IllustrationClass.com

I’ve been asked many questions over the years regarding my creative process, art style and other various sundry opinions about illustration and design in general. Below are several PDF downloads covering several of these topics. You can use them as student handouts or just download them and read them for your own informational enjoyment.

Illustrative Designer Creative Process
I view illustration and design as equal partners in the creative process. This helpful resource will walk you through the systematic approach I take on all my projects for both design and illustration. Read it, learn it and then adapt your own methods.

File Size: 56 KB

Why Doodle?
How do you become a better artist? How do you improve your raw drawing skills? Simple, just start doodling. You don’t have to become a full blown illustrator. But if you do a little each day over a period of time you’ll become creatively stronger and that will help your design ideas and fleshing out concepts. This simple download will spell out the basics to get you started.

File Size: 36 KB

Collecting and Using Textures in Your Artwork.
If there is one aspect to design that is timeless, it is textures. A real-world texture looks just as authentic now as it will in 100 years. That’s because it’s not created by a person sitting at a computer. Textures are natural, or are the by-product of natural elements interacting with man-made edifices and structures.

Creatives can take these authentic, raw patterns, and apply them to design and illustration. Using textures, you can break free from the clean and crisp look of computer-driven art, and enter a realm of delectable decay and depth.

This download contains the preface and texture exploring chapter from my design book ‘Crumble. Crackle. Burn’ and includes ‘10′ FREE sample textures in the same format as those offered with the book. Because the textures are hi-res this download is extremely large.

File Size: 125 MB

The Themes We Love.
Why do creative types tend to gravitate towards specific themes? Have you noticed it? I have and this article I wrote for Computer Arts Magazine out of the UK shares what I believe are the top ten favorite themes of illustrators.

Whether you ultimately agree or disagree with my assessment it’s a fun read.

File Size: 216 KB

Back-To-Basics Design.
This was a feature article for HOW Design Magazine covering my “Illustrative Design Methods.” I was interviewed by Lisa Baggerman Hasen who wrote the article.

The project showcased in this article will eventually be available as it’s own tutorial download in the near future. This is a well written insightful article that will help you approach your own projects with a frame work for success.

File Size: 432 KB

How Limitations Influence Creativity
History itself is replete with examples of human ingenuity showcasing it’s creativity when faced with restrictive resources. So much so that a popular saying has survived a millennium and is still in use today to describe such situations. You have probably heard it.

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

This article written for SessionsDesign “NotesOnDesign” Blog explains how you can leverage limitations to your creative advantage.

File Size: 88 KB

Process Makes Perfect!
Learn the basics of accomplishing your creative goals by following a solid, systematic creative process. This handy PDF gives you a glimpse into what it takes to create unique and effective illustrative design on a consistent basis.

This project was fully documented in a previous tutorial post on this site called “Piranha’s Revenge – Illustrative Logo.”

File Size: 968 KB

I am always working on new tutorials and content for IllustrationClass.com. Most of these new resources will come about from the ‘Digital Illustration’ class I teach at the local college others will be gleaned from documenting my own personal projects done through my own business ‘Glitschka Studios’.

Below is a brief list and description of several now in the hopper. I work on these as time permits so I cannot tell you when exactly they’ll come out but if you join IllustrationClass.com you’ll be able to find out when new tutorials are posted.

In total I have around 50 tutorials currently documented or that I’m working on and over time I’ll post them. Some times I delay in doing so in order to gather more information and or analyze the effectiveness of the projects work itself so I can add that qualified information into the tutorial as well.

At the moment I only have one translator who donates his time to translate my notes from english into spanish. This tends to hold up how often I post as well. If you know someone who is familiar with this industry and wouldn’t mind donating their time to translate my notes please let me know.

I can’t afford to pay them but I’d be glad to share with them some FREE creative resources as a way to say thanks.

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