Micro-course in Picture-book Illustration

The secret to refreshing, rejuvenating & revamping the impact of your picture-book illustrations is to be found in what lies beneath.

(Re)thinking Like an Illustrator is a micro-course designed to:

  • offer a novel approach to developing visual narrative that will help you cultivate a ‘new you’, no matter what your style or experience

  • explain the underlying fundamentals for thinking like an illustrator of whom publishers take notice

  • outline the science that underpins effective illustration, without getting too science-y

  • examine what is unique about picture-book illustrators, and why they need to think differently from other artists and narrative illustrators

  • explore the differences between a great picture and a great illustration

 

Details

Price: USD$67

Duration: self-paced

Availability: lifetime

Format: online micro-course

Extras:

  • cheat-sheet

  • glossary of terms

  • cover template

  • double-spread template

  • storyboard templates (for 24 and 32-page picture-books)

What you will learn:

  • NARRATIVE - you will understand how a picture-book illustration captures a fluid moment in an ongoing emotional journey

  • AESTHETICS - You will understand how to manipulate aesthetic principles in specific ways to achieve specific ends unique to the art form.

  • HANDS ON - you will apply what you have learned to transform a famous painting into an effective illustration

Limited Time

PREMIUM ILLUSTRATION COURSE #1

September 2023 Intake

Are you wondering why publishers never respond to your portfolio submissions, let alone sign you up?

Are you struggling to even get a portfolio together?

Or are you grappling with a tired or generic style you can’t escape?

Pitch-perfect Portfolio is designed to help make those problems go away.

This five-part course is designed for building an irresistible picture-book portfolio, based on a combination of contemporary science, old-fashioned formal aesthetics and millennia-old narrative know-how.

How does Pitch-perfect Portfolio do this?

  1. Pitch-perfect Portfolio revolutionises your illustration style by stripping it back to basics and starting from scratch . . . painlessly!

  2. It guides you step-by-step through the process of developing a storyboard - that most vital (and oft neglected) component of a portfolio.

  3. It deepens your understanding of the narrative elements of illustration in ways no other picture-book course does.

  4. It extends your visual vocabulary to enable you to tell a broad range of stories using just a handful of core principles - just like magic, except it isn’t.

  5. Most importantly, Pitch-perfect Portfolio shows you how to bring true, deep, impactful and memorable emotion into your illustrations . . . without ever resorting to cliche.

Every lesson is based on the science of visual perception.

This science focuses on the importance of appealing to the preconscious responses of your viewers.

There are multiple exercises, each digging deeper into the skills you need to appeal to your audiences on the most profound emotional levels.

The lessons come with downloadable templates, cheat sheets and checklists.

The content combines theory with practical exercises and is designed as a basis for building your portfolio.

Each module builds on and incorporates learnings from the previous lessons, so that by the end of the course you are familiar with and proficient in a broad range of visual-narrative techniques.

Details

Price: AU$697 single payment, 4 x AU$175 monthly instalments

Duration: self-paced

Availability: lifetime

Format: online masterclass-course

Extras:

  • 50 Essential Habit-busters for Illustrators (10 habit-busters per module)

  • downloadable exercise sheets

  • downloadable worksheets

  • picture-book templates

  • videos

  • 6 months of fortnightly live Q&A with Margrete

What you will learn:

The most important thing you will learn in this course is that there is more to illustration than meets the casual eye.

  • HORIZONS - how proportions of space contribute to the narrative impact of illustration

  • TONAL VALUE - how brightness and shadow underpin all emotional response to images

  • MASSES AND VOIDS - how objects and empty space can manipulate viewer response to a narrative

  • GESTURE & EMOTION - how the brain responds to facial and bodily gestures, and how to harness the power of subtlety

  • NARRATIVE ARC - how the shapes of stories mirror our lived experience of life, and how to enhance the response of surprise and delight in your readers