Character Creation from Observational Drawings

Begin the course by getting to know your teacher, Sarah van Dongen. She talks you through the creative career which led her to become an illustrator, along with the influences that inspire the work she creates.

Dive into the materials needed for the course, from paintbrushes to gouache sticks. Sarah walks you through a number of exercises designed to help you get used to using them before moving on to color. Explore warm and cool colors, dark and light colors, and how to combine them to achieve different effects in your artwork.

Learn the basics of drawing human anatomy, including the skeleton, proportions, and the elements of the body that move. Discover how to use reference images to draw people, taking into consideration things like skin tone, posture, and composition. Then unleash your creative freedom and learn how to draw people in real life from observation.

Time to create your own unique character! Begin by choosing your favorite sketches and simplifying them. Then learn how to exaggerate a person’s personality to transform them into a character. To finish the course, choose your colors, materials, and composition, and bring everything you’ve learned together to create your final character spread.