Illustration for Children's Book Covers
A course by Manuela Montoya Escobar , Illustrator and art director
Joined March 2016
Create a fantasy universe with mixed techniques by developing your own cover, from the initial brief and character design to the final digital edit
Create a fantasy universe with mixed techniques by developing your own cover, from the initial brief and character design to the final digital edit
Joined March 2016
Want to develop your imagination by creating new worlds? Children's books are the perfect opportunity to fill your illustrations with fantasy and tell stories through images. This is the belief of Manu Montoya, the illustrator and art director behind some of the main characters of stories published by Penguin Random House, Usborne, Little Brown, and more.
In this course, learn to create animal characters for children's books and bring an illustrated book cover to life using a mix of techniques. Discover the process behind the creation of a book cover experimenting with watercolor textures and washes, gouache, and colored pencils, from the interpretation of a brief and design of the characters to digital editing.
What will you learn in this online course?
16 lessons & 16 downloads
- 99% positive reviews (119)
- 2,642 students
- 16 lessons (3h 14m)
- 16 additional resources (6 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: Spanish
- Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
Recommended software for this course
Adobe Photoshop
ProcreateWhat is this course's project?
Create a children's book cover from the initial brief and character design to the final digital edit.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
Illustrators and anyone interested in creating their own animal character.
Requirements and materials
Some basic knowledge of drawing and Photoshop or Procreate are required for this course.
You also need a computer with one of the above editing softwares, a notebook, tracing paper, a pencil, an eraser, gouache, watercolors, paintbrushes, crayons, and colored pencils.
Reviews
A course by Manuela Montoya Escobar
Manuela Montoya is an illustrator and art director. He studied advertising graphic communication at the University of Medellín (Colombia), his hometown, and later, he studied a master's degree in art direction at the Elisava school in Barcelona.
Throughout her career in the industry, she has worked in advertising agencies such as DDB and McCANN Worldgroup as a designer and illustrator. He has also illustrated books for publishers such as SM, Cruïlla, Penguin Random House, Usborne and Little Brown, among others.
Content
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U1
Introduction
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Presentation
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Influences
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U2
Covers and creativity
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Children's book cover
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Brief and creativity
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Miniature Character Design 1
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Miniature Character Design 2
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U3
Cover creation
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First Cover Sketches
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Color tests 1
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Color tests 2
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Transfer techniques
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U4
Final art
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Color and final cover 1
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Color and final cover 2
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Digitization and corrections
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Title and choice of font 1
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Title and choice of font 2
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Tips for showing your work
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FP
Final project
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Illustration of covers for children's books
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What to expect from a Domestika course
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Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
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Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
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Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
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Certificates
PlusIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
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Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
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Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
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Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
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Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
Domestika's courses are online classes that provide you with the tools and skills you need to complete a specific project. Every step of the project combines video lessons with complementary instructional material, so you can learn by doing. Domestika's courses also allow you to share your own projects with the teacher and with other students, creating a dynamic course community.
All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.
The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.
You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.
Adobe Photoshop
Procreate
673485860
Great if there is a a English audio it would be better
taariq.adonis
PlusThis was super informative and inspiring. Would love to see more of Manu's teaching in her digital process because I work a lot in "Procreate" and only use my sketchbook for ideas and practice. Ive done personal book illustrations and my journey have just started.
kathydlt
This was a nice course and gave some good suggestions on creating the character and setting a scene for the book cover. However, I wish there was a little explanation as to the difference between book covers for different children's age groups and what makes a book cover stand out from others and more marketable). Also, Domestika, it'd be great if the course PDFs were available in English and other languages.
heiyang
I like the content of the teacher very much, and I hope the teacher can come up with a new course!
maja_andersen3
Great course. Nice to see inspiration and detailed painting approach. I would like to know what kind of illustration paper or board was used in the demo, but maybe the host said? I watched in Spanish, and I'm an English speaker.