illustration

Learn digital painting, for free.
https://www.ctrlpaint.com/

Ctrl+Paint is a free learning resource dedicated to the basics of digital painting. Each bite-sized video covers a different concept, allowing you to learn complex subjects in manageable increments.

Cliff Cramp’s Personal Website 
https://www.cliffcramp.com/videos

Cliff Cramp (Professor at Cal State University, Fullerton) provides useful videos to help you solve visual problems such as composition, color, and more when working with a digital painting. These concepts can be translated into traditional mediums.

DeviantArt
https://www.deviantart.com/
DeviantArt is an online community showcasing various forms of user-made artwork, first launched on August 7, 2000 by Scott Jarkoff, Matthew Stephens, Angelo Sotira and others
Steve McCurry’s 9 Photo Composition Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZVyNjKSr0M

“COOPH presents a photography tutorial with 9 tips and tricks on photo composition, using the help of Steve McCurry's incredible photographs.” This video is a great resource.

 Storytelling with Cinematography
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFgptwI8eEs
This video by DSLR guide dives directly into the core of visual filmmaking. DSLR guides you through deciding which things are worth shooting and which things can be left behind.

DSLR guide makes a video on how different camera techniques have contrasting effects on the audience.

Cliff Cramp’s Fractal Painting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4ZhEmryORQ
 “This video demo uses the technique of fractal sketching or fractal painting. The concept is to block-in your composition using shapes to create a more complex composition in PhotoShop. Simply put - drawing with shapes.”

This is a good video for every creative to watch. This video goes over a creative mantra, that is important to most creatives. The video stresses that everything you do may not be perfect, but the important thing is to finish the work so that you gain experience to grow as a creative.

The Art of Animation
http://theartofanimation.tumblr.com
Recommended Tumblr blogs. A great source of inspiration for not only animators but anyone who is associated with the arts. Features artist from around the world and gives credit where it is due.

Blocking in a painting: Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg-mOxJdrU4
 A 4-part series helps bring your understanding of glazing and digital water brushes to a whole other level. Professor Cramp also goes into how to map out the foreground, middle and background.

Blocking in a painting: Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTL-sFxV6VY
A big portion of part 2 is “Finding Edges”. Professor Cliff Cramp helps you understand how to take your flat drawing and give it some dimension by showing how light hits the edges of certain objects.

Blocking in a painting: Part 3 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXwdBJP0b9U
Developing the digital painting even farther, Cliff shows us how to use the digital water brush to set the color mood by going over the values in a painting. This is a great resource to learn more about color references and local color.

Blocking in a painting: Part 4 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7CNaeetNEI
The last video of the 4-part series, Professor Cramp does his finishing touches to his wonderful digital painting. He dives into importing and transforming texture, painting with texture, and unifying the light and dark sides.

 Adobe Capture App—Free to download on the App store.

“Use your mobile device to turn photos into color themes, patterns, type, materials, brushes, and shapes. Then bring those assets into your favorite desktop and mobile apps — including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Dimension, XD, and Photoshop Sketch — to use them in all your creative projects.”
This is an awesome tool that you will spend hours using. The shapes that you capture using this tool can be loaded into the shapes pallet in Photoshop. You can go to this link https://www.cliffcramp.com/videos to learn how to use shapes for blocking in illustrations—fourth one down on the right.
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N. Bockelman

A series of videos that demonstrate technical skills within Illustrator. Good for understanding how to use the pen tool, and create vector art.