SkillShare - Inky Illustrations: Combining Analogue and Digital Media

Only real, physical media gives us those imperfections we love so much — bleeding ink, wobbly lines, grainy textures, etc. — but how to bring them into our digital illustrations? If you've ever wanted to have a more hand-crafted, personal illustration style, this class will be perfect for you. Illustrator Tom Froese is known for his whimsical, energetic illustrations that combine digital techniqiues with physical textures, linework and hand lettering. Join him as he shows you, step by step, how to illustrate a postcard featuring your favourite tools of the trade — those things you love to use every day to get your job or hobby done. Along the way, you’ll pick up some very handy skills in sampling physical marks and textures digitally using a scanner and Photoshop, and of course, have an insider’s look at his personal process.

Whether we are designers, illustrators, or cake bakers, we all find ourselves needing to promote ourselves or describing to others what we do for a living. An illustrated postcard can help tell this story in a visually compelling way, which can go along way in promoting your business. In this assignment, we will be illustrating your favourite, go-to tools — whatever things you most enjoy using or having to do what you do! After scanning in your sketches, you will create your “base” illustrations in Photoshop, and then embellish them by creating and sampling lines, brush marks, squiggles, handwriting, and any other textures you wish. By the end of this project, you will have a beautiful, print- and digital-ready postcard that you can use to promote your business.

This assignment will include the following key stages
Choosing Five Objects
Sketching Your Postcard
Choosing Colours
Starting the Base Illustration
Making Physical Marks and Textures
Bringing the Physical Marks into Photoshop
Completing the Illustration