Self Publish Greeting Cards

Learn the workflow and many Illustrator and Photoshop skills

What you'll learn

How to Create Greeting Cards

Learn Illustrator and Photoshop fundamentals while producing a saleable Child's Birthday Card

You will learn many tips and tricks to help improve your proficiency in the use of industry-standard software.

Learn about the greeting card industry in general.

Requirements

Some knowledge of Adobe CC is an asset.

You will use Illustrator and Photoshop. Some knowledge of these will be helpful but not necessary.

Having illustrated sketches of a cartoon style animal is an asset.

Description

Hey there! So you clicked on the link for this class because you have always been interested in designing cards, right? Any artist out there would be crazy to not be trying to sell greeting cards with their art on it. Why? Because it is so easy! You can create an income stream right away! This is my second class in this subject area! My first class, The Secrets of Self-Publishing Greeting cards, focused on the self-publishing aspect. This class will focus on the production of designs for the biggest market in greeting cards: everyday cards. Over 50% of the everyday cards sold are birthday cards, so that will be our focus, and specifically, children’s greeting cards.In this class I will share my step-by-step process for how to concept and produce a saleable greeting card design for a child’s birthday with a cute and simple animal motif. You will build skills in several areas including simple Illustrator art brush techniques and Photoshop compositing and finishing. The final step will be to create a smart object mock-up in Photoshop that you can use for presentation of your card for sale on online marketplaces or your web site, or to present to greeting card companies! I even have some cheats to get this done even faster! The project files will include a mock-up I produced and that you are welcome to use for free.In my course, you’ll gain know-how in four main concept areas: Simple Illustrator brush creation, Photoshop layers and layer effects, Photoshop brush use to create simple backgrounds and compositing, and finally, Photoshop mock-up creation with smart objects!Specifically, in this class, you will learn…• how to come up with your cute motifs• how to import the drawings and trace them in Illustrator• how to create one simple brush for the inking in Illustrator• how to make adjustments to this brush• how to convert Illustrator line art to shapes which can be filled with color• how to import your critter into Photoshop• how to work with layers and layer effects in Photoshop• how to create a simple background using Photoshop brushes• how to manipulate typography in Photoshop• how to finish your card and prepare it for final art• how to create and use the mock-upWhen you are done you can pat yourself on the back knowing you’ve taken the leap and started your journey to monetizing you art!You will get the bonus of…• over 30 minutes of direction from an instructor with tons of experience• a Photoshop template to use for preparing your art to upload• a Photoshop mockup complete with smart object, ready for your use!• tons of tips, tricks and insider secrets!At the end of this class, I encourage you to experiment with these methods, and then post to share your finished card as a project for this class. My vision is that we create a sharing space here where we can support each others’ learning by participating in discussions and critiques. I would be happy to advise and give you my knowledge through these discussions. If you are new at creating greeting cards, this is probably the some of the most pertinent insight necessary to launch your creative greeting card design endeavours. So what are you waiting for? Start this course NOW!

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 Lesson 1 Creating the Template

Lecture 3 Lesson 2 Preparing Your Document

Lecture 4 Lesson 3 Inking Your Critter

Lecture 5 Lesson 4 Preparing for Colorizing

Lecture 6 Lesson 5 Colorizing

Lecture 7 Lesson 7 Finishing Touches

Lecture 8 Lesson 6 Final Card in Photoshop

Lecture 9 Lesson 8 The Mockup

Graphic Designers hoping to create a passive income stream.,Beginner and intermediate designers will benefit the most.,Artists hoping to break into the greeting card market.