Happy Post Thanksgiving! I hope everybody else ate as much pecan pie as I did, and had a relaxing long weekend! I've got some great news to share with you today! This week was the official release 0f my third class on Skillshare! This class is called Picture Books II: Illustrate a Story, and is the second in a two-part series on making your own picture book. You can watch the video above to see what the class is all about, or visit the class page to read more! I've already gotten some 2 reviews on the class, including this fantastic blurb from a student:

"This much-anticipated sequel to Picture Books I can't be missed! This is the most comprehensive set of instructions on book illustration that I have found anywhere on the internet. Christine patiently and thoughtfully takes you through each step of her process, and shows you how to analyze a manuscript, conceptualize your characters, refine the flow and rhythm of your storyboard, and figure out your overall colour palette before finalizing your images in Photoshop. After watching this class, I finally have a plan of attack for illustrating stories on my own. Thank you, Christine!!"

Whoo-hoo! I'm so happy that people are enjoying my classes! I really kicked it up a notch with this class, and focused on having live demonstration tutorial videos instead of all slideshow based videos. I also did the Project Assignment myself, and recorded my entire process from blank page to final colored illustration—and it's all in the videos! It was kind of scary to record my whole process live, but it turned out to be really exhilarating. This class has 22 video lessons that make up 4 units:

Picking Apart Picture Books: Learn about he elements of picture book illustrations including composition, color, white space, perspective, style, and typography, revealing spreads from some of her favorite picture books to show strong examples of each concept, as well as my process of breaking down a manuscript.

Developing Your Characters: Learn about my criteria for a successful character and my character development process, from experimenting, researching, refining, and creating a final character model sheet.

Drawing Your Storyboards: Learn how to storyboard a story, from types of illustrations in picture books, setting up your storyboard, breaking up the story, creating rhythm, pacing, and movement, and creating a tiny dummy.

 

Creating Your Final Illustrations: Learn how to set up your sketches, refine sketches, create final drawings, clean up your drawing in Photoshop, add typography, and digitally color in Photoshop.

 

Plus, as with the last class, there's a bonus locked layer of content explaining the step-by-step process of creating an illustrated dummy and how to submit it to publishers! This booklet is available to enrolled students as soon as they post their process work in the Project Gallery.

I'm so excited about this class, and I can't wait to see everyone's illustrated spreads! Students can post progress work in the project gallery and view and comment on each others work. I'll be looking at all the posts as well and giving my own thoughts about everyone's work! I hope you'll join me over at Skillshare!