Bring your characters to life with Philipp Kruse as he guides you from core principles to advanced techniques for designing compelling humanoids. Learn to create expressive, believable characters that elevate your worlds and showcase your unique artistic voice.
$74
$44
Characters are the heart and soul of any movie, comic or video game. In this Course, illustrator Philipp Kruse shares his secrets to populating projects with compelling humanoid designs. Strap in for an interactive tour all the way from artistic first principles to the most advanced tricks, each tailored to make your characters not only look amazing, but feel like living, breathing parts of their worlds. With these new techniques, you'll be creating beautiful work to showcase your unique skills in ways you never thought possible before.
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A guided path through every stage of the course, broken down into focused lessons you can work through at your own pace.
Lesson 1
In this first Lesson, Philipp will show you how to turn the basic building blocks of art into powerful creative decisions. Line, anatomy and lighting all help to convey emotion and meaning in a piece, and you will learn Philipp's particular style of harnessing these elements to fuel his creations. He will then take you through several of his past artworks, to break down exactly what makes them tick.
Lesson 2
In this Lesson, you will start creating your own character. You'll begin by visiting the Brief Builder to create a set of guidelines for your illustration, giving you the same kinds of constraints you might have when working with a real-world client. After this, you'll gather reference material, organize it, and dive into Photoshop to start sketching. This is where the basis of your character will be formed, so keep an open mind, be ready to iterate on your ideas, and have fun!
Lesson 3
Now that you have a concept for your character formed, Philipp will take you more in-depth into the design process. You'll focus on details like the linework, clothing, and major focal areas. Then, you'll look back to the design theory of the past two Lessons and assess your project based on those principles. Finally, you will prepare for the painting phase by filling in the linework, adding ambient occlusion and blocking in colors.
Lesson 4
In this Lesson, Philipp will take you through the process of finishing your illustration and presenting it to a client. You will light your character, render the details, and tie all the visual elements together. Next comes the critical process of re-evaluating your work and making any last-minute changes. And finally, you'll create an attractive beauty shot for your character, which will help to sell the image in client presentations and look great in your portfolio.
Philipp Kruse is a freelance illustrator and concept artist known for his expressive, character-driven work. His illustrations have appeared in Disney’s Lorcana trading card game, where his bold shapes and stylized storytelling help define the world’s visual identity. With a focus on vibrant design and strong narrative appeal, Philipp brings imaginative worlds and memorable characters to life across games and publishing.
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$74
$44
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Buy 5 of our character courses together in a bundle to learn the entire pipeline and save an additional 10% during checkout. Five courses for a low price. You have no more excuses!
tons of workflow crap and programs i would have never thought of trying.... PEEP DATTT!!!1
Designer
My career as a concept artist started after taking these courses. Much of what I learned I applied to my portfolio and in a couple months ... I got my first job.
Concept Artist & Illustrator
Learn Squared gives me the freedom and flexibility to learn from the best in the industry at my own pace.
Freelance Concept Artist
Join a devoted community of over 20,000 students from around the world.
Here's a full list of all the videos in this course.
In this first Lesson, Philipp will show you how to turn the basic building blocks of art into powerful creative decisions. Line, anatomy and lighting all help to convey emotion and meaning in a piece, and you will learn Philipp's particular style of harnessing these elements to fuel his creations. He will then take you through several of his past artworks, to break down exactly what makes them tick.
In this Lesson, you will start creating your own character. You'll begin by visiting the Brief Builder to create a set of guidelines for your illustration, giving you the same kinds of constraints you might have when working with a real-world client. After this, you'll gather reference material, organize it, and dive into Photoshop to start sketching. This is where the basis of your character will be formed, so keep an open mind, be ready to iterate on your ideas, and have fun!
Now that you have a concept for your character formed, Philipp will take you more in-depth into the design process. You'll focus on details like the linework, clothing, and major focal areas. Then, you'll look back to the design theory of the past two Lessons and assess your project based on those principles. Finally, you will prepare for the painting phase by filling in the linework, adding ambient occlusion and blocking in colors.
In this Lesson, Philipp will take you through the process of finishing your illustration and presenting it to a client. You will light your character, render the details, and tie all the visual elements together. Next comes the critical process of re-evaluating your work and making any last-minute changes. And finally, you'll create an attractive beauty shot for your character, which will help to sell the image in client presentations and look great in your portfolio.
Check out some of the amazing work Character Illustration students have created by doing their homework.
