IllustrationClass.com

Your assignment is to read the ‘Mad Libs’ included in this download, then pick the ‘Father Goose Rhyme’ you’d like to illustrate. Take 30 minutes or so creating a black and white illustration (Think Doodles) that reflects all or part of the ‘Mad Lib’ as you would visually interpret it to be. Have fun, get a little goofy and don’t let reality hold you back. Also provided in this download is a link to a site where you can create your own custom ‘Mad Libs’ to use if you prefer.

Note: These exercises were developed for a class setting but can easily work for the individual. If you use this for a group of people make sure to share everyones work at the end, it fun to see how everyone interpreted the same themes and is usually good for a few laughs as well.

Keywords: Creative, Exercise, Mad, Goose

File Size: 240KB

I was hired by an ad agency who wanted a logo developed for a mortgage broker with the company name of ‘Patriot Mortgage’. The company was located on the east coast and the art director wanted a colonial type of figure. No style was referred to so that decision was left to me to decide.

This tutorial will take you through the entire creative project and share a unique method I took to secure good reference material too.

Keywords: Logo, Design, Patriot, Process, Icon

File Size: 2MB

I tell my students all the time to do creative exercises or just doodle when they can. I also make myself do the same thing to stay in creative shape. A fun and simple way is to participate in ‘Illustration Friday’. Every Friday Penelope Dullaghan sends out a word or phrase at the end of each week on Friday. You get 1 week to illustrate your own interpretation of that word or phrase.

This tutorial shows you how I went about creating mine for the theme ‘Under the Sea’.

Keywords: Fish, Sea, Vectors

File Size: 2.2MB

The key to clean smooth vectors is to pay close attention to where you place your points. Placing points without giving thought to how it will effect the vector shape your creating will lead to less appealing art on the final.

This tutorial will demonstrate how to maximize your level of precision in vector building and to accomplish extremely well polished and professional artwork.

Keywords: Eagle, Sour, Souring, Mascot, Character, Vectors, Hawk, School

File Size: 4.3MB

Will the doodling ever stop? I admit it I am a doodler. I always look for opportunities to doodle. Many of these never get seen by others or ever used in any of my daily projects but the same method I use to create doodles for fun can be used in a creative process for real-world projects. Below is a simple step by step that shows how you can take a simple doodle illustration and by applying surface and brush textures create a stunning atmosphere for your viewer.

Keywords: Doodle, Sketch, Drawing, Brush, Textures

File Size: 26.7MB

The following examples show two simple illustrations and how I went about creating them. Each had a limitation upfront of only being one flat color. No tonal value or gradients could be used. The style the client wanted was almost iconic and needed to work at a very small size.

This tutorial takes you inside this project and explores how to create dynamic art using positive and negative shapes in one color.

Keywords: Shape, Form, Simple, Positive, Negative

File Size: 2.4MB

One challenge in creating artwork for use on a dark shirt is how best to display the artwork against a dark background obviously. Colorizing the art a lighter shade isn’t always effective and what should be read as a negative tends to turn to a positive and it runs the risk of ruining the arts effectiveness.

One way to get around this is to create a halo type of effect using large easy to silk-screen halftone dots to glow if you will from behind the art. This also allows you to keep the art simple. In this step by step you’ll see how to effectively pull off a one color t-shirt illustration on a dark background using this method.

Keywords: Halftone, Dot, Big, Tiff

File Size: 2.5MB

This project is one of seven mascots I developed for a school district in Arizona. The following step by step will show you a complete process from thumbnail to final in the creation of this art. I’ll also share some key methods I use and you’ll get to see a little bit of my work area as well.

Keywords: Mascot, Character, School, Sport, Scorpion

File Size: 4.4MB

I always look for opportunities to doodle. Many of these never get seen by others or ever used in any of my daily projects but the same method I use to create doodles for fun can be used in a creative process for real-world projects. This simple step by step shows how you can take a simple doodle illustration and by applying surface and brush textures create a very rich organic piece of artwork.

Such is the case with ‘St.Doodle’ the patron saint of doodlers everywhere.

Keywords: Doodle, Sketch, Drawing, Brush, Textures, Saint

File Size: 19.8MB

I was hired by a branding firm to take a real life statue and create an illustrative iconic mark for use on a branding project for a small town. It’s an illustrative approach but it also took many design centric decisions along the way. Each step in this tutorial will share my insight and decision making both illustrative wise and design wise.

Keywords: Logo, Design, Statue, Process, Icon

File Size: 1.2MB