IllustrationClass.com

The “Action Sports Industry” (ASI) is geared for Skate boarders, Surfers, Snowboarders and any other kind of board driven sports enthusiast I may be overlooking as I write this.

ASI is filled with adrenaline driven and very passionate and active (Duh!) individuals who love pushing the limits of both their sport and lifestyle. They are loyal to and approve of authentic brands and despise posers. Needless to say It’s a fun industry to design for.

Much of the problem however has nothing to do with the art itself but rather it’s individuals who tend to be jealous of others success and their failure to market themselves in a commercial sense. If an illustrator can be successful in both arenas it makes art snobs feel threatened so the best defense is to talk down illustration as if it cannot apply to the fine arts market.

This tutorial will walk you through my illustrative design solution for several BMX bike graphics.


(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)

Keywords: Skull, Wings, BMX

File Size: 19.9 MB

Historically speaking the linear style is also referred to as “Contour Drawing.” The artist who made it an art form was no less then Pablo Picasso. From that point forward it has gone in and out of fashion several times as a style used within the illustration industry.

At this point in time (2008) it has been a very popular style for the past five years or so. Most of it’s popularity is due to the fact it can work well within nearly any genre or context. I’ve personally created art in this style for big pharma, Kleenex, a green magazine, a coffee company and as you’ll soon see a bank.

The following tutorial will give you insight into how to illustrate in a linear line style.


(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)

Keywords: Line, Continuous, Linear, Animation

File Size: 4.8 MB

At times when I work or just go about doing something non-creative I stumble upon something that sparks my creative curiosity. This usually ends up being an artistic rabbit trail of sorts as I pursue it to see where it might lead.

Such was the case with this creative exercise. It was birthed from mere happenstance and led to a fun little side project.

(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)

Keywords: Doodle, Book, Worm, Creative Exercise

File Size: 13.5 MB

Inspiration comes from the strangest places at times. The inspiration for this illustration came from a new business venture I considered but never pulled the trigger on. Even though the business never came to fruition, a good idea did emerge from that situation.

This tutorial will go through the method of using symmetry in your artwork. Learn how to do half the work but still get the full benefit from your artwork. We’ll also feature a plugin for AI that speeds up your build time and cover the topic of “Opacity Masks.”

(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)

Keywords: Thug, Bunny, Symmetric, Rabbit, Tee

File Size: 19.7 MB

Have you ever thought of a unique concept, but then wasn’t sure you could pull it off because it required a good amount of illustrative work and frankly speaking that intimidated you? Or your budget was such that you couldn’t hire it out either? So, instead you just pursued another design direction?

Well, fear no more my fellow creatives! This session will walk you through systematic illustrative design methods you’ll be able to integrate into your own creative process. In the end you’ll be better equipped to pursue those design ideas that require an illustrative touch far more effectively, thus expanding your overall creative potential and skill set as a graphic designer.

Included in this download: The entire “Illustrative Design” session from the HOW Design Conference, Exhaustive notes regarding each step of the process, Quick reference sheet to help you remember each step, MP3 audio file of entire session so you can listen while you go through it yourself and Instructions on how to use everything on a MAC or PC.

(This download is only available in English.)

Keywords: Illustrative, Design, Session, HOW, Conference

File Size: 138.5 MB (Large)

Over the past several years the line of demarcation between illustration and fine art has been forever changed. Historically speaking illustration has always been viewed by the fine art snobs as a lesser form of art. Mainly because they view illustration as a mere commercial driven commodity and prefer art created for the sole sake of creating art instead. This of course is a tired and flawed perception that only elitists hold to.

In today’s competitive market an illustrator should pursue both arenas of creativity be it commercial or fine art. The age of art snobs has come to an end and it’s time for illustrators to create and captivate a new generation of fine art lovers.This tutorial will help you understand how to take your digital art and create gallery quality reproductions of it that have a nice authentic hand crafted quality to them.

(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)

Keywords: Fine, Art, Gallery, Textures

  File Size: 19.4 MB

Not all my projects afford me the time I’d like to create them. Such is the case with this project. I was given all the information about four days before it was due, but the problem is I couldn’t get to it until the day before the deadline. Sometimes things work out this way, and you just have to roll with the punches.

Needless to say having the perfect reference was going to be paramount in my creative process. When this is the case nothing beats creating and controlling the reference myself. As you’ll see in this tutorial, it aided me to meet a very tight deadline all the while producing high quality artwork.

Source files are included in this download so you can manually de-construct the method I used to create my reference imagery.

(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)

Keywords: Bow, Reference, Graphic, Logo, Christ

File Size: 12.1 MB

I first used FreeHand back in 1991 and ever since it has been my sole application for creating digital design and illustration in terms of vector graphics. The software had it’s glory days “Version 8″ and it’s not so glorious days “Version 10″ and then it’s sudden and immediate death when Adobe bought out Macromedia in 2006.

Even though the hand writing was on the wall I continued to use FreeHand and didn’t plan on switching until someone pulled it from my cold dead fingers. That is until I was contacted by a certain agency who had a certain client named “Adobe.”

Suffice it to say this tutorial is my personal switcher story from FreeHand to Illustrator and contains the good, the bad and the ugly details of both apps. Enjoy.


(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)

Keywords: FreeHand, Adobe, Illustrator, Switcher

File Size: 21 MB

I don’t do a ton of pro-bono work but this was for a good cause. A Diabetes fundraiser poster with a jungle theme. They asked if I’d specifically illustrate a “White Tiger” for them.
Even though my work schedule was very busy I agreed to help them out.

I’ve illustrated more cartoony tiger characters before but never one like this and never a “White Tiger” which was a bit challenging due to the color limitations. I was happy with how it turned out but unfortunately the client thought the Tiger was too aggressive and ghosted me on the project and wouldn’t return my emails? (No good deed goes unpunished)

Even though I wasn’t able to grab this Tiger by it’s tail, you still get to benefit from my misfortune since I did manage to document the creation of the art for this site. So enjoy.

(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)

Keywords: Tiger, Animal, Jungle

File Size: 17 MB

Sometimes I get inspired on the spur of the moment. When this happens I tend to put aside what ever I am working on and just pursue the creative rabbit trail to see where it leads.

This creative exercise captures this momentary inspiration and shows you how you can build your creative muscle and have some unique fun doing so.

(Tutorial Includes Notes in both ‘English’ and ‘Español’.)

Keywords: Doodle, Creative, Exercise, Dog

File Size: 5 MB