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JCCD Studio

We will teach you how to draw Space Girl (宇宙少女), an illustration of Takako Inoue Sensei.

Takako Inoue Sensei graduated from Kodansha Famous School and won multiple awards in the recent years. She has created designs and made illustrations for publisher Kodansha, japanese TV channel NHK and game producer Bandai.

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We will teach you how to draw Space Girl (宇宙少女), an illustration of Takako Inoue Sensei.

Takako Inoue Sensei graduated from Kodansha Famous School and won multiple awards in the recent years. She has created designs and made illustrations for publisher Kodansha, japanese TV channel NHK and game producer Bandai.

This lecture consists of 17 Units within 5 Levels. In order to offer you a Top-quality experience as closely as possible with the artist, the lesson is approximately 6 hours long and allow you to follow the artist step-by-step during the process of creation while enjoying the detailed explanations and drawing tips for improving your art skills.

The artist will be drawing and explaining at the same time so you won't miss any details. As the artist is Japanese, the explanations are made in Japanese, however we have added subtitles in English so that you can understand everything.

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What's inside

Learning objectives

  • Level up your drawing skills thanks to the tips of proffessional japanese artists
  • Learn to draw the space girl illustration

Syllabus

Introduction
Unite1.1 Draft: The Character
Unite1.2 Draft: The Background
Unite2.1 Line Drawing : The Character - Face
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Traffic lights

Read about what's good
what should give you pause
and possible dealbreakers
Features Takako Inoue Sensei, an award-winning artist with experience at Kodansha, NHK, and Bandai, offering insights from a respected professional
Breaks down the illustration process into 17 units across 5 levels, providing a structured approach to learning anime art techniques
Covers drafting, line drawing, coloring, and special effects, offering a comprehensive overview of the anime illustration workflow
Includes subtitles to translate the artist's Japanese explanations, making the course accessible to a wider audience

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Reviews summary

Learn specific anime illustration process

According to students, this course provides a highly valuable opportunity to learn directly from a professional Japanese artist, Takako Inoue Sensei. Many praise the step-by-step process for creating the Space Girl illustration, finding it incredibly detailed and inspiring. Learners particularly appreciate the lessons on coloring and effects, noting they learned useful tips and techniques for digital painting in the anime style. However, a few reviewers mention that the English subtitles can sometimes be awkward or lack specific technical details, making some parts slightly challenging to follow. While the course is a gem for refining techniques for intermediate artists, some feel it's not suitable for absolute beginners and is focused more on replicating a specific piece than teaching broad foundational skills.
Teaches how to draw one piece
"It's okay, but feels more like a 'trace along' tutorial than teaching foundational skills."
"You learn to draw THIS illustration, but maybe not how to apply the techniques to other drawings easily."
"Good for fans of the style though."
Assumes some prior knowledge
"It feels like it assumes some prior knowledge of the software or certain illustration principles. Definitely not for absolute beginners."
"While a total beginner could follow along, I think having some basics down makes it much easier to absorb the techniques."
"Good for refining techniques if you already have some digital art experience."
Follow a clear step-by-step workflow
"...following her step-by-step process for the Space Girl illustration was incredibly helpful."
"The structure of the lessons is logical, building from drafting to final effects. Worth every penny!"
"Good course with lots of practical tips. The steps are broken down well."
Valuable lessons on rendering details
"I learned so many useful tips and tricks for digital painting... The breakdown of complex coloring techniques was especially valuable."
"Fantastic course for understanding a professional workflow. The detail on coloring and effects is particularly strong."
"Learned new ways to approach rendering light and shadow."
Learn specific techniques from a master
"Absolutely loved learning from Takako Inoue Sensei! Her techniques are amazing, and following her step-by-step process for the Space Girl illustration was incredibly helpful."
"Incredible course! Takako Sensei is a master, and seeing her process from start to finish was inspiring."
"As an intermediate artist, this course was perfect for refining my techniques... The instructor's precision is amazing."
Translation can sometimes hinder flow
"While the artwork demonstrated is beautiful, I found the explanations a bit hard to follow, even with the subtitles."
"My only minor issue was that sometimes the pace felt a little fast, and I had to pause frequently."
"Some parts of the translation felt slightly awkward, but it didn't hinder understanding too much."
"The subtitles aren't always accurate, making it difficult to follow the specific brush settings or layer modes."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Learn Anime Illustration: Space Girl with these activities:
Practice Basic Anatomy
Reviewing basic anatomy will help you understand the underlying structure of the character, making it easier to follow the artist's instructions and create a believable space girl illustration.
Browse courses on Figure Drawing
Show steps
  • Study basic skeletal and muscular structures.
  • Practice drawing simple figures and poses.
  • Focus on proportions and realistic body shapes.
Review 'Figure Drawing: For All It's Worth' by Andrew Loomis
Studying Loomis's approach to figure drawing will provide a strong foundation for understanding character construction and proportion, improving your ability to draw the Space Girl illustration.
View Melania on Amazon
Show steps
  • Read the sections on proportion and construction.
  • Practice drawing figures using Loomis's methods.
  • Apply these techniques to drawing anime-style characters.
Line Drawing Exercises
Practicing line drawing exercises will improve your control and precision, which is crucial for creating clean and crisp lines in your anime illustration.
Show steps
  • Draw straight lines, curves, and circles repeatedly.
  • Vary the pressure and thickness of your lines.
  • Focus on creating smooth and confident strokes.
Four other activities
Expand to see all activities and additional details
Show all seven activities
Create a Color Palette for Space Girl
Experimenting with color palettes will help you understand color theory and develop your own unique style for coloring anime illustrations.
Show steps
  • Research color palettes used in anime illustrations.
  • Experiment with different color combinations for the Space Girl character.
  • Create a digital or physical color palette to use as a reference.
Follow Anime Coloring Tutorials
Following tutorials on anime coloring techniques will provide you with practical skills and knowledge for coloring your Space Girl illustration.
Show steps
  • Search for tutorials on YouTube or other platforms.
  • Follow along with the tutorial, step by step.
  • Experiment with different coloring styles and techniques.
Draw Your Own Space Girl Variation
Creating your own variation of the Space Girl illustration will allow you to apply the skills and knowledge you've learned in the course and develop your own unique style.
Show steps
  • Brainstorm ideas for a unique Space Girl design.
  • Sketch your design, focusing on anatomy and proportion.
  • Line and color your illustration, using the techniques you've learned.
Read 'Mastering Manga with Mark Crilley'
Studying Mark Crilley's approach to manga illustration will provide you with additional techniques and insights for drawing anime-style characters, enhancing your ability to create compelling Space Girl illustrations.
Show steps
  • Read the sections on character design and anatomy.
  • Practice drawing characters using Crilley's methods.
  • Incorporate these techniques into your Space Girl illustrations.

Career center

Learners who complete Learn Anime Illustration: Space Girl will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:
Illustrator
An illustrator creates artwork for various media, including books, magazines, and video games. This course, focused on the creation of a specific character illustration, helps build a foundation in character design and digital painting techniques, precisely what an illustrator does. The course also offers a step-by-step walkthrough of the creative process as demonstrated by a professional Japanese artist. This is essential for any aspiring illustrator who wants to refine their existing skills. Furthermore, understanding line drawing, coloring, and special effects, all components of this course, is invaluable for an illustrator to bring ideas to life with unique visual elements.
Character Designer
Character designers develop the visual appearance of characters for entertainment media. This course, which focuses on creating a specific illustration of a 'Space Girl,' provides an important look into the process of character creation. The course’s step by step approach allows one to learn about all the different phases of design, which is what a character designer does on a routine basis. This course covers key areas including drafting, line drawing, coloring, and incorporating effects, all core competencies for a character designer. The course gives a practical way to learn, where the artist creates and explains their work at the same time.
Concept Artist
Concept artists create visual designs for characters, environments, and objects, often for films, animation, and video games. This course, which teaches how to illustrate a 'Space Girl' character, may be particularly helpful for those interested in character concepts. The course demonstrates a professional artist’s process from the initial draft to final touches. Understanding line drawing, coloring, and special effects, as covered in the course, is fundamental for concept artists. Learning about the individual elements of the character, including their clothing and accessories, is also crucial. Concept artists also need to create a variety of backgrounds, which this course provides insight into.
Storyboard Artist
A storyboard artist visualizes scenes for film, animation, or other media. While this course focuses on a single illustration, the techniques learned, including character design, line art, and use of color, are applicable to what a storyboard artist does. Storyboard artists need a strong understanding of composition, something that a course that teaches how to draw an entire scene, including the character and background, can help with. The step-by-step instructions provided in this course can help aspiring storyboard artists to break down creation into manageable stages, which is vital when working in this field. Furthermore, the course includes the process of adding special effects, something that a storyboard artist may be required to depict.
Animation Artist
Animation artists bring characters and stories to life through movement. While this course focuses on a still illustration, the core skills in character design, line work and coloring are highly relevant for an animation artist. The course also provides a detailed look into an artist's workflow and can be useful to an aspiring animation artist. The course provides a good foundation in art skills, including line drawing, coloring, and special effects, that are directly applicable to animation. This means that this course will help aspiring animation artists get better at handling visual elements that are key to their job.
Comic Book Artist
A comic book artist creates the visual elements of comic books and graphic novels. This course, focused on illustrating a character, may be helpful for those who want to work in sequential art. This course teaches line drawing, coloring, and the inclusion of effects, all core skills for any comic book artist. The course’s approach is guided by a professional Japanese artist, which is a useful approach for anyone wanting to break into the comic industry. The detail of the course, going through each step of the illustration with detailed explanations, may be very beneficial to anyone working towards being a comic book artist.
Video Game Artist
Video game artists create the visual assets for video games. This course on illustrating a character offers fundamental training in character design, line drawing, and digital painting, all of which are directly relevant to what a video game artist does. Furthermore, this course breaks down an entire process from draft to final touches by an industry professional. This can be particularly helpful for those looking to refine their existing skill set, or for those who are trying to break into the video game industry. The course’s detailed guide to coloring and effects also allows learners to better create compelling designs for games. Understanding how to draw all the different individual elements separately, like weapons, clothing, and hair, may be particularly useful to a video game artist.
Freelance Illustrator
A freelance illustrator works on a project basis to create illustrations for a variety of clients. Because this course teaches the entire process from sketch to final illustration, one can translate this knowledge to their own freelance work. The course covers all the steps involved in creating a character illustration. A freelance illustrator needs to be adaptable and have a solid understanding of how to best create illustrations for their clients, and this course can help them gain those skills. In particular, the course explains how to incorporate special effects into an illustration, which is a unique skill that can help a freelance illustrator stand out.
Art Director
An art director is responsible for the visual style and images used in a variety of projects. This course, which focuses on a detailed illustration of a character, may provide an understanding of the nuances of character design and overall visual appeal. Although an art director does not need to have the same artistic skills as an illustrator, the course may enable them to better understand the creative process and the importance of details, like coloring and special effects. By focusing on the minutiae of visual design, an art director who has taken this course may be better at guiding their team to create outstanding results. In addition, this course walks the learner through a professional workflow of an artist, which is helpful for an art director to understand.
Graphic Designer
Graphic designers create visual concepts for a range of media, including websites, logos, and advertisements. Although this course focuses on character illustration, the principles of line drawing, color theory, and composition that are taught in this course may be helpful for a graphic designer. This course allows one to understand the entire visual creation process, and can be beneficial to any graphic designer. The graphic designer role requires a sensitivity to different visual elements, as well as a way to incorporate these into their own designs, both skills that this course may help to develop. The course focuses on learning from a professional artist, which can be very informative.
Web Designer
Web designers create the visual layout and user interface of websites. While the focus of this course is on character illustration, the attention to detail, use of color, and understanding of visual elements can be helpful for a web designer. Understanding the impact of different visual elements on the user experience is a skill that web designers need to cultivate, and this course may allow a designer to enhance their skills in this area. Being able to see a finished illustration and how it was created may influence their own design decisions. This course can help someone to better recognize how small choices impact overall design, which is important for any web designer.
Textile Designer
Textile designers create designs for fabrics and textiles. While this course focuses on illustrating a character, the principles of color theory, pattern creation, and line work can also be applied to textile design. Being able to understand and create visual elements, as demonstrated by this course, can help a textile designer create unique designs. The course’s attention to the minutiae of visual design may also be helpful to a textile designer, as many textile designs also need to be highly detailed. The knowledge imparted in this course might help a textile designer make better creative choices.
Fashion Designer
Fashion designers create clothing and accessories. While this course focuses on character illustration, this course’s attention to detail is a vital skill to a fashion designer who needs to pay attention to visual elements. Furthermore, the course covers how to draw clothing and accessories for the character, which may help a fashion designer with their own designs. This course provides a detailed look at how an artist takes inspiration and creates a new design, and this can be helpful for any aspiring fashion designer. Understanding the workflow of an artist may help a fashion designer understand how to take their vision and make it a reality.
Art teacher
Art teachers guide students in a variety of artistic techniques, and this course may be useful by enhancing their own artistic skills. Specifically, the course may help an art teacher go over particular techniques for illustration. The course teaches the step by step creation of a complex illustration, and by understanding this process, an art teacher may be able to better explain it to their own students. Understanding the workflow of a professional artist can also be useful for an art teacher. By understanding different methods of creation that a professional artist uses, an art teacher may be better able to teach a variety of techniques to their students.
Marketing Associate
Marketing associates assist in developing and executing marketing campaigns. While this course focuses on illustration, the understanding of visual elements taught in this course may be useful in creating more engaging marketing materials. The course focuses specifically on ways to create a compelling visual, which is beneficial for marketing material as well. Visual communication is a key component of marketing, and understanding how visuals are created may enable a marketing associate to create better promotional material for their brand. Because this course explores the creative process, it may be useful for a marketing associate to better understand a client’s vision for designs.

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Learn Anime Illustration: Space Girl.
Provides a comprehensive guide to drawing manga and anime-style characters, covering topics such as anatomy, perspective, and character design. It valuable resource for learning the fundamentals of anime illustration and developing your own unique style. This book is more valuable as additional reading than it is as a current reference.

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