Digital Illustration: Create Manga Characters
A course by Catalina Carlesi, Cartoonist and Illustrator
Learn how to use digital tools to bring your own detailed and expressive manga heroes to life
Want to design characters like the ones from your favorite manga, anime, and video games? In this online course, digital illustrator Catalina Carlesi teaches you how to bring your own heroes to life.
Under her guidance, learn to draw expressive manga characters and tell a story through their clothing, accessories, and environment. Discover digital techniques to help you create charismatic illustrations rich in light, color, shadows, and intricate details. Get ready to build fantasy worlds and make them a reality with Procreate and Photoshop.
What will you learn in this online course?
15 lessons & 25 downloads
What's included in this course?
Meet your teacher for the course, Catalina Carlesi. She tells you about her creative journey as a digital artist, along with the sources of inspiration that influence her work.
Next, learn to draw manga characters from head to toe. Catalina explains everything from body proportions to expressive features before sharing her techniques for line art and how to apply color palettes to your illustrations. Then start building your hero and the world they live in using a character sheet.
Once you've mapped out your ideas, it's time to illustrate them. Sketch out your character and their surroundings before cleaning up your line work and incorporating layers of grayscale followed by color. Add light and shadows for a more dynamic environment and discover how to polish your scene in the rendering process.
To round out the course, Catalina shares tips on how to present your work on social media, as well as ideas to enhance your illustrations and the characters in them.
- 99% positive reviews (476)
- 34,960 students
- 15 lessons (2h 52m)
- 25 additional resources (8 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: Spanish, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish
- Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch · Turkish · Romanian · Indonesian
- Level: Intermediate
- Unlimited access forever
Recommended software & tools for this course
Adobe Photoshop
ProcreateWhat is this course's project?
Create an illustration of a manga character surrounded by narrative context.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
Drawing enthusiasts, especially those interested in Japanese illustration.
Requirements and materials
All you need to take this course are basic notions of digital illustration, as well as the programs Photoshop and Procreate.
Reviews
Catalina Carlesi
A course by Catalina Carlesi
Catalina Carlesi, better known as Alpaca, is a Chilean cartoonist and digital illustrator specializing in manga characters. She began her career as a graphic designer, but soon decided to pursue her dream and devote herself full time to illustration.
She's always been a huge fan of manga, anime, and video games, especially JRPGs, as well as Japanese culture in general, which have heavily influenced the style and content of her drawings. She loves creating original characters and weaving their stories into her illustrations through the use of light and shadows, colors, and expressive details.
Content
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U1
Introduction
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Presentation
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Influences
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U2
The Manga: Bases of Digital Illustration
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The Characters: the Human Figure 1
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The Characters: the Human Figure 2
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Character and Expressions
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Digital Inking
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The Color
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Elaboration of the Character and the Environment
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U3
Narrative Illustration
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The Sketch
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The Drawing: Scale, Gray Scale and Color
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Lights and Shadows 1
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Lights and Shadows 1
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Final Details: the Render
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U4
Projection and Diffusion
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Illustration Projection
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Empower Illustration
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FP
Final project
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Digital Illustration: Create Manga Characters
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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
You’ll learn digital drawing techniques, how to create original characters, manage proportions and anime-style expressiveness, use digital tools like Procreate and Photoshop, plus strategies to sell and promote your artwork.
Yes, the course is designed for people with basic prior knowledge in drawing or digital illustration who want to improve their skills and professionalize their anime and manga-style work.
You’ll need a graphics tablet or iPad with illustration software like Procreate or Photoshop, basic drawing skills, and internet access to follow the lessons and practical exercises.
You’ll learn how to prepare your portfolio, take part in illustration fairs, offer custom commissions, and promote your art on social media to attract clients and sell your creations.
Yes, the course includes exercises in gesture drawing, action lines, and anatomical studies to capture movement, expressiveness, and emotions in anime-style characters.
You’ll learn lineart techniques, how to use custom brushes, separate backgrounds, create color harmony, build palettes, and apply lighting and shading for professional finishes.
Yes, the course covers everything from creating character sheets and worldbuilding to visual composition for storytelling and building original universes.
Adobe Photoshop
Procreate
Solid course!
Es un buen curso para principiantes, lo recomendaría
El curso me gusto, no obstante hay que considerar que de verdad es para principiantes y aunque si apoya con la formacion de una escena con historia hay cosas que me hubiera gustado mencionar como las proporciones del cuerpo, no obstante dio buenos tips para la composicion de una obra y el uso de los colores y brillos aunque me hubiera gustado que profundizara algo más en ello, sin embargo se considera que es un curso para principiantes y debes de tener unos ciertos conocimientos previos
el curso es increible
enseña mucho de los puntos los cuales eran lo mas debi para mi asi q agradezco mucho este curso
Lo recomiendo mucho
muy buen curso lo recomiendo