Illustrator for Children's Book Illustrators!
Enjoy this replay of a YouTube Live Event that streamed on Dec. 12, this year. Illustrator Town Hall Meeting, children's book illustrators Wendy Martin, Russ Cox and Jannie Ho show and tell how they use Illustrator in their work for the children's publishing market. (Illustration art in the video thumbnail is by Jannie Ho.)
Learn Illustrator in seven one-hour videos!
Paste in the coupon code: My Raccoon Badge for 33 Percent Off Wendy Martin's video course, Vector Your Kids Book Art! Adobe Illustrator for Children's Book Illustrators during the New Year Sale! (Code good through February 31!)
Develop your vector art skills quickly
In the video interview (left), cartoon illustrator and online digital art teacher Bob Ostrom explains why he calls Adobe Illustrator 'the indispensable tool' for graphic designers.
Paint with shapes!
In a live online workshop we did last February, Wendy Martin shows how she and other children's book illustrators have been using Adobe Illustrator to produce their final art. Enjoy the replay and Q&A (left.)
You can see it in full screen on YouTube. You can also adjust the settings to high definition once the video has started playing.
Vector Your Book Art!
Taught by Wendy Martin in seven videos. Normally $149. But with the New Year celebration sale code only $99.83
Signup takes only 30 seconds. Wendy's recorded class sessions will get you easily navigating the dazzling tools of Adobe Illustrator. Scroll down for more details and student testimonials!

Can you find these 10 hidden pictures in the "Band Practice" scene on the right?
Paste in the coupon code: My Raccoon Badge
for 33 Percent Off during the Christmas Holiday Sale,
good through January 1.
Band Practice by Wendy Martin
Vector Your Kids' Book Art: Adobe Illustrator for Children's Book Illustrators
A highly focused, self-paced course for illustrators interested in creating children's book art in vector graphics. Recorded from the weekly sessions that Wendy Martin taught to 19 online students in February
Course syllabus
- Class night 1: Create your concept art, rough pencils.
- Class night 2: Import your sketches into Illustrator and inking (If you are getting the 30-day trial of the software, sign up for it AFTER you are ready to begin inking.)
- Class night 3: Produce color comps, starting with flat color.
- Class night 4: Add shading and details.
- Class night 5: Pull it all together.
- Class night 6: Q&A Session with Wendy, Mark and students.
- Wendy's slides
Download Wendy's slides to show examples of vector illustration art by her and illustrators Russ Cox, Jannie Ho, Greg Matusic, Nikki Boetger, Debbie Meyer, Bob Ostrom, Mark Harmon and Echo Chernik.
- Text chat transcript
Text chat from Wendy's live workshop Jan. 21 workshop includes viewers' comments, conversation and shared resource links
Paste in the coupon code: My Raccoon Badge
for 33 Percent Off during the Christmas Holiday Sale. Good through Jan. 1!
Just seven hours of selective, concentrated instruction and two class projects!
Let accomplished digital and traditional professional illustrator Wendy Martin show you, over the course of these easy, Q&A style videos how to use Adobe Illustrator, the world's foremost vector image creation software to create painterly, multi-layered illustrations, including for your next promotional postcard for children's book art directors, editors and client prospects.
What you can expect from Wendy's video lessons
- Learn to work digitally without your art resulting in a 'cookie cutter' look.
- Discover the advantages of working with scale-able vector art: Make images useful for multiple applications. Open avenues to children's educational and licensing markets.
- Follow Wendy's step-by-step process instructions to complete a polished, personal project.
- Structured course presentations with strategic milestones for you to meet in each lesson.
- Complete the class and your promotional postcard at your own pace, with videos you can stop and start and replay as often as you like.
- Receive your own course completion raccoon of honor badge created by Wendy that you can affix to your artist's website, blog or online portfolio.
You can do it!
Tools You'll need:
- If you already have Adobe Creative Suite, you have Illustrator. If you don't you can try it out via Adobe's Trial Subscription for the Creative Cloud Suite. You can complete Wendy's class and create your promotional postcard within the 30 days of the free trial.
- Small Wacom tablet, like a Bamboo or Intuous with a stylus or similar (recommended for best results. You can use a mouse to draw, but you won't have pressure sensitivity functionality.
- Scanner or smart phone or digital camera to snap photos of your pencil sketches that you'll import into your AI software
- Pencil and copy paper, tracing paper or sketchbook to draw on
Vector art with its peculiarly crisp, glossy and highly commercial look is the medium of choice for many educational publishers, kids' game up developers, stock art houses and companies that license artists' work for merchandising.
Wendy demonstrates in her intro workshop at the top how it's possible to create lush, painterly-style imagery evocative of fine children's book art using only a handful of the Illustrator tools.
She covers drawing and inking with those tools, color blocking using palettes and flat color and shading and creating highlights by applying gradients of values and colors.
She introduces her favorites: the brush and blob brush tools, the blend and gradient mesh tools and the rectangle tool and how she tweaks these to create her lovely effects.
She talks about how she likes to blend her art with traditional mediums like watercolor and color pencils for the fun, pleasure and sheer joy of it.
"I learned more in six hours with Wendy that I did in two years on my own, with several thick textbooks! Wendy is a wealth of information wrapped in patience. I would recommend this class to anyone who is interested in learning how to develop skills and style in Adobe Illustrator. I am unstuck, inspired and grateful!"
Lisa Roszler, Charlotte, NC
"This was a fun group of classmates AND instructors! I'll stay tuned for any future classes that catch my interest. The webinar format really is perfect for artists with busy day-jobs, and it was very budget-friendly, too. It was definitely worth every penny. :)" See Kathryn's final art piece and blogpost about her experience of the class here.
"Wendy Martin's Vector Your Kids Book Art is an excellent introduction to Adobe Illustrator. After the first class you will have an overall view of AI and its tools and enough technical knowledge to scan your artwork into AI and start inking!
"Wendy patiently explains the entire process of creating your first vector illustration; from hand drawn sketch to inking, coloring, and shading the final art. Special coloring tools such as the gradient and blend tools are explained and demonstrated in great detail.
"I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to get started in AI as quickly as possible!"Cindy Artman, St. Charles, MO
"She is wonderful and I am doing a book now in vector (one of the [Marks and Splashes] job postings) thanks to her class in Illustrator!! So exciting! The course is awesome."
Dyann Joyce, Louisville, KY
© Marks and Splashes online learning 2014