Dynamic Animal Illustration for Children’s Stories

Discover the fundamentals of animal anatomy, posing, and stylization to create anthropomorphic characters that will delight young readers. If you’re interested in illustrating for children’s stories, you have the chance to draw playful and evocative characters that bring joy to children. Illustrator Julie Mellan, who has worked on children’s books published by Penguin Random House, Clavis, and Fleurus, turned her childhood love for drawing into a fulfilling career.

In this course, Julie shares her expertise on how to create lively character illustrations. Learn how to use animal anatomy, observation skills, and other drawing techniques to create expressive anthropomorphic characters that will capture the imagination of young readers. Bring joy to children through your character illustrations.

Julie’s second Domestika course, this program builds on the techniques taught in her first course, Animal Characters in Watercolor for Children’s Books. In that course, she teaches how to use watercolor to breathe life into animal characters.

What will you learn in this online course?

Meet Julie Mellan, the illustrator behind this course, as she shares her creative journey and the artists and influences that inspire her work.

Get started by familiarizing yourself with the necessary materials, from sketchbooks to pencils, and learn about the concept of an action line and how it can express your character’s mood. Next, learn how to divide your character into three parts and draw them in perspective using a horizon line and vanishing points.

Explore the fundamentals of animal anatomy and the importance of observation in creating accurate poses and features. Discover how to define your character’s features and exaggerate them to give your illustrations a cartoon-like quality.

Now it’s time to begin your final drawing! Start by doodling your character in various poses, then choose your favorite and develop it into a sketch. Enhance your drawing by focusing on structure, stability, and volume, and add details like muscles to create a more realistic character. Finally, add finishing touches like lighting and shadows to complete your illustration.

To wrap up the course, Julie will guide you through the process of drawing your character in a way that makes it appear human. With the knowledge and skills you’ve gained throughout the course, you’ll be able to create dynamic and expressive anthropomorphic characters that will bring joy to young readers.

What will be the project for this course?

The project for this course will be to create a dynamic and expressive illustration of an animal of your choice for a children’s story.

Who is this online course suitable for?

This course is ideal for anyone who wishes to learn how to illustrate dynamic characters for children’s stories, regardless of their prior experience.

What are the requirements and materials needed?

No previous experience is necessary to take this course. To complete the course, you will need paper, a pencil, an eraser, and some visual references to draw inspiration from.