illustrator,qrbits Details
llustration: From Start to Finish
Follow a clear, structured workflow from a blank canvas to a fully rendered illustration. This section breaks down the full process step by step, giving you practical tools to move past common sticking points and confidently bring illustrations to completion.
Spatial Mastery
Form and perspective don’t have to feel intimidating or dry. By understanding how to draw and think in 3D space, you’ll learn to place characters and objects more convincingly within a scene—unlocking greater freedom, control, and confidence in your work.
Simplification & Restraint
An artist’s job isn’t just to render reality, but to interpret it. Learn how to balance technical fundamentals with intentional simplification, making thoughtful decisions about what to include, what to reduce, and how to shape reality through your own visual lens.
Drawing Humans
To place characters convincingly in space, you need to understand how they’re built. This section focuses on human structure, natural posing, and how figures interact with their surroundings—helping your characters feel grounded and believable within a scene.
Self-Critique as a Tool for Growth
Through critiques of the artist’s own early works, you’ll see how skills develop over time and how decisions translate into results. You’ll be encouraged to apply the same critical approach to your own work, making progress and improvement more visible and measurable.
Creating Your Own References
When online references fall short, learning to create your own becomes essential. Explore how costuming, props, photo manipulation, and custom reference-building can support stronger, more original illustrations—so your work isn’t limited to the same images everyone else is using.
- Section 01
Intro
01. Meet Your Instructor & Class Outline- Meet your instructor - Learn about the class objectives, overview, and learning outcomes - Who is this class suitable for? - What programs and tools I use
- Section 02
Fundamentals 1: Form, Volume, and Perspective
02. Form Drawing Basics- Defining a form - How to draw natural forms in perspective - What breaks a form - Exercise 1 demo: draw through 3 objects by breaking them down into basic forms - Exercise 2 demo: draw an object from 5 different angles - Exercise 3 demo: draw a collection of objects from 3 different angles
03. Volume & Construction Basics- Breaking complex forms into simple shapes - Adding and subtracting basic forms - Layers and material components of objects - Exercise demo: draw 3 objects deconstructed
04. Perspective Basics- Drawing organic and natural perspective - 1, 2, and 3-point perspective explanation - Exercise 1 demo: break down a photo’s vanishing points and perspective lines, and draw your own scene on top
05. Fixing Student Art with Broken Form Drawing- Common mistakes I made as a beginner - Why the drawings are broken, and how to fix them
- Section 03
Fundamentals 2: Character Drawing Basics
06. Basic Human Proportion & Major Landmarks- Standard adult human proportions - Key building blocks of a figure: head, spine, collarbones, hips, limbs, and joints - Exercise demo: practice sketching various gestures with the components - Exercise demo: break down pose photos using the components
07. Weight, Force, & Balance in a Figure- Drawing characters with mass and weight - Using straights, curves, and joints to create flow - Exercise demo: break down 5 pose photos by analyzing the energy and weight flow - Exercise demo: sketch a figure sitting on a soft couch vs. a hard bench
08. Drawing the Figure as a 3D Form- Translating proportions into form breakdowns - Maintaining volume in foreshortened angles - Maintaining gesture in a 3D breakdown - Exercise demo: break down 10 photos of a person in basic forms: 5 static, 5 dynamic
09. Basic Skeletal and Muscular Anatomy- Key areas to remember in anatomy - Drawing from the inside out - How and why your anatomy looks broken - Bones vs. tendons vs. muscles - Exercise demo: pick one area of the body to practice (10 poses × 60 sec practice drills)
10. Hair, Clothes, and Props: Structural Integrity- Common hair and clothing mistakes - Understanding the logic behind clothing and hair, and how they move - How the body interacts with external objects - Exercise 1 demo: draw the same clothing item in different states (zipped, open, on the ground, in the wind, etc.) - Exercise 2 demo: draw the same hair in different states (bedhead, tied up, windswept, etc.)
11. Test Your Knowledge: Character Drawing Exercise- Find a full-body photo for reference - Break it down into gesture, form, anatomy, and then clothing - Draw the character from a different angle or pose
- Section 04
Illustration 1: Story, Composition, and Thumbnailing
12. Composition Basics- What makes a bad vs. good composition? - How to lead the eye: color, value, eye line, repetition, leading lines, fore/mid/background - Creating focus and contrast - Exercise 1 demo: analyze compositions of 15 different artworks - Exercise 2 demo: sketch 30 compositions with varying sizes of a circle - Exercise 3 demo: sketch 3 compositions each of the 5 methods discussed
13. Camera Placement & Framing- Drawing references from different angles - Creating tension and intrigue in composition - Exercise demo: find a location reference and sketch 5 different thumbnails from different angles to evoke different stories with composition
14. What Story Do You Want to Tell?- Brainstorming ideas: mind maps, writing, etc. - Sharing my experience with style, voice, and meaning - Exercise 1 demo: analyze themes of your past work - Exercise 2 demo: analyze themes of your favorite artists’ or media’s work
15. Brainstorming and Thumbnailing a New Illustration (Working on Final Product)- Demo of my thumbnail process for a new original illustration - Analyzing my past composition and story mistakes
- Section 05
Illustration 2: Sketching, Line Art, and Shape Design
16. Sketching & Line Quality- Hand-eye coordination: speed and position control - The function of sketches vs. lines - Analyzing my past line quality issues - Exercise demo: fill 2 full pages with draftsmanship exercises
17. What Makes Readable Line Art?- How lines create shape and form - How lines communicate gesture, texture, and material - Exercise demo: sketch and line 5 objects with different textures, forms, and materials
18. Visual Recall, Making and Using Reference- What does that object actually look like? Do you remember? - How our mind creates gaps in visual knowledge and how to fill them - Exercise demo: sketch and line 5 objects, from simple to complex, from reference, then from memory
19. Sketching and Line Art for a New Illustration (Working on Final Product)- Demo of my sketching and line art process on an illustration
- Section 06
Illustration 3: Color, Light, and Shadow
20. Color Is About Restriction- What causes muddy colors - Thinking in hue, saturation, value - Working from low to high contrast - How to restrict and interpret HSV proportions in an image - Exercise 1 demo: 1 image, 3 color studies restricted so you can only use the full range of either hue, saturation, or value - Exercise 2 demo: analyze an image’s color structure, condense if necessary, and create a new color composition with the palette
21. How Light Affects Color- What causes flat or illogical shading - Local color vs. perceived color - Types of shadow and light - Environmental nuances - Exercise demo: create a locally colored sketch of a character, and apply at least 4 different environmental lighting situations
22. Digital Coloring Methods- Using layer modes, masks, and adjustment layers - Common mistakes in digital coloring processes
23. Coloring, Lighting, and Finishing a New Illustration (Working on Final Product)- Applying flat colors and lighting to the illustration
- Section 07
Illustration 4: Painting, Rendering, and Detail
24. Painting Textures and Materials- How material affects light and color - Why everything you paint looks plastic-y or dough-y - Exercise demo: render a cube in 5 different natural and artificial materials
25. Painting Repetitive and Rhythmic Areas- Creating complexity and variety - Filling dead space or areas of rest with interest - Exercise demo: create 3 mini paintings filled with repetitive elements
26. Edges and Shape Design- When to use hard vs. soft edges, and how they work - Simplifying the overall readability of a piece - Exercise demo: paint a study of a simple scene with your perceived edges, then again focused on a different area
27. Finalizing a Painting (Working on Final Product)- Deciding when a piece is done - Adjustment layers and final finishing steps
- Section 08
Building a Custom Art Career
28. How to Figure Out What You Actually Want to Do- What value you offer as a creative - My method for analyzing artists and their careers - Exercise: analyze art careers you admire, quantify how they got there, and note what you like about it (template provided)
29. Experience & Execution Is the Only True Teacher- You need to finish things - Why it doesn't matter what you choose, only that you do choose - The importance of failing and pivoting - My experiences and what they taught me
30. Final Words- Class wrap-up - Next steps for you moving forward
This course will use Clip Studio Paint and Adobe Photoshop 2026.
However, you may follow along using Procreate or any other digital program, as most techniques covered in this class are transferable across programs.
Please purchase and install these program(s) for an optimized chapter experience.
*These programs and/or materials will not be provided with the chapter.
