Naturalist Illustrations with Watercolors: Drawing and Composition

Start this course by getting to know your teacher, Cristina Cilloniz. See how watercolor helped transform her life and discover her main artistic influences. Then, get some more details regarding your final project.

Next, Cristina shows you the materials you need to work with watercolor. Learn how to prepare your color palette and create shadow and volume effects using color theory concepts. Discover new painting techniques to create original layers, transparencies, textures, and details, using them to highlight specific points in your illustration.

From theory to practice: learn to create a mood board that will serve as a guide. Then, inspired by botanical figures and the shapes of insects and animals, start sketching to loosen up your hand and lose the fear of drawing.

Start composing the structure of your final illustration in pencil. Then, apply the watercolor techniques you learned in the previous unit to bring your work to life.

Once finished, scan your work and make some final adjustments in Photoshop. See how to apply your illustration to the design of a notebook using a template and create a mockup to understand what it would look like.