Lowbrow Illustration: Go Back to the Past in Style

A course by Ink Bad Company , Illustration Studio

Illustration Studio. Valencia, Spain.
Joined June 2013

Create retro-inspired illustrations with analog and digital techniques

99% positive reviews (172)
3,085 students
Audio: Spanish
Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · Italian · French · Polish · Dutch

Create retro-inspired illustrations with analog and digital techniques

Comic books, indie horror movies, flying saucers, rock and roll... You'll find traces of all this and more in the work of Juan Carlos, better known as Ink Bad Company. As a child, he was exposed to a hodgepodge of pop-culture influences, which shows prominently in the retro-inspired graphics he's created for renowned brands like Ray-Ban, Martini, and Bentley.

In this course, learn to create a lowbrow-style illustration, combining both traditional and digital techniques. Hop into JC's time machine and travel back in time to create a striking retro image bursting with vivid colors and textured patterns as he walks you through his go-to method. Warning: prepare to get ink all over your hands!

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What will you learn in this online course?

26 lessons & 15 downloads

What are we going to do?
4 minutes, 57 seconds
Art Direction and Moodboarding
9 minutes, 12 seconds
The sketch: Vol. 1
4 minutes, 38 seconds
The sketch: Vol. 2
12 minutes, 44 seconds
  • 99% positive reviews (172)
  • 3,085 students
  • 26 lessons (5h 28m)
  • 15 additional resources (9 files)
  • Online and at your own pace
  • Available on the app
  • Audio: Spanish
  • Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · Italian · French · Polish · Dutch
  • Level: Beginner
  • Unlimited access forever

What is this course's project?

Create an eye-catching, retro-style illustration as you dive deep into drawing, inking, coloring, and retouching techniques. JC draws inspiration from the ads of the '40s and '50s, but you can create anything you want: a bold poster, a striking comic-book cover, artwork for your favorite surf band, an illustration for a magazine, or a packaging design for a beer brand—you choose.

Projects by course students

Who is this online course for?

Illustrators, cartoonists, graphic designers, comic-book lovers, and anyone interested in branching out with lowbrow illustration.

Requirements and materials

If you have basic drawing skills and knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, great! But you don't need to be a design-software specialist or an expert comic-book artist like Jack Kirby to take this course.

You just need art supplies like regular pencils, a mechanical pencil with colored lead, a bottle of ink, brushes, fineliners, heavyweight paper, a computer with Adobe Photoshop installed, and a scanner.


Reviews

3,085 Students
172 Reviews
99% Positive ratings

Ink Bad Company

A course by Ink Bad Company

Teacher Plus
Illustration Studio

JC Guerrero is an illustrator based in Valencia, Spain. Under the name Ink Bad Company, his studio and alter ego, he has crafted a highly distinctive style with retro, pop-culture references and bursts of color. Growing up as a millennial in a small town near Jaén, Spain, he unwittingly began mixing an eclectic cocktail of references through his exposure to pop culture, creating a mental collection that would later serve him well throughout his career.

Around 2012, he began studying media culture and applying halftone patterns to his illustrations, reaching a turning point that gave rise to the stylized illustrations we see today. He preserves the magic of analog art, pouring all his creativity onto the blank page and embracing the quirky imperfections of handcrafted pieces. JC has worked for internationally renowned clients like Variety, Martini, Ray-Ban, and Under Armour, among others, creating illustrations and posters in the fields of advertising, editorial content creation, packaging design, and music.


Content

  • U1

    Presentation

    • Hi homies!
    • Monsters, onomatopoeias and other influences
    • What are we going to do?
  • U2

    From idea to paper

    • Art Direction and Moodboarding
    • The sketch: Vol. 1
    • Lettering for laymen: Intermediate
    • The sketch: Vol. 2
    • It turns blue! What you will see next will surprise you
  • U3

    Inked old school

    • Toolbox
    • The inking: Vol. 1.1
    • The inking: Vol. 1.2
    • The inking: Vol. 1.3
    • Inking: Vol. 2
    • Digitization 1
    • Digitization 2
  • U4

    Sheet metal and digital paint

    • The halftone plot 1
    • The halftone frame 2
    • Layer masks, selections and perfect edge 1
    • Layer masks, selections and perfect edge 2
    • My color, my standards: Vol. 1.1
    • My color, my standards: Vol. 1.2
    • My color, my standards: Vol. 2.1
    • My color, my standards: Vol. 2.2
    • LUTs: Photoshop Instagram
    • Handmade textures 1
    • Handmade textures 2
  • FP

    Final project

    • Final project

What to expect from a Domestika course

  • 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.

  • Learn from the best professionals

    Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.

  • Meet expert teachers

    Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.

  • Certificates
    Plus

    If 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

If you're a Plus member, when you complete a course you've purchased, you'll instantly get your personalized certificate. You can see all your certificates in the Certificates section of your profile. You can download your certificates as PDFs and share the link online. Learn more about certificates.
Lowbrow Illustration: Go Back to the Past in Style. Illustration course by Ink Bad Company

Lowbrow Illustration: Go Back to the Past in Style

A course by Ink Bad Company
Illustration Studio. Valencia, Spain.
Joined June 2013
  • 99% positive reviews (172)
  • 3,085 students