Children’s Illustration: Create Decorative Letters

Start the course by taking a look at Julia Christians' creative process, inspirations, artistic influences, and some of her work. She also shares exactly how she makes her creations step by step, from the initial idea and first sketches to editing in Photoshop and the finished piece.

With Julia as your guide, develop a concept and choose a theme, some letters, and a format, before putting together a mood board of reference materials for inspiration. With these pillars in mind, it's time to get sketching on paper and practice sticking to your chosen artistic concept.

Then your teacher shows you how to scan your illustrations in order to continue working digitally. Now get to work polishing your piece in Photoshop. Focus on refining each component as well as adding color, texture, shadow, and lighting effects. Next, tweak a few last details and add the finishing touches to finalize the definitive version of your poster.

Wrap up the course by signing your work with a digital watermark so it's ready to be printed or exported with Photoshop when the time comes. Julia gives you some final tips for sharing your artwork and building on your creative skills in the future.