Sketchbook Drawing Techniques for Beginners
A course by Lobón Leal, Illustrator and Concept Artist
Discover your own style while practicing different exercises in your sketchbook
According to Francisco Lobón Leal, a cartoonist's notebook is the safe place to dump all the ideas and characters that haunt his imagination. In this online course, the illustrator and Concept Artist will teach you how to work with this tool to find your own style and capture your identity.
Each blank page is an opportunity to recount a daily experience, share a perspective or reflect an emotion through your strokes. Throughout the units, you will learn the fundamental drawing techniques and how to put them into practice in your sketchbook. The secret will be to fill out each page, and not stop practicing!
What will you learn in this online course?
20 lessons & 22 downloads
What's included in this course?
Francisco Lobón Leal will begin the course by telling you about his career and how he combines professional work with personal projects. It will also show you those artists who have influenced him and are still present in his references today.
Next, you will see different options for notebooks and materials. Once you find your personal line, your teacher will teach you the iconicity scale, a tool that will help you recognize different styles, and you will start drawing from models around you to gain confidence.
Then, you will approach the illustration from the outside, with basic shapes and volumes, and from the inside, with internal and action lines. Francisco will explain composition concepts to bring scenarios to life in a simple way and turn objects into personal resources that you can use as totems.
Then you will use the drawn characters to create a height scale and you will play to give new functionalities to everyday accessories. Finally, you will interpret silhouettes in the clouds to train your imagination and you will write a story based on the sketches.
- 99% positive reviews (291)
- 18,161 students
- 20 lessons (4h 7m)
- 22 additional resources (11 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: Spanish, English, French, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish
- Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch · Turkish · Romanian · Indonesian
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
What is this course's project?
You will carry out a series of exercises in your notebook that will lead you to build your own characters and develop their story.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
To all the people who want to enjoy drawing in a carefree way in their sketchbook.
Requirements and materials
Regardless of the level you have, you can learn from scratch or internalize concepts of drawing.
The materials you will need will be a sketchbook, a colored graphite, rubber and a pencil sharpener.
Reviews
Lobón Leal
A course by Lobón Leal
Francisco Lobón Leal holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid and currently works as an illustrator and concept artist. Along with some of his colleagues, he started Malfario Cómic, a small publishing house where he self-pu...
Content
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U1
Introduction
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About Me
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Influences
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U2
Your book
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Sketchbooks and the thousand and one strokes
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How to start
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Where to start
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The models around you 1
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The models around you 2
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U3
The invisible base of the drawing
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Outer lines: the sketch of the crime scene
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Internal lines 1
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Internal lines 2
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Landscapes along the way 1
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Landscapes along the way 2
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Totem poles
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U4
Train the imagination
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Line up 1
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Line up 2
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Impossible objects
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Imagination through the roof 1
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Imagination through the roof 2
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Script 1
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Script 2
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FP
Final project
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Sketchbook Drawing Techniques for Beginners
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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
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FAQs
You’ll learn techniques for drawing characters and scenes in a sketchbook, building human figures, experimenting with composition, iconicity, and volume, plus exploring creativity using both traditional and digital tools.
This is an intermediate-level course, recommended for those who already understand basic drawing concepts and want to deepen their skills in character creation and sketchbook composition.
You’ll need a sketchbook, pencils, pens, markers, and optionally a tablet or digital illustration apps. No expensive materials required—just a willingness to practice.
The course covers character construction techniques, using basic shapes and volumes, action lines, composition, inking, mixed media, and digitizing sketches.
Yes, the course includes character design applied to comics, concept art for video games, animation, and illustrated scenes, including developing campaigns like Kickstarter.
You’ll learn to depict characters ranging from realistic to symbolic styles and experiment with different levels of detail and abstraction in your artwork.
It includes quick sketch exercises, silhouette building, cloud interpretation, height charts, mixed techniques, and creating original characters.
el curso no es realmente para principiantes, no da pasos básicos ni enseña a dibujar. es mas bien, para quien ya tiene practica y mucha noción del dibujo mas no para quien quiere aprender
Gran trabajo en el curso, las lecciones son fáciles de entender y no se hacen largas ni pesadas. Además, el ánimo y el carisma de Labón hace que todo parezca divertido.
Excelente, muy animador con instrucciones claras para despertar la creatividad y no dejarse intimidar por las hojas en blanco de nuestros cuadernos de bocetos!!! Gracias
Lui disegna benissimo, realizzare però il suo progetto richiede davvero tanta esperienza.
Ce cours m'a bien aidé pour ma progression