Animal Characters in Watercolor for Children’s Books
A course by Julie Mellan , Illustrator
Explore the softness and playfulness of childhood through lovable anthropomorphic characters using watercolors
Watercolor allows you to paint atmospheres and bring a personal approach to any scene. Illustrator Julie Mellan uses it to create captivating illustrations for children’s books. She explores color, light, and shadow to paint images full of personality that have been published by the likes of Penguin Random House, Clavis, and Fleurus.
In this course, Julie guides you through creating watercolor illustrations of your own, featuring dynamic, expressive animal protagonists. Immerse yourself in your own private woodland and bring characters to life with watercolor.
What will you learn in this online course?
18 lessons & 14 downloads
- 98% positive reviews (670)
- 22,375 students
- 18 lessons (3h 16m)
- 14 additional resources (7 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: English
- English · Spanish · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
Recommended software for this course
Adobe PhotoshopWhat is this course's project?
Conceive, sketch, and paint animal characters for children’s books using watercolors.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
This course is for anyone with an interest in watercolor painting or children’s book illustrations.
Requirements and materials
No previous experience is necessary.
In terms of materials, you will need a sketchbook, paper, pencils, a lightbox, eraser, tape, watercolors, brushes, and other materials specified by the teacher in this course.
Reviews
Julie Mellan
A course by Julie Mellan
Julie Mellan is a French illustrator and self-confessed watercolor addict who specializes in illustrations for children’s books. She spent her childhood reading Beatrix Potter’s books and drawing animal characters from Disney movies, before going on to study classic drawing, painting, illustration, and animation at the French art school École Émile Cohl. After graduating, she continued to combine sketching and watercolors to create expressive animal characters, and eventually published her first book in 2013.
Julie uses traditional mediums to tell stories through her illustrations and create connections between characters. Her work has appeared in children’s books published by the likes of Penguin Random House, Clavis, and Fleurus.
Content
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U1
Introduction
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About Me
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Influences
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U2
Preparation
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Materials
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Playing with Watercolor
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Sketching Animals in a Dynamic Way
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Sketching Facial Expressions
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U3
Creating Your Animal Character
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Finding Inspiration and the Perfect Scene
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Final Sketch of Your Illustration
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Preparing the Painting
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Choosing Your Color Palette
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Painting the Lights and the Shadows 1
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Painting the Lights and the Shadows 2
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Painting the Colors 1
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Painting the Colors 2
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Painting the Colors 3
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Adding the Final Details
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U4
Refining and Sharing Your Work
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Scanning and Editing Your Illustration
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Sharing and Promoting Your Art
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FP
Final project
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Animal character design for children’s books with watercolor
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What to expect from a Domestika course
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Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
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Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
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Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
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Certificates
PlusIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
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Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
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Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
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Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
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Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
Domestika's courses are online classes that provide you with the tools and skills you need to complete a specific project. Every step of the project combines video lessons with complementary instructional material, so you can learn by doing. Domestika's courses also allow you to share your own projects with the teacher and with other students, creating a dynamic course community.
All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.
The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.
You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.
Adobe Photoshop
anabella_plus
PlusHa sido un curso muy util para tener en claro cuales son los puntos que debemos tener en cuenta para otorgar carácter a una escena, representar bien a los personajes y darle el sentimiento adecuado a cada pincelada. Gracias!!
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donnapharis
This was an excellent course. Learned a lot but have much more to learn.
stephane_hennebert
Ce cours est un bijou auquel je reviens plusieurs fois par an pour m'inspirer. J'adore la manière dont Julie explique sa manière de composer l'image tout comme la technique d'aquarelle qu'elle utilise pour parvenir à des illustrations pleines de vie.
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free_i
Great course!
mpoester
Excellent course - the instructor is extremely talented, and her examples and step-by-step instructions are amazing - so helpful, and I learned so much!