Wildlife Illustration for Children’s Books by Dieter Braun

Learn how to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create fun illustrations of animals and wildlife. This course, taught by illustrator and author Dieter Braun, explores the relationship between geometry and nature in digital art. With his guidance, you’ll create vibrant digital drawings that showcase the beauty of the natural world and bring joy to children’s books. Discover how to add texture and color to your sketches and develop a captivating storybook that celebrates the wonders of our planet.

To start off, you’ll have the opportunity to get to know Dieter, a seasoned illustrator and children’s book author, and learn about his passion for illustration and sources of inspiration. From there, you’ll delve into the process of creating a double-page spread for a children’s book, exploring various tools and techniques for illustration. You’ll also scour the internet for references on wildlife illustration, while familiarizing yourself with book formats, color palettes, and textures.

You’ll learn how to use Adobe Illustrator to create geometric shapes that form a tiger’s eye and then sketch out a rough draft of your double-page spread. Next, you’ll discover how to turn your sketches into vector drawings using Adobe Illustrator and add texture and gradient effects in Photoshop to give your illustrations an organic feel that brings them to life. Finally, you’ll bring all the elements together to create your double-page spread.

But the adventure doesn’t stop there. Dieter will give you an overview of how to create the rest of the book, as well as some valuable tips for getting it published. Drawing on his experience in the publishing industry, he’ll provide insights on how to navigate the process and offer advice to help you achieve your goals.

The project for this online course is to create a double-page spread for a children’s book, featuring an illustration of a wild animal in the foreground and a natural landscape background.

This course is suitable for anyone who is interested in illustration or wants to learn how to create a children’s book. No prior experience is required to enroll in this course.

You have the flexibility to choose between digital and analog methods for creating your artwork. You can use Procreate or Illustrator to create digital sketches, or you can draw your sketches by hand. However, you will need graphics editing software such as Illustrator for creating vectors, and software such as Photoshop for adding gradients and textures.