Illustrator,MarkusYu Details
Intro
Class Intro
Illustrator, Markus Yu
"Want to create incredible mystical creatures that blur the line between fantasy and reality? You'll learn how to do just that, step-by-step."
Diversify Your Character Design Portfolio: Humans to Creatures
Unlock the boundless potential of your artistic journey with Markus Yu. From humans to fantastical beings, explore a diverse range of character designs that will elevate your skills to unprecedented heights.
With twenty-two interactive exercises designed by Markus, you are leaving this class with two things. One, a series of character sheets and completed character illustrations you can directly add to your portfolio. Two, a fresh set of skills and techniques that will allow you to fully unleash your vision when creating your characters. Delve into the world using your characters as a vessel for storytelling and self-expression. Feel the satisfaction of your lore and fictional themes come to life with your rendered character illustration.
Class Perks
Get These Coloso Exclusives
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Templates and Brushes -
Full Access to Class Illustration Files -
Personally Curated Color Palettes
Character Illustrator Markus Yu's Portfolio
* This portfolio includes client work.
Why Take This Class?
Character creation is an important skill to have, especially for believable and fantastical worlds.
This class is meant to be a repository of knowledge from Markus Yu, who will be walking through the necessary steps of creating an interesting character design.
Join us as we talk about human anatomy, animal physiology, the power of expressions, prop and weapon design, and more. On top of the lectures, students can join along in the drawing process with twenty-two class exercises, ending with a finalized character sheet and character illustration. Welcome aboard!
22 Class Exercises
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Customizing Your Brush -
Character Sheet Basics -
Pitching a World -
Thumbnailing
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WARMUP: A Quick Overview to Human Anatomy -
WARMPUP: Furry Friends -
WARMPUP: Slithering, Skittering, and Flying Things
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Monster Mash -
WARMUP: Cloth! -
Additional Prop
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Outfits -
Posing Your Characters -
Face It -
Characters Interacting
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Prepping for Lineart -
The Color Palette -
The Dreaded Turn Around -
Lining Your Character for Illustration
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The Rules of Light -
Welcome to Colors -
The Overpainting -
The Final Stretch
3 Final Character Sheets
Instructor
Illustrator
Markus Yu
'Ello! My name is Markus, and I'm a freelance illustrator with a background in 3D animation. As a RCAD graduate in computer animation, I have some skillsets I can share — mostly on character design, but also on time management, design philosophy, and storytelling.
I'm a big fan of Zelda, Pokemon, and Dungeons 'n Dragons! As a result, my art incorporates elements from each to create work I love. This class is meant to teach artists how to incorporate key components of their own interests into their work and to make character design a fun exercise that will still be portfolio-ready. The deliverables of this character-building class will be a professional character design packet, a colorful character illustration, and a storytelling character lineup.
Illustrator, Markus Yu
[Current]
Freelance Illustrator
Projects & Awards
(2020-2024) Graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design BFA computer animation
(2020 - Current) Character design artist for independent clients on Instagram
(2023) Book Illustration for Constellations of Flesh, Blood, and Bone by Tim Hickson
Highlights
Class Highlights
The Basics to Ideation and Storytelling
A review on how to create a reference board and ideate a successful character that is immediately recognizable, along with thumbnailing practice and story mapping.
Character Posing and Underlying Anatomy
A focus on dynamic posing to bring a character to life and the underlying anatomy to ground them to reality.
Bringing a Character Sketch to Illustration
Rendering a flat character sketch into a final render, with emphasis on color dynamics, temperature in lighting, and tonal contrast.
Class Details
You'll Learn
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Basic PerspectiveFaking 3D space on 2D objects to understand perspective and its importance in character drawing. -
Stylized AnatomyA focused review of human anatomy, followed by a quick overview of some animals. -
Gesture DrawingCreating quick thumbnails of characters in a 3D space.
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IdeationThe planning process to create characters from written ideas to sketches. -
LineartMy lineart process and the pros and cons of lineart in a character illustration. -
Setting ColorsFinalizing a character from flat colors to the final illustration.
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Curriculum
Curriculum
In-Depth Look
SECTION 01. Embarking on an Adventure
01. Let Us Begin: Orientation
- Introducing your instructor
- What you will learn
- Deliverables
- Suggested way to take this class
SECTION 02. The Bare Bones (Introductions)
02. Unveiling Procreate: A Journey Begins
- Setting up a Procreate file
- A full run down on Procreate's brush system
- Creating your own brushes
- The menu
- The layers
03. Treasure Trove: Other Resources for Character Design
- References
- Managing expectations
- Ergonomics
SECTION 03. Forge Your Creations: Ideation
04. Planning Character Sheets & Character Lineup
- Planning a character sheet
- Understanding the scope of deliverables
- Character lineups
05. Building Intrigue for Character Designs
- Characters and environments
- Personalization
- Tips and tricks to character backstories
- Pitching worlds and references
06. Character Archetypes
- Shape Language: Circles, rectangles, triangles
- Character archetypes
- Thumbnails
SECTION 04. A Quick Guide To...
07. Humanoids Unraveled
- Basic overview of the human skeleton system
- Basic overview of the human musculature system
- Human faces
08. Mammals Are Our Friends
- Finding the big shapes
- Felines
- Canines
- Rodents
- Hooves
09. Scales and Feathers
- Finding the big shapes
- Small birds
- Big birds
- Reptiles
- Fish
10. Unlock the World of Chimeras
- Dragons, gryphons, and other mythical beasts
- Inhabitating the environment
- Curve vs Straights
- Mounts and companions
SECTION 05. Some More Mechanic Notes
11. A Brief Overview on Robots
- Skeletons and joints in the human body
- Mechanical joints in a robot
- Roles of a Robot: Design philosophy
12. Crafting Armors
- The big shapes
- Plate armor
- Leather armor
13. Occupation Belies Clothing
- Occupations and clothing
- Occupation hazards
- Uniforms
- Shoes
SECTION 06. Props and Outfits Are a Must
14. The Art of Cloth Wrinkles
- Primary folds
- Underlying structure
15. Let’s Add Buckles and Belts
- How a belt binds around the body
- How pouches are attached to a belt
- Backpacks
16. How about Props and Weapons?
- Reference gathering
- Hero props
- Occupation props
- Types of Weapons: Swords, bows, spears, staffs, and magic
SECTION 07. Breathing Characters to Life
17. Polishing Thumbnails into Character Designs
- Cleaning up a thumbnail
- Clutter vs Declutter
- Utilizing the props
18. Full Body Character Sketches
- Gesture drawing
- Setting up a gesture
- Perspective
19. Expressive Facial Expressions
- Indicators of Expression: Where the human face wrinkles
- Happiness
- Anger
- Fear
- Sadness
20. Dynamic Character Interactions
- Composing a Character Interaction: Triangle, s, parallelism
- Touch and weight
- Silhouettes and negative shapes
- Face and hands
SECTION 08. Cleaning Up
21. Preparing a Sketch for Lineart
- Volume
- Blocking and anatomy check
- Rhythm and repeating shapes
22. Setting Base Colors
- Color Theory: Warms vs Cools
- Color palettes
- Referencing real life
- Putting theory to practice
23. Character Turn Arounds
- Turnarounds
- Front, side, and back profile breakdowns
- 3/4 turnarounds
24. Lineart
- Pros of lineart
- Cons of lineart
- Line weight
- Tips and tricks
SECTION 09. Rendering a Character
25. Lighting Is Key
- The basic blend layers
- Lights and cast shadows
- Bounce lights
- Values
- Specular surfaces
26. Exploring Colors
- Setting base colors
- Coloring the face
- Color bounce
- Flesh
- Hair
- Wings
- Cloth
- Metal
27. Overpaints Can Do So Much
- Curves
- Color correct
- Checking values
- Liquify tool
- Atmospheric depth
- Overpainting and corrections
28. At Last, Put the Character Sheets Together
- Exporting pngs to a single file for easy access
- Speedpaints
- Rearrange the deliverables onto the final pages
- Character lineup
SECTION 10. We Came a Long Way!
29. Some Final Thoughts to Wrap up This Adventure
- Choose a niche
- Portfolio work to bring in clients
- WIPS, speedpaints, and PROCESS!
- Good luck!
*The release date of this class, curriculum images, and associated content can be changed without prior notice.
** Class videos may be seperated for a more streamlined viewing experience
*** This early bird sales page includes artists' personal and client work, which may be replaced after the class video release.
Interview with
Illustrator Markus Yu
Question.01
Is there a specific reason why you chose this specific topic/themes?
Character design is a very quick way to get invested in stories. We resonate with specific themes and identify with fictional individuals, mourning when they feel lost and cheering for them when they succeed. As somebody who cares about lore, characters are one of the key components to learning about a world's culture, aesthetics, and values. There is a lot you can do with writing and drawing people; making a character that reflects a story is a great skill.
Anyways, I chose to teach character design because I desperately want to draw a whale woman and her posey of fishermen ghost hunters. Drafting a good character sheet not only gives you a portfolio, but a story and a world to explore. Of course, there is a difference between character design in visual development, and a character illustration. I intend to teach character design with the goal to create a character illustration, so we get the best of both worlds.
Question.02
What makes your class different from other classes?
This class will be focused on creating characters in real-time. Each video will focus on a different aspect directly involved with a character design portfolio. The premise of this class is to teach, but its end result will be a character sheet. There will be lectures that give a quick rundown of props, weapons, and creatures, but the primary focus is to have character sheet deliverables with a final character render.
Question.03
Could you please share how you started your journey in the industry?
I started drawing fanart, which evolved into personal projects (and later job opportunities). Art communities online and fandom spaces are incredibly vital to my journey, and drawing a concerning amount of niche Pokemon fanart and my own iteration of Zelda is what would later push me into drawing homebrew Dungeons and Dragons. The amount of art I did for every hyperfixation actually served as a portfolio of what I can do. Thus, people feel comfortable commissioning me because I have prior experience in drawing characters in a way they want. I wouldn't have gotten to where I am today without the initial push from like-minded individuals who love fandom. There are many ways to break into the art industry, but above all else is the ability to network and support other artists.
Required Programs
This course will use Procreate (mininmum) and VizRef (recommended).
Please purchase and install these program(s) for an optimized chapter experience.
*These programs and/or materials will not be provided with the chapter.
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