Specialization in Creative Writing and Children's Illustration

Inspiration / Natalia Colombo

During this lesson, you will learn how the influences of unique artists have shaped one illustrator's creative work. You will discover the world of Max Cachimba and his absurd, dreamlike humor and distinctive use of color; and how Elenio Pico inspires creative freedom by enjoying the process more than the result.

Inspiration / Natalia Gurovich

In this lesson, you will discover how medieval bestiaries and Max Ernst’s surreal collages inspire imaginary worlds filled with visual narrative. You will learn about the authenticity of children’s drawings in Jean Dubuffet and Cy Twombly, and explore magical composition in Sergio Larraín’s photography.

Inspiration / Jimena S. Sarquiz

Finally, you’ll explore how personal influences enrich creative work through specific stories and artists that inspire illustration. Drawing on reflections on figures such as Quino, Tony Ross, Oliver Jeffers, Kate Beaton and Luke Pearson, you’ll discover how each impacts different aspects of visual storytelling, such as wordless comedy, technical exploration, and expressive use of colour and character design.

Children's books: a serious matter

Module 2

You will discover the art of creating authentic children's stories with José Urriola, an award-winning writer recognized for his contributions to children's literature. You will learn to create original and captivating stories that spark the imagination, moving away from clichés. You'll explore each stage of the creative process, from generating ideas to structuring the narrative. You'll also delve deeper into the relationship between text and illustration and acquire practical tools for correcting and editing your stories. By the end, you'll have developed a polished narrative, ready to become a new book.

12 lessons (2h 33m)

To begin, I will try to point out some issues that should be avoided in order NOT to fall into the commonplaces that are usually associated with children's literature.

Strategies for capturing ideas

Here we will focus on the search for inspiration, the sources that are used to capture it, grasp it, and then begin to land it on the blank page.

You need to think carefully and decide what exactly you want to tell and how you are going to tell it. You will need to decide what will be the most appropriate structure for your work, as well as the choice of the genre that best suits your book. In this lesson I will explain how.

Structure and gender 1

We continue to analyze different genres and structures so that you can think about what will best fit your project.

Structure and gender 2

To illustrate or not to illustrate?

If you only write and don't dare to illustrate, you will face a dilemma: to illustrate or not to illustrate? In this lesson you will see the relationships between text and illustration, as well as the importance of working as a team with an illustrator.

It's time to define your character's characteristics, the context in which he finds himself, the events that happen to him and how they make him feel. In this lesson I will teach you how to do it.

How a book is born

In my experience as an author, I have learned that it is important to make a map by hand. In this lesson, we will develop a map, outline, or itinerary that will serve as a skeleton for the story you will later develop.

A handmade map

We must give shape to all those ideas that are floating around in our minds and that have fallen into our network. Write them down, build bridges and relationships between them; try to write them down in a first version that you will then polish.

Landing the ideas

The hard task of correcting

Now we are going to study some techniques and recommendations to correct, edit, prune and always ensure beautiful, complex and difficult simplicity.

Putting order in the disorder

We are going to focus on one of the possibilities for structuring a book that is composed of several short, self-contained stories. We will also look at some notions for approaching classical narration.

Working with the illustrator

Sometimes you have to team up with someone who has a talent you lack. What does that work together look like? How do you work together with the illustrator? In this lesson I will give you some tips to achieve the best synergy between the two of you.

Now that you have a fairly solid book project, there are several considerations to take into account: from entering contests to self-publishing. In this lesson I will give you some options for publishing your story.

Publish or self-publish?

Module 3

In this module, Ana Pavez shares her passion for creating children's books inspired by history, nature, and pre-Columbian America. From shaping an idea you're passionate about to developing a script for text and illustrations, Ana will guide you step by step. You'll also learn how to prepare a book layout and present it to publishers. Get ready to bring your story to life!

12 lessons (3h 6m)

Writing an illustrated book

To begin this module, I will explain the similarities and differences between a picture book and an informational book, and I will also explain how text and images can be related in a picture book.

21m

Publics

I will tell you about the audiences that children's illustrated books are aimed at, and the main characteristics of each one of them. Knowing this information will be very useful for you to think about the first definitions of your final project.

15m

The main idea

You will learn how to find an original idea to make your project. This idea will be the starting point for the rest of the project development.

15m

Investigation

I will show you how to conduct appropriate research for the development of your project, through the use of various types of sources and the analysis of the state of the art of the topic worked on.

During this lesson, I will teach you my process for taking the research and project definitions I have made and putting them into a script that serves as the structure of the story.

Writing a first draft

20m

Writing the scenes

With the first draft ready, it's time to start writing the scenes. You'll see that it's also a process that may seem simple, but it requires a lot of concentration, creativity and constant corrections.

I'll show you how to make a storyboard using all the material you've collected, from your research to the written scenes. You don't need to know how to illustrate, but you do need to think about text and image at the same time. Visuality is very important in this type of project!

Storyboard

Working on the illustration

You will learn about the three options you have for the illustration. The first is that you illustrate your project yourself, the second is that you look for an illustrator who wants to share this adventure with you; or that you present the storyboard without illustrations to a publisher. Whatever your decision, it will be useful to know about the dynamics of working with an illustrator, from the search for a suitable illustrator, the process of selecting the scenes, and the illustration style.

19m

Final version and final model 1

During this lesson, I will show you how to turn the storyboard into a mock-up of the illustrated book, with fourteen scenes and thirty-two pages. In addition, you will see how to make some revisions and corrections to the written text, to obtain a final version.

Final version and final model 2

I'll continue by showing you some of the tweaks I'll be making to my project until it's as good as it can be, and I'll tell you what changes I'm making and why. This way you'll be able to better guide yourself when you're polishing your final version.

Project presentation

Making your project is not enough, it must have a life of its own! In this lesson, I will show you how to make a summary of the project so that it can be presented to publishers, contests, fairs, and others that allow your work to reach its audience.

Cultural appropriation and property rights

Finally, I'll share some thoughts on using inspirational materials that you don't own. I'll also give you tips on how to address intellectual property rights and cultural appropriation in your work.

Module 4

Natalia Colombo invites you to explore the art of creating fantasy-filled worlds for children's picture books. With her experience in more than sixty books published around the world, she will share experimental illustration techniques to bring unforgettable characters to life. Get ready to unleash your imagination and discover how to captivate young readers with your unique creations.

13 lessons (2h 18m)

Materials

First, I will show you the materials we will need to do our experimentation exercises throughout the course.

Experiment to unlock

Next, we will start experimenting to tackle the blockage. Also, I will tell you about my experience when I am faced with the blank page.

Ink stains

Now you will begin to experiment with ink blots to encourage you to face the blank page in a relaxed way and start creating your characters.

In this lesson, I will teach you how to draw geometric shapes with markers. You will see that there are hidden characters there too!

Geometric shapes

12m

Drawing by erasing

We are going to reverse the process and draw shapes with the eraser. We will make a drawing with the eraser on a surface that we will complete with graphite.

In this lesson I will give you some tips on choosing your characters. Afterwards, it will be time to work on their expressions and details.

Casting of characters

Where do the characters live? 1

Next, we will use the same techniques we saw to create context elements and backgrounds (simple, but powerful) where your characters will live.

Where do the characters live? 2

We will continue working on the different elements of the world in which our characters will live.

Now that we have created the characters and their world, we need to create a story for them. In this lesson I will explain how to think about the double page based on a mini-script.

Miniscript

Now, I'll show you how to work on your characters and background elements in Photoshop. We'll retouch lights, shadows, colors and textures.

Retouch

Composition

Now that we have retouched the characters and the background, I am going to teach you how to compose your double page.

Backgrounds and textures

I'll show you how to integrate backgrounds and characters. I'll also teach you how to apply textures to give the finishing touch to your project.

How and where to present your work?

Finally, I will teach you how to present your book projects to publishers and at fairs. I will also talk about some competitions and tell you what is important to keep in mind. Finally, I will give you some tips for sending your work by email.

Module 5

Are you interested in exploring the playful side of illustration? Natalia Gurovich, an illustrator and painter with more than 25 children's books published, will guide you through this module where you will discover how to play with stripes, stains and collage, giving meaning to this experimentation to create characters, objects and scenes. In the end, you will illustrate a scene based on a classic text.

12 lessons (2h 21m)

Children's books, illustrators, artists and techniques

First of all, I will tell you about the basics of a children's picture book and we will look at interesting examples that relate to plastic work.

Choose the story to illustrate: Pedro and the wolf

Now I will tell you specifically about the story I selected for the course project. I will explain why I chose it and give you some information about the time in which it was written.

Ideas, scenes and characters

In order to illustrate a story, you have to read it! In this lesson, we will do a first and second reading of the text in order to choose and begin to develop an illustration within the context of the book.

12m

The characters: color and characteristics

We will look at ideas for defining the characters. To do this, I will focus on the personality of the characters and give each one a color that represents them.

Playing with materials

In order to work on your project, you will need some materials that I will present to you in this lesson. We will also do some practical and creative exercises with them.

The characters: from the general to the particular 1

If you are going to illustrate a book, you have to develop the characters, their lines and shapes. To do this, you will see here how to explore the plastic possibilities of the characters according to their characteristics.

The characters: from the general to the particular 2

I finished exploring the character of Pedrito. Here I will continue with the other characters: the grandfather, the bird, the duck, the hunters, the wolf, and the cat.

Now that we have worked on the characters, we can move on to the final sketch of the chosen scene. I will show you the different sketches I made to define the composition of my illustration. Then you will see how to use collage and stains to make each part and character of the scene separately.

The final sketch 1

I've already repeated the same process with the other characters. I'll show you how they turned out.

The final sketch 2

Preparing the digital collage

From the sketch we will digitize and clean up the parts of the illustration before assembling the final image in Photoshop.

Digital collage process

During this lesson, I will show you how to put together the previously digitized parts of the illustration and work on them in Photoshop to obtain the final image.

20m

Care and recommendations: digital and analog

The illustration is now ready! Now we will look at some recommendations for printing, caring for and displaying your work, either digitally or analogously.

To start, I want to show you how I set up my workspace in Procreate. I'll show you different options you have to customize your document and your workspace. I'll also go over the iOS gestures compatible with the program I use the most. Finally, I'll explain which brushes I'm going to use for our project and show you how to create a folder to save your brushes.

Module 6

Jimena S. Sarquiz will guide you in this module where you will learn how to design characters for children's stories from scratch and integrate them into a scene with your iPad Pro. You will see how to use techniques to give them expressiveness and life, preparing you to tell stories through your illustrations.

15 lessons (3h 20m)

Know your workspace

Where do ideas come from?

Whether your project starts with a brief, a literary text, or an idea in your head, there are certain questions you should ask yourself about a character. In this lesson, I will use the phrase “a boy and his imaginary friend” to create two characters. I will explain what questions you should ask yourself to bring your character to life.

Mood boards

In this lesson, I'll explain what a mood board is. I'll show you how I use it to gather images that I'll use as reference and inspiration throughout my project. Finally, I'll create my mood board in Procreate by dragging images into a document from my photo app.

Drawing with basic figures

Now I'll show you how to create characters, both human and not so human, from simple shapes. I'll explain how, when you combine variations in sizes and shapes, your characters look more diverse. Finally, I'll create a template with characters to serve as an example for you to start making your own combinations.

Now that you've practiced creating different characters, let's talk about the importance of seeing your figures as three-dimensional objects. This way we can give the illusion of volume to our characters.

Thinking in 3 dimensions

In this lesson I'm going to combine what I taught you about drawing with basic shapes with the information from my mood board to create a human character and his imaginary friend. I'll show you how, after creating my basic structure, I add details until I have a first version of my characters.

First sketches

The face is the first thing we notice about a character. It's where we look for clues about what they're thinking and feeling. In this lesson I'll show you how to draw the head in different positions and with different facial expressions.

An emotional face

After the head comes the body. I'll explain how to draw the body, paying attention to the silhouette and legibility of your image. I'll show you how I look for poses that help me best tell my character's story. By the end of this lesson, I'll have my character sketch ready to use in an illustration.

An expressive body

I'm going to sketch out my final illustration. I'll take the sketch of my characters interacting and add the missing background. I'll show you how to use the drawing guide tool to add a perspective grid to help you place elements in your scene.

The final sketch

In this lesson I will teach you how I ink my drawings. I will show you how to customize a Procreate brush so you can paint more comfortably.

Inking

In this lesson I will show you how I color my illustrations. I will show you some Procreate tools that help me color faster. I will show you how I create my color palettes in a very simple way.

Color 1

In this second part of the lesson, I will teach you how to change the color of the contour lines once you have already painted them.

Color 2

In this lesson I will teach you how I add light and shadow to my drawings and what colors I use.

Lights and shadows 1

After adding light and shadow to the illustration, I show you what we could do if we wanted to set it at night or in a less illuminated space.

Lights and shadows 2

And now what do I do with my illustration?

In this lesson I will teach you how to export your finished illustrations. I will talk about the different export formats and which ones you should use depending on the use your image will have.