Illustrating a Story: Techniques For Turning Words into Pictures

In this class we will be discussing the process I go through when I sit down to illustrate a story and looking at techniques for turning words into pictures. I will be talking about what parts of the story to choose to illustrate, how I design the character from written words to an illustrated design. What clothes the characters in the story would wear, what props help to tell the story of the characters, how to use colour to portray the emotion of the scene.

What will you learn

I will be walking you through my process of illustrating a story:

• What to think about when you are choosing the scenes to illustrate from a story.
• How to design a character from written words to a visual drawing.
• Why props are important in an illustration.
• How colours effect an illustration
• How to capture emotions in an illustration.
• What to think about when laying out an illustration.

I’ve also included two printable work pages that you can use in this class. One for laying out your colour palette for your own illustration and the second for sketching out your thumbnails for your final illustration. There is also an exclusive printable copy of Ida Williams" Writer's Block in1895" for you to read if you would like to know more about the story I will be illustrating in this class.

Materials

You can use any mediums you are comfortable with when you come to draw and design your final illustrations.

If you are interested in getting the book I used in this class you can find it here color feast vol 1

Your final project for this class will be to paint a selection or one finished illustration using the techniques taught in the class.   

Included uou will find some three printables:

Colour swatch printable

Thumbnail sketch printable 

A digital copy of Writer's Block in 1895 by Ida Williams