I’ve been a member of Skillshare for a while but always as a lurker. I’ve never really submitted any projects because I always felt as though I didn’t have time or didn’t have the tools. But recently I found a class on how to incorporate textures into digital illustrations and because I’d been looking for something like this for so long I felt motivated to give it a go! The class was created by talented Canadian Illustrator/Designer Tom Froese and I can’t recommend it enough! Actual skills you take away aside, the class is structured very nicely and each step is laid out very clearly.
What I really loved about this class was it was a great excuse to get the inks out, create some textures and even experiment with a bit of type. It also made me realise that for a long time I’d been re-colouring things in Photoshop using a long-winded process, but from Tom I actually learnt a new technique that only takes a few seconds to do. There’s also something very nice about working with just three colours, it definitely allows you to get more creative with how you layer them up and vary your textures. I think that when people see minimalistic designs, it’s very easy to assume that not as much time has been spent on the work, but that’s definitely not the case. If anything it takes longer because there are less places to hide things. I think this is such a versatile technique and I’ve seen the fundamentals of it used in everything from children’s story books to food packaging, so I’m definitely looking forward to playing with it more in the future!
If you’re interested in having a go but are not sure where to start or what items to sketch I would definitely recommend heading to the Projects page. There are over 200 projects on there already so it’s a great place to look if you’re in need of a bit of inspiration before you get started!
If you’d like to see more of my latest illustration work click here.
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