Visual Development- Illustrate Imaginary Settings by Lara Pickle

If you ever wanted to design worlds for animation or games, this is a super practical starting point. Lara Pickle walks you through her whole process for building an imaginary room that actually feels lived-in and tells you who lives there.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• What visual development is and how it works in animation and games
• How to read a brief and turn it into ideas with research and mood boards
• How to explore compositions fast with thumbnails and sketches
• How to add personality with props, shapes, and details
• How to finish an environment with color, lighting, and texture in Photoshop
• How to present your work for portfolio and clients

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic drawing skills, familiarity with Photoshop interface
• Tools: Adobe Photoshop, drawing tablet recommended
• Hardware: Computer capable of running Photoshop smoothly

📝 Description

This course is all about process, not just pretty finals. Lara starts with what visual development actually means on a real production — how it’s different from illustration, and how your designs help directors, modelers, and animators stay on the same page.

From there you get a simple brief: illustrate a room for a character. You’ll learn how to pull it apart, do quick visual research, and build a mood board that actually helps instead of just looking nice. Lara shows how she collects shapes, colors, interiors, and little real-life details to feed ideas.

Then comes the fun part: lots of loose thumbnails. You’ll try out different camera angles, layouts, and silhouettes before you commit. Once you pick a winner, you tighten it up, layer in props and clutter, and think like a storyteller — what does this lamp, poster, or messy bed say about the character?

To finish, you’ll work through color scripts, lighting, and texture in Photoshop to set the tone. Warm and cozy? Spooky? Chaotic? Lara breaks down how she picks palettes and light setups that sell the mood, plus how to clean up and present the final piece like pro portfolio work.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Illustrators, designers, and animators who want to get into visual development for storytelling
• Anyone who loves drawing environments and wants a clear workflow from idea to final composition

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Larisa Bumb, aka Lara Pickle, is a visual development artist and illustrator known for her quirky, cartoon-style worlds. She’s worked on animated shows like Nickelodeon’s Middlemost Post and Netflix’s Dead End: Paranormal Park, doing environment design and story-driven art. She shares her process openly on social media and teaches with a straight-to-the-point, production-focused mindset.

🏁 Final Result

• A fully illustrated character room in Photoshop — from thumbnails to final color and light — ready to add to your portfolio as a visual development piece.