Course curriculum

  • 1

    Introduction

    • Why do illustrations matter?

    • Benefits of having illustrations

    • Types of illustrations

    • Illustrations checklist
  • 2

    Illustration ideas and inspiration

    • Make illustrations from analogies/metaphors

    • Use Google Images for inspiration

    • Take photos for reference

    • Create rough sketches

    • Download 'watermarked' versions first
  • 3

    Line art

    • Line art

    • Easy for artists to copy

    • It Stops Now! illustrations

    • Thrifty and Thriving illustrations

    • Quit! illustrations

    • Prepare Produce Present illustrations

    • Joint Pain Be Gone illustrations

    • Value You illustrations

    • The Baking Bard books cartoons

    • Banish Worry and Anxiety Forever illustrations

    • Fat, Frumpy and Over 50 by Jennifer Bushell

    • Painless Property Investing by Dave Thomas
  • 4

    Vector art

    • Line vs Vector art

    • Downloading vector images

    • Pixabay.com

    • The Naked Marketer illustrations
  • 5

    Photos

    • 13 bookcases photo

    • Why use stock photos

    • Use stock images to heighten interest

    • More ways to use stock photos

    • Adjust image contrast

    • Opt for high res photos

    • Healing Help from Honey Bees illustrations

    • Forgiveness with Pen and Paper photos

    • How to find stock photos
  • 6

    Infographics

    • Statistics + Venngage

    • Banish the Bottleneck by Simon Chaplin (illustrations)
  • 7

    AI-generated illustrations

    • No More Overwhelm illustrations
  • 8

    Laying out illustrations

    • Have consistency

    • Illustration orientation

    • Use of space

    • Black-and-white vs colour pricing

    • No fill-in colouring or shading

    • Scale down image size for Kindle

    • Get the source file for your illustrations

    • Illustrations placement
  • 9

    Outsourcing illustrations

    • Commissioning artists

    • Getting illustrations from Upwork

    • Consider using Gian

    • Why not use Musthafa

    • How to brief illustrators effectively

    • Attach the image style you want

    • Don't be afraid to send poor work back

    • Misconceptions about outsourcers

    • Get topnotch illustrators to bid lower

    • Images that 'stand' in their own space

    • How to brief an illustrator well

    • Get comic strips created via Fiverr
  • 10

    Questions

    • Mixing photos with drawings?

    • Drawing stick figures

    • Borrowing an existing art style

    • Copyright on images?

    • How many illustrations?

    • Laying out illustrations
  • 11

    More info

    • Same vs different characters in illustrations

    • Do not steal – you will get caught

    • Lessons from creating game-related products (Acorn: a world in pixels)

    • Get free icons/graphics online

    • Adding illustrations within storybooks

    • Using existing illustrations