DC2 – Digital Illustration by Mauricio Abril

This 10-week course is a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of making a compelling digital illustration. Forget the fluff; Mauricio Abril focuses on the hard skills that actually move the needle: value structure, composition, and a rock-solid Photoshop workflow. You’ll work from still lifes and live models, learning how to build a painting from the ground up and polish it to a professional finish. It’s built for intermediate artists who are ready to stop guessing and start controlling their images.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Build strong tonal relationships (value) to create depth and mood.
• Master composition techniques to guide the viewer’s eye.
• Develop a professional digital painting pipeline in Photoshop.
• Apply principles of visual storytelling to your illustrations.
• Polish and finalize artwork to a portfolio-ready standard.

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Solid understanding of drawing fundamentals and basic familiarity with Photoshop.
• Tools: Drawing tablet (e.g., Wacom, Huion).
• Hardware: Computer capable of running Photoshop smoothly.

📝 Description

This isn’t a “paint along” class. Mauricio Abril’s DC2 is a rigorous, critique-heavy program designed to break bad habits and build a professional-grade pipeline. The core of the course is learning to think like an illustrator. You’ll start by deconstructing value—the single most important tool for creating believable form and atmosphere. From there, you’ll tackle composition, learning how to arrange shapes and values to tell a story and control where the viewer looks.

The curriculum is built around weekly assignments that push you to apply these principles from still life and live model setups. Mauricio’s feedback is legendary for being direct, actionable, and focused on the “why” behind every mark. You’ll spend a significant amount of time in Photoshop, mastering layer management, blending modes, and non-destructive techniques that allow for flexibility and experimentation. By the end, you won’t just have a finished piece; you’ll have a repeatable process for creating strong, narrative-driven illustrations.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Intermediate digital artists who feel stuck and want to improve their painting quality.
• Concept artists and illustrators looking to strengthen their fundamentals in value and composition.
• Anyone who wants to learn a professional, non-destructive workflow in Photoshop.

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Mauricio Abril is a freelance concept designer and illustrator with a killer resume. He’s worked with Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Interactive, Ubisoft, and Universal, contributing to theme park attractions, video games, and film. His professional experience gives him a no-nonsense, industry-focused perspective. He doesn’t just teach theory; he teaches the practical, efficient methods used to deliver high-quality art under real deadlines.

🏁 Final Result

• A polished, portfolio-ready digital illustration that demonstrates strong value control, composition, and storytelling.
• A refined understanding of a professional digital painting pipeline.
• A series of studies and exercises that serve as a reference for future work.

📢 Guys, this is a Group Buy campaign, check the GBC forum thread to get access

You can find the course preview in the download section below.