If you want to illustrate for editorial (magazines and news publications), advertising, packaging, retail, greeting cards, and beyond, then knowing how to communicate a big idea in just one, powerful image is a must-have skill! This skill is called CONCEPTUAL ILLUSTRATION, and in this class, you'll learn how it's done—and that it can be easier than you think.

The secret of conceptual illustration is that it's not about being super-clever or original. In fact, the strongest concepts can be based on totally unoriginal ideas — even clichés! The clever part is in choosing the right cliché and knowing how to change it in just the right way to make your point. No longer is conceptual and editorial illustration shrouded in mystery. In this class, award-winning illustrator and Top Teacher, Mr. Tom Froese, pulls back the curtain to unveil the 3 secret tools of conceptual illustration: Symbols, Idioms and Tropes.

What You Will Learn

The differences between Conceptual and Non-conceptual illustration
How to understand and use SYMBOLS as the building block of your concepts
How to leverage IDIOMS to make invisible ideas visible
How to find quick visual metaphors using ILLUSTRATION TROPES
Tom's entire illustration process, from start to finish
How to create a finished editorial style illustration using Procreate*

*Procreate is used in the class lessons, but all apps/techniques are welcome.

Why Take This Class?

Learn from an experienced Top Teacher, with over 142,000 students taught over the last decade
Free access to Tom's custom Procreate brush set, Inky Basics!
Free printable downloads, including Tom's Illustration Tropes chart and Illustration Tropes BINGO card!
Each lesson is packed with real-world examples
After each lesson, you get to test out your knowledge with fun Exercises
Thorough, step-by-step tutorial (demo) of the entire illustration process, including brainstorming, sketching, and illustrating in Procreate

Make Your Own Conceptual Illustration — As usual, you'll learn all the required theory in the Primer, and then get to apply what you learned in the class project — where you get to create your own conceptual illustration based on a realistic editorial-style brief. Mr. Tom Froese walks you all the way through, from brief, to brainstorm, and from sketches all the way to finished illustration.

DRAWING IDEAS truly demystifies the dark art of conceptual illustration. The most powerful tools — Symbols, Idioms, and Tropes — have been kept a secret for too long, and in this class, Tom spills all the beans!

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MORE CLASS DETAILS

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What is the Class Project?

Create an editorial-style illustration based on a unique "New York Times" style headline

How is the Class Structured?

PRIMER - Key insights about what conceptual illustration is and the three tools: symbols, idioms and tropes.
EXERCISES - Each lesson concludes with an opportunity to put what you learned to the test.
PROJECT - Work to a realistic editorial style brief to create your own conceptual illustration.
DEMOS - The project includes a full tutorial on the basic techniques and brushes I use to create my illustration using Procreate.

What Resources are Included as Free Downloads?

Tom's "Inky Basics" brush set for Procreate
Illustration Tropes Reference Chart (PDF and JPG)
Illustration Tropes BINGO Cards (PDF and JPG)
Sketching Template (PSD and Procreate)
Final Art Template (PSD and Procreate)

More Reasons to Take This Class

You want to learn how to come up with ideas in your illustration
You want to learn how to express ideas in simple, clever ways
You can make nice illustrations but struggle to make conceptual ones
You want to learn how to illustrate ideas in your own style
You want to know how other illustrators come up with their ideas
You want to be able to come up with more original ideas

Who is This Class For?

New and intermediate illustrators looking to work more conceptually
Illustrators who want to get more editorial illustration projects/clients
Anyone who wants to learn where illustration ideas come from

Prerequisites

To get the most out of this class, you should have the following experience/skills:

Some experience illustrating, either as a student or professionally
Basic drawing and sketching skills
Basic skills in illustration software, such as Procreate, Photoshop, Fresco, Adobe Illustrator, Krita, Clip Studio, etc.

Materials/Resources

To complete the class project, you will need the following:

Sketchbook/pencil or digital equivalent
An illustration app on your computer or tablet
Analog illustration tools are welcome as well but you will still need to digitize your work to be uploaded to the class projects page.

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CLASS CREDITS

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Script Reviewers

Thank you so much to the following kind souls who reviewed my very long early manuscript for this class.

Robyn Hepburn
Natahsha Priya
RJ

Example Illustrations (Copyright Information)

I have used many illustrations from many illustrators and artists to help students visualize the various principles that I am teaching in this class. There are so many amazing illustrations here that it was not possible to secure permission for every single one of them before publishing this class. However, I believe my specific usage here falls under Fair Use under international copyright law, as follows:

The works have been included in the class for educational purposes, to exemplify the principles being taught.
The works are clearly contextualized as such examples and not used to as illustrations in their own right. In this sense the use is Transformative, according to The International Copyright Alliance.
The works are always displayed alongside the artist/author name.
The work is shown in a favourable light

Artists are listed below under the respective lesson titles in which they appear. If you are one of the named artists and would like to see your work as used (but are not a Skillshare member), please let me know, and I will give you access to the video. If you would like to request removal of your image(s) from my class slides, please contact me at hello@tomfroese.com, and I will do so immediately. This list also includes free B-roll video footage from Pexels.

All images are copyright of their respective authors/creators.

ABOUT THIS CLASS

John Holcroft
Zeloot
Katya Wolf (Pexels)
Everett Bumstead (Pexels)
Yaroslav Shuraev (Pexels)
Tom Froese

WHAT IS CONCEPTUAL ILLUSTRATION?

Craig Frazier
Gaspart
Sjoerd van Leeuwen
Carolina Relander
Brice Marchal
Tom Froese
The Printed Peanut (Louise Lockhart)
Asahi Agata
Alice Oehr
Paul Garland
Robert Young
TBWA
Laura Liedo
Freepik
Noa Snur
Pierre Kleinhouse

WHAT ARE SYMBOLS?

Evgenia Kirpichnikova (Pexels)
Cottonbro Studio (Pexels)
Pavel Danilyuk (Pexels)
Paul Rand
Pixabay
Nicholas VK / displate.com
Mellow Gold Studio
Freepik
Schmitz Illustration
Antonio Uve
Eric Petersen
Sofia Ali
Mitch Blunt
Frencesco Ciccolella
Josef Micic via iStock
Milton Glaser
Monica Garwood
EamesBot
Craig Frazier

WHAT ARE IDIOMS?

Milo Winter
Adolphe Yvon
Edel Rodriguez
Beppe Giacobbe
John Holcroft
Vlada Karpovich
Kotryna Zukauskaite
Sebastien Thibault
pngtree.com
Ling Hem Swee
Dreamstime
Adam Niclewicz
Zeloot
Tom Froese
Yaroslav Shuraevv (Pexels)
Sini Ko (Pexels)

WHAT ARE TROPES?

Giovani Flores
Eiko Ojala
Edward McGowan
Giacomo Bagnara
Lisa Tegtmeier
Andy Westface
The New York Times
Shutterstock
Monica Garwood
Davide Bonazzi
Vectorstock
Creative Market
Casual Polar Bear
Katie Baker
Jack Hudson
The Heads of State
Kotryna Zukauskaite
Adam Podrez (Pexels)

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MY TOOLS

You can find links to the tools I'm using in the class below!

iPad Pro 12.9" (2020)
Apple Pencil 2nd Generation
PenPad by PenTips

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MORE HELPFUL RESOURCES

Want to learn more about editorial and conceptual illustration? Here are a few handy resources I recommend:

Conceptual Illustrations: Solving Problems with Storytelling - Jay Perlman / Blush Design
List of Conceptual Illustrators - Anna Goodson Illustration Agency
Illustration Tropes Pinterest Board - Tom Froese / Pinterest
Pete Ryan - Clever Conceptual Illustrator
James Steinberg - Great examples of classic Illustration Tropes in use

MORE OF TOM'S LINKS

Jen Shields

Let’s make some stuff.

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