Narrative Illustration for Children: Find your Style
A course by Julia Spiers , Graphic Designer and Illustrator
Craft your unique graphic universe. Learn traditional tools and create narrative illustrations for children.
Discover the art of children's illustration through mixed media techniques and develop your unique style through experimentation. Learn to create captivating narrative illustration series using gouache, Japanese watercolors, and a variety of creative tools. Each step will guide you to mastering the details, color palettes, and compositions that will capture children's imaginations. Draw inspiration from artworks, films, and personal memories to fuel your creativity and create worlds where reality and imagination coexist harmoniously.
Enrich your color palette to evoke emotions, seasons, and specific atmospheres. Benefit from practical advice on composition and sketching to bring your ideas to life. Explore digital retouching techniques to refine your artwork, and finally, discover how to present your projects to publishers to bring your artistic vision to life. Whether you're a beginner or experienced, this artistic adventure will allow you to tell unique visual stories and develop a personal artistic signature.
What will you learn in this online course?
15 lessons & 19 downloads
- 100% positive reviews (4)
- 254 students
- 15 lessons (2h 23m)
- 19 additional resources (7 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: French, German, English, Spanish (Latam), Indonesian, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish
- Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch · Turkish · Romanian · Indonesian
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
What is this course's project?
Students will create a series of three narrative illustrations for children, developing a personal graphic style through experimental exercises. They will learn to tell stories visually with unique details, colors, and compositions, reflecting their individual vision.
Who is this online course for?
This course is for children's illustration enthusiasts, whether beginners or experienced, who want to explore their creativity. It is also suitable for artists looking for new mixed media techniques and for those who enjoy playful and original visual storytelling.
Requirements and materials
No advanced knowledge is required, but basic drawing skills are helpful. Materials: gouache, watercolors, brushes, watercolor paper, eraser, pencil, palette, light table, printer, Photoshop. Experimental materials: India ink, pastels, pens, colored paper.
Reviews
Julia Spiers
A course by Julia Spiers
Julia Spiers is a Franco-Scottish illustrator based in Paris, specializing in creating graphic worlds that blend storytelling, play, and editorial objects. A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Print Image, her work combines traditional techniques with hybrid formats such as artist books, pop-ups, and combinatorial narratives, exploring emotion, imagination, and curiosity.
Her style is characterized by delicate lines, rounded shapes, and soft colors, exploring themes such as childhood, nature, dreams, and the passage of time. In her courses, Julia guides students in developing personal projects full of creativity, fostering visual experimentation, narrative, and learning through play and observation.
Content
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U1
Introduction
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Presentation
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My sources of inspiration
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U2
Exploring the medium
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The equipment
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Find the technique that suits you
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Presentation of my technique
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U3
Draw what?
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Finding inspiration and a theme
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Define the color range
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Composition and sketches: schematic drawings
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Composition and sketches: refining the sketches
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U4
Course project implementation
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Transcribe your directions
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Large surface coloring
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Colorization of details, contrasts and color harmonies
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U5
Going further
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Retouch
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Creating lost funds
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Submit to a publisher
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FP
Final project
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Narrative Illustration for Children: Find your Style
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What to expect from a Domestika course
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Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
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Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
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Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
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Certificates
PlusIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
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Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
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Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
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Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
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Watch professionally produced courses
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FAQs
What are Domestika's online courses?
Domestika courses are online classes that allow you to learn new skills and create incredible projects. All our courses include the opportunity to share your work with other students and/or teachers, creating an active learning community. We offer different formats:
Original Courses: Complete classes that combine videos, texts, and educational materials to complete a specific project from start to finish.
Basics Courses: Specialized training where you master specific software tools step by step.
Specialization Courses: Learning paths with various expert teachers on the same topic, perfect for becoming a specialist by learning from different approaches.
Guided Courses: Practical experiences ideal for directly acquiring specific skills.
Intensive Courses (Deep Dives): New creative processes based on artificial intelligence tools in an accessible format for in-depth and dynamic understanding.
When do the courses start and when do they finish?
All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.
What do Domestika's courses include?
The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.
Have you been given a course?
You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.
**Profesor muy competente y curso muy interesante. ¡Muy recomendable!**
Curso muy interesante por el uso de diferentes técncias en ilustración. Práctico .
me gusto mucho el curso, el porgrama general del curso esta muy bien y te brinda buenos tips.
I loved this course and I'm so happy to have discovered Julia's fabulous work through it. The lessons are enriching, full of great tips and generally I just found it to be very relaxing to watch. I recommend this course to every creative, no matter what level they're at in their art making. Thank you!