Stylized Vector Illustration with Color and Character

As a passionate illustrator, Owen Davey takes inspiration from the natural world to create bright and original work that is fun, unique, and memorable. Animals and other characters often act as the protagonists in his eye-catching illustrations, bringing together the cute, weird, and beautiful of the world to celebrate our uniqueness.

In this course, Owen shows you how to build a digital illustration from start to finish using Adobe Photoshop. From research and sketching to stylizing and sharing your work, learn the techniques you need to develop a singular illustration style that gets noticed. Plus, Owen shares his tricks and tips for navigating life as a freelance illustrator, including how he worked on projects with Google, Facebook, Sony, Lego, National Geographic, and more.

What will you learn in this online course?

Start the course by meeting your teacher, Owen Davey. Take a look at some of his past work with top clients and hear about how he got his start working as a freelance illustrator. Learn which artists influence his style and get a brief overview of the content that is covered in this course.

Begin preparing for your final project by exploring the materials and digital tools that Owen uses most. See how to find good, relevant reference material to base your drawings on and follow along as Owen explains how to build a color palette.

Now it’s time to get creative! Start exploring how to use compositional thumbnails to better define your ideas. Look at simplification and stylization, make some basic sketches, and bring them into Photoshop to arrange a digital composition. Discover the techniques Owen uses for creating vector artwork in Photoshop and see how to create, review, and refine your final piece.

Finally, take a look at how to integrate texture into your work and learn how to make your own. See the best ways to save your work depending on its final format. Finish the course by learning how to scale your work without losing quality and the best ways to share it on social media.

What is this course’s project?

Create a digital illustration with a curated color palette and characters designed by you.

Who is this online course for?

This course is for anyone who loves to illustrate, but especially intermediate students who are starting a career in illustration and need help streamlining their workflow.

Requirements and materials

To take this course, you should have some knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. A basic understanding of Adobe Illustrator is also nice to have.

Regarding materials, you will need a pencil, paper, a scanner or camera phone, and a computer with Photoshop and Illustrator installed.