Deep Dive Workshop: Illustrating People in Picture Books

If you struggle to illustrate convincing human picture book characters, this workshop will give you confidence-boosting techniques and industry knowledge to create impressive portfolio characters in your own style.

As part of a friendly group, you'll spend a valuable afternoon focused on experimentation. You'll transform observational sketches of children and adults into charming, individual characters in three simple stages, while gaining feedback on your drawings as you go along. During the workshop, you will:

• Master the art of observational drawing from reference photographs
  
  
• Learn how to retain the energy in your drawings to create lively characters
  
  
• Explore body proportions and facial features from a range of ethnicities and ages 

• Practice helpful techniques to depict your character consistently, in different poses

• Review a range of popular contemporary children's book characters 

• Hear what types of characters agents and publishers are looking for in a picture book portfolio
  
  
• Find out how to present your illustrations to industry professionals

Who is the workshop for?

This workshop is for beginners, intermediate and advanced levels in picture book illustration. This workshop may also be useful for artists or illustrators in other fields.



Testimonials

“I really enjoyed this engaging and fun workshop. Claire covers a lot of ground in a few hours. Great practical tips and reminders for keeping energy and life in your characters. I think it is a really useful workshop for all levels of artist.” Abigail Hicks

"Another wonderful workshop providing simple techniques to improve the profile and movement of characters. Highly recommend!" Fiona Dillon

“I really enjoyed this workshop! I learned a bunch of great tips for bringing more life to my characters and would recommend this course for beginners and more advanced students who need brushing-up. Thank you!” Natalie Lundeen

Workshop Timings: 13.00 - 17.00 BST, UK.  There will be breaks throughout the class.




Materials needed:

A computer or such like for the Zoom meeting.
A few charcoal sticks that can be broken into smaller pieces
Putty rubber
Firm hold hairspray or fixative
Plenty of A4 or A3 White paper to draw on, smooth is best
Tracing paper
Scissors
Blu-Tack
Drawing Pencils
Fine liner or biro
Coloured pencils or brush pens
Your choice of dry colour medium such as markers, brush pens, pastels or coloured pencils.

£65 (Pay in three interest-free payments with Paypal)

Please note: 

Tickets are non-refundable. If the workshop is cancelled, a full refund will be given.

The session will be recorded, and a link and resources will be sent out after the event if you can't attend on the day. Please note that tutor feedback cannot be given unless you attend live on Zoom.