Expressive Line Work in Illustration

Carlos starts off by telling you about his career, and how he got started in illustration. His style doesn’t stem from other specific artists in particular, but rather through a natural and spontaneous discovery over time, although he finds inspiration in artists for other areas and shares them at the beginning of this course.

Start your project by choosing the theme you want to illustrate. Carlos chooses the sea but suggests you choose the area that most inspires you. Then, carry out some research on your theme and start preparing a repertoire of images to inspire your composition. Carlos shares how he further develops his theme, by creating a word-map of ideas.

Once you have a clear idea of what you want to draw, start working on the sketches either manually or digitally. Carlos shares his expert tips to achieve clean, fluid lines in your work. Move on to the details once your composition is defined. Learn how to distribute the elements of your composition to balance your illustration and introduce a sense of movement.

See how Carlos uses geometric shapes to give visual clarity to his piece. He also shows you how to play with curves and winding lines to give your work more expression and creativity, as well as volume and texture.

Next, scan your final piece and open it on Adobe Photoshop (or similar) and see how to clean up your illustration to work on it with ease. Move to Adobe Illustrator (or similar) to start drawing and adding color to your piece, seeing how Carlos works with color as you go.

Finally, create a second version of your final work by changing the background color, understanding how it affects contrast and color values. Carlos shows you how to adapt your illustration accordingly to achieve variations of your final project.