ODD BODIES: Illustrating Expressive, Stylized People

Having a unique, personal style of illustrating people is one of the holy grails of illustration. It’s one thing to be able to draw people in a more literal and realistic way, but what about more stylized and abstract? If you’ve ever wondered how to make your people illustrations more expressive and unique, this class is for you. While people of all drawing abilities can take this class, this class is made specifically with illustrators who want to break free from more literal ways of drawing people in mind. That means learning how to reference images without copying them, loosen up in your proportions, and draw more from heart.

Working for international clients such as GQ France and Abrams New York, illustrator Tom Froese is known for his whimsical characters that are bursting with personality and style! Join him as he guides you through a series of fun exercises that shed light on his unconventional thinking and approach to illustrating people.

Things you'll learn in this class include:

• Key principles to drawing in a stylized way
• Drawing more intuitively, from heart
• Relying less on copying reference images
• Embracing your quirks as part of your style
• Expressing action and movement in your people
• Distorting the human figure in surprising, fun ways
• How to transform a rough sketch into a beautiful final illustration

After the main exercises, if you want to level up your skills, join Tom in taking one of your sketches into a fully finished illustration. You can use your own tools and techniques or follow along with him in his trademark Inky Style!

Some Examples of My People Illustrations

Illustrators Mentioned in the First Lesson (About Stylized People)

1. Malika Favre
2. Lauren Nassef
3. Keith Negley
4. Blexbolex
5. Olimpia Zagnoli
6. Satoshi Hashimoto
7. Miroslav Sasek
8. Geoff McFetridge
9. Lora Lamm
10. Marcus Oakley

• Class Trailer
• Project and Tools
• Lesson 1: About Stylized People
• Lesson 2: Some Guiding Principles
• Lesson 3: The 5 Pain Points
• Exercise 1: Action Figures!
• Exercise 2: Action Figures From Memory
• Exercise 3: Page of Poses!
• Exercise 4: People in Shapes!
• Exercise 5: Cutouts
• Exercise 6: Exaggeration
• Bonus Project: Intro
• Bonus Project: Create Illustration File
• Bonus Project: Start the Base Illustration
• Bonus Project: Make Inky Marks!
• Bonus Project: Add Inky Marks to Sketch
• Finalizing
• Final Thoughts