedback
4. Enroll now to start learning right away!
Character Design for Children's Books and Comics
By. Dominic Cellini
$150.00
$165.00
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$170.00
$185.00
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Learn Character Design with the Creator of Emmy the Robot
Everything You Need to Create Characters for Comics or Children's Books
Complete Your Own Original Artworks in this Online Course
I'm the author and illustrator behind the online comic "Emmy the Robot" and the children's book "Twenty-One Terrifying Monsters".
I've designed this course to be accessible for beginners and younger artists alike who want to learn the basics and more nuanced elements of visual storytelling with characters.
I will be walking you through my entire process of creating a character from start to finish so that by the end of the course you will be able to create original characters in your own style by yourself.
One of the most important things that makes us fall in love with our favorite stories are good characters. Whether you're a 5 year old reading your first picture book, or a young adult reading webcomics online, one thing that draws an audience in from any age and demographic, is a good character.
We will go over the fundamentals of character design early on, eventually building towards creating stories with your own characters in mind. This course is for those looking to make their own children's books, graphic novels, webcomics, or are interested in general character design.
This class is here to show you how to create characters for books and comics that readers will connect to and follow through their entire journey. We will cover the basics of creating appealing characters with personality as well as techniques and tips to save you time and energy while creating a series around them.
You will learn not only how to design your characters as you imagined, but to bring them to life through visual storytelling and acting. Whether you have an epic tale to tell, or a simple funny anecdote,I look forward to helping you develop the skills to share your stories with the world!
By the end of this course, you will know how to create an original character concept, draw it consistently with model sheets, and draw characters with emotional range acting in different scenarios across visual storytelling mediums such as webcomics and books.
Step 1: Digital Drawing Fundamentals
The main tool I will be using in the course is Adobe Photoshop and any digital drawing tablet, which are what I tend to use for my work. I will demonstrate the tools and tricks I use on a regular basis, which can also apply to different kinds of digital or even traditional tools. Adobe Photoshop is preferred, however, similarly equivalent digital art platforms such as Clip Studio Paint and Krita are acceptable as long as they can be used on desktop.
Step 2: Deep Dive in Character Design
After learning the tools, we will focus on character design, with you learning exactly how I plan a new, original character from start to finish. We will start with the very basics of gathering photo references and inspiration, then start to lay out the character using various poses, expressions, and color schemes until our character is ready for a story.
Step 3: Make a Sequence from Start to Finish
After going over different character acting techniques we will turn to focus on visual storytelling and how to set the stage for an actual scene in a comic or book. The final mission in the course will be to create a character-driven scene or sequence from beginning to end that will be ready for you to take and share with the world.
Welcome to Character Design!
1. Meet Your Instructor: Dominic Cellini
2. Introduction to the course
Chapter 1: Getting Started
1. Demonstrating my process/workspace in Photoshop
2. Useful Tools, Tips & Techniques I Use
3. Knowing your audience and venue
Chapter 2: Creating an Original Character from Scratch
1. Character design basics
2. Gathering photo reference and inspiration
3. Exploring “Style”
4. Making Development/Exploration Sketches
Chapter 3: Appeal, Simplification, and Exaggeration
1. Refining a Design
2. Exaggeration/Pushing the form
3. Appeal/Simplification
4. Finalizing a Design/ Posing Your Character
Chapter 4: Creating a Reference Sheet
1. Importance of Reference Sheets and Assets
2. Choosing a Color Palette
3. Making Turnaround Sheets
Chapter 5: Acting & Expressions
1. Acting Basics
2. Subtle vs Broad Acting (Demonstrations)
3. Making an Expressions Reference Sheet
4. Creating drawings that tell a story
Chapter 6: Visual Storytelling & Setting the Stage
1. Thumbnails
2. Key Poses (Action to Action)
3. Characters Interacting
4. Staging the Scene/POV/Word Balloons
Chapter 7: Creating a Character-Driven Scene or Sequence
1. Roughing in Your Comic/Sequence
2. Refining Your Comic/Sequence
3. Final Draft (Inks, Colors, Text)
About the Creator
Illustrator, Author Dominic Cellini
Instagram
Emmy the Robot Webtoon
Hi there! My name is Dominic Cellini, I am the illustrator and author of webcomic "Emmy the Robot" as well as the children's book "Twenty-One Terrifying Monsters".
I graduated from Savannah College of Art & Design in 2016 with a degree in Sequential Art. I've been doing freelance illustration and character design for 4 years now. I am lucky enough to create art full-time and I love to help others achieve their dream of doing the same.
Sharing my original stories and characters with such a big audience is a tremendous honor, and I cannot wait to show you all the things I've learned over the course of this journey!
- The instructor will demonstrate using Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Photoshop is a subscription-based paid software
- It is recommended that you have access to this software
- The class will cover how to use and apply the program
- Those who wants to get better at the basics of digital drawing
- People who want to learn my style of character design
- Anyone who wants to make illustrations for comics or children's books
- Everyone who wants to learn to make their own character designs from scratch with someone who has created original, lovable characters watched by millions
Duration of the Course
You will have unlimited access to the class content for 20 weeks. Within that period, you can play the videos on as many devices as you want.
Installment Payment
Quadpay is available for installment payments. Your purchase can easily be split into 4 installments paid over 6 weeks through Quadpay.
Class Preparation
Having Adobe Photoshop will enrich your experience of taking this class. For more information, please visit adobe.com
Class access
We will send you an email with a webpage link and a personalized code to access the videos within 24 hours of purchase. Please check your inbox or spam!
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