Creating Digital Collages for Composition

Digital collages will help you use your reference photos more effectively in your paintings. You’ll be able to create more ambitious compositions, and test of a ton of options quickly, and thereby get more diverse layouts. Demo by Art Prof Clara Lieu. Video Walkthrough As a free educational source, Art Prof uses Amazon affiliate links […]

Fan Art Draw Along

See how you can design fan art that will stand out from the crowd. Techniques demonstrated will be how to merge text and images as well as how to achieve your own personal interpretation while also capturing the subject’s character and personality. Demo by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Jordan McCracken-Foster. Video Walkthrough Prof Lieu’s Tips […]

Digital Tool Recommendations

Table of Contents video Photography Graphic Design / Vector Animation Digital Painting After Effects After Effects “I use After Effects for animations that are too long or complicated to be done in Photoshop. I would make assets like characters and backgrounds in Photoshop and then import them into After Effects. The application has a lot […]

How to Draw Baby Hands in Soft Pastel & Photoshop

See a drawing demo on how to draw baby hands. They are tricky to draw. Their anatomy is totally different from an adult’s hand! Tips for how to capture the volume and form of a baby hand, as well as how to articulate the lighting on the hand are explained. Demo by Art Prof Clara […]

Photoshop: Caterpillar Illustration

See how to create an original illustration from the initial brainstorming stages all the way to the completed digital painting in Photoshop. This video discusses basic techniques in Photoshop for drawing thumbnail sketches, blocking in colors, shading, creating a convincing sense of light and shadow, and details. Also included is a demonstration of how to […]

Brainstorming & Sketching a Character Design in Photoshop

See a demo of sketching an original character design. It starts with pencil sketches to brainstorm, the inking process with a dip pen with India ink, and Photoshop to add color. Topics include discussing the importance of writing your own original stories in order to inspire original character designs. See how the personality and narrative […]

How to Draw Profile Portraits in Charcoal & Photoshop

See a drawing demo on how to draw a portrait in profile. Explained are tips for how to create a convincing portrayal of a profile, including what facial structures are important to emphasize. Techniques for rendering light and shadow to create a convincing portrait are discussed as well. Demo by Art Prof Clara Lieu and […]

Comics Prompt: Draw an Instructional Comic

See a demo of a comics prompt: create an instructional comic that uses no symbols from a keyboard. Pick a snack that you like to prepare, and show in your comic instructions for how to create that snack. Several comics techniques such as point of view, the “foot rule,” panels, speech bubbles, spreads, and pages […]

How to Draw Clothing: Pipe Folds

This demo is a drawing demo on how to draw clothing, starting out with a comprehensive explanation of the different fold types. These fold types include: pipe fold, moving fold, half lock fold, dead fold, diaper fold, zig zag fold, and spiral fold. The drawing demo shows Procreate and colored pencil techniques on how to […]

Procreate: Digital Mastercopies

Copying a digital painting is a great exercise to develop your digital painting skills and analyze the techniques used in great paintings. In this video we demonstrates how to make a mastercopy in Procreate. This video shows the step by step process how start one, while also prodiving reasons for what you can learn and […]

Adobe Fresco & Brush Pens: Drawing an Oil Refinery

This video demonstrates techniques for drawing man made structures, focusing on an oil refinery. Media used in this tutorial are Adobe Fresco and brush pens with a water brush. Explored in the video is how to tackle large, complex structures in a drawing, what to focus on, and how to compose the piece in a […]

Drawing Fish in Adobe Fresco

See how to use digital painting techniques in Adobe Fresco to draw fish! This video starts with basics of drawing with Adobe Fresco covering layers, tools, and various effects that are possible with the program. More techniques such as how to navigate layers and create textures are also shown. Demo led by Art Prof Clara Lieu and […]

Digital Basics TRACK

This Digital Basics Track will help develop your skills in digital drawing and painting techniques. For those of you who have experience with digital art, this track can be really useful to refresh and enhance the skills you already have. Ongoing AssignmentLesson 1 • Lesson 2 • Lesson 3Lesson 4 • Lesson 5 • Lesson […]

Digital Basics TRACK: Lesson 6, 5 Fish Composition

Prompt Create a composition that includes at least 5 fish. Use any format, any style, as long as there are a minimum of 5 fish in the image, anything goes! The fish do not have to be ones that exists in real life, they can be imaginary if you like. Consider the mood you want […]

Digital Basics TRACK: Lesson 4, Oil Refinery

Prompt Create a painting using our reference photos of an oil refinery. Aim to balance between showing a convincing sense of structure with a broad range of textures in the forms and surfaces. Examples @pandapufkin, Steen, Trent Tips Blocking patches of color in the negative space around the oil refinery can often times be faster than […]

Digital Basics TRACK: Lesson 5, Fantasy Landscapes

Prompt Use at least 3 reference photos to invent a fantasy landscape. Create depth in the landscape by using a diverse range of scales, atmospheric perspective, and composition. Examples @pandapufkin, Steen, Trent Reference images You can shoot your own photos, find photos online, and use our free reference photo collection. Tips Experiment with using reference […]

Character Design in Procreate: Silhouettes

Watch a fun character design prompt: use the silhouette of any object to start a character design. This video explains how to go about developing a character, addressing their personality traits and how to incorporate those traits into the character design. Demo by Teaching Artist Cat Huang and Guest Teaching Artist Julie Benbassat. Examples Artworks by @pandapufkin, Steen, @trenter_the_dragon Video […]

Digital Painting: Texture Cubes

Enhance your digital painting skills with this prompt, which asks you to paint a broad range of textures, as three-dimensional cubes in digital media. Creating a convincing sense of texture in your digital art will greatly impact your range and visual vocabulary as an artist. Discussion led by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Jordan McCracken-Foster. Examples Artworks by @pandapufkin, […]

Digital Basics TRACK: Lesson 3, Texture Cubes

Prompt Create 8 cubes that each have the texture of a real life object. Try to choose as many different textures and colors as you can! Examples @pandapufkin, Steen, Trent Texture Ideas candy, food, glass, bread, meat, minerals, fabric, crystals, metal, wood, translucent objects, fur, plastics, rocks, insects, fantasy textures: fairy dust, Kryptonite, etc. Reference images […]

Digital Basics TRACK: Lesson 1

Prompt Create a copy of a digital artwork. We recommend choosing a digital artwork that is very different from how you usually use digital media so you can expand on your skills. Recommended digital artworks Use any digital artwork of your choice, or pick from these images we compiled. Tips The accuracy of your mastercopy […]

Fantasy Landscapes in Procreate

See how you can create a fantasy landscape in Procreate, using a broad range of reference photos. You can dramatically manipulate and transform your reference photos to blend them together into an unusual landscape. Use of simple strategies like atmospheric perspective, texture, foreground, middle ground, and background to create a convincing landscape. Demo by Teaching Artists Cat Huang and Deepti Menon. Video […]

Trying Procreate for the First Time

Watch Prof Lieu fall on her face trying digital art for the first time in Procreate. Will decades of experience with traditional media make any difference here??? (answer: nope, especially when it comes to deleting layers…) Thankfully Jordan McCracken-Foster patiently held her hand through every step. Video Walkthrough Software Reference Photos As a free educational […]

Gesture Drawing of Animals: Colored Pencil & Photoshop

This video shows how to do quick gesture drawings of animals, using Eadweard Muybridge’s book, Animals in Motion, as a reference to show believable action and movement. Technique explored in this video are how to capture the most important essentials of the animal as quickly as possible, while creating a compelling sense of structure and […]

Drawing Celebs as Monsters in Oil Pastel & Procreate

Draw a celebrity and transform them into a monster! Techniques in Procreate and oil pastel + colored pencil are shown here as a means to illustrating these monster portraits, and approaches to distortion, drawing a range of textures and forms are explained. Demo led by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Deepti Menon. Video […]

Procreate: Color Palettes for Characters

This video demonstrates how to create several different color palettes for one character design. Explained is how color can be used to establish a specific mood or personality in a character and how to group colors to work effectively with each other. Demo led by Teaching Artists Cat Huang and Jordan McCracken-Foster.  Video Walkthrough Art […]

Character Design: Facial Expressions in Procreate

Drawing a wide range of facial expressions is a great skill for character design! In this drawing tutorial, prompts for different facial expressions are provided: confused, furious, disgusted, heartbroken, and flirty. This video explores different ways of achieving a expression with Procreate. Demo led by Teaching Artists Deepti Menon and Jordan McCracken-Foster. Video Walkthrough Prof […]