Illustrated Characters with Paper

Natalia Spadaro, better known as Estrellita Caracol, begins by introducing herself and telling you about her art and her professional career. She also shows you who and what inspire her work before giving you an overview of the course.

Jump into the world of collage by gathering all the materials you need to start working and learn some of the basic techniques. Your teacher demonstrates different ways to make cut-outs, including the conceptual and feelings-based approaches to cutting. Then, discover what a character is and how to define one.

Get ready to have some fun! Play a series of games and embrace the happy accidents, fun surprises, and mistakes you make along the way to create a variety of characters with larger-than-life personalities. Once you're done, lay them out and choose the ones that are best suited to your project.

Now it's time to bring those characters to life. Create sketches and use collage to add movement and give them different expressions. Decide what it is that connects them and elaborate on that idea to construct your scene.

Lastly, select a color palette and the type of paper you want to use for the final illustration. Learn how to arrange all the elements of your scene and then digitize the finished composition to share with the world.