Multiple Ways to Learn
Subscription
most popular
- Watch Video Lessons at Your Own Pace
- Assignments Included
- Peer Feedback
- Switch Courses as Often as You Like
- Access to Schoolism Webinar Archives
Lifetime Access
pay per course
- Watch Video Lessons at Your Own Pace
- Assignments Included
- One-Time Purchase
- Unlimited Course Access for Life
- Peer Feedback
- Access to Schoolism Webinar Archives
- Watch Video Lessons with a Planned Curriculum
- Scheduled Assignments with Deadlines
- Personalized Paint-Overs and Real-Time Feedback From The Instructors
- Watch Video Lessons and Peer Feedback as Often as You'd Like
- Ability to Contact Instructor with Questions
- Digital Certificate of Completion
- Weekly Class Meetings LIVE on Zoom
- Access to Schoolism Webinar Archives
Course Description
Being an artist is not just a career-it's a way of life. Legendary artist and visual storyteller Iain McCaig demonstrates some of the artistic workouts he uses to sharpen his skills and imagination, as well as how to stay inspired and fearless in a face-off with the empty page.
Exercises include:
- warm-up games
- designing icons
- capturing emotions
- creating archetypes, old and new
- leading the eye
- ways to sharpen and stock your visual memory
McCaig's artistic life-skills can be practiced alone or with others, quarantined in your studio or talking on the phone. For anyone who can hold a pencil or a stylus, on paper or a screen!
➡︎ For the ‘Critiqued Sessions’, students will meet up with Iain McCaig LIVE once per week on Sundays at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET.
- Drawing Tablet
- Adobe Photoshop
- Pencil/Paper
Lesson Plan
LESSON 1Drawing Warm-Ups
Kick off your day with creative and fun warm-up games designed to help you let go of perfectionism, embrace the freedom of exploration and overcome the fear of the blank page. By engaging in spontaneous, unstructured drawing, you’ll build confidence and develop a better understanding of how to loosen up and let your imagination take the lead.
LESSON 2Using Watercolor
Who says sketching is only for pencils? This exercise encourages you to break free from traditional sketching tools and experiment with using watercolors as a dynamic medium for sketching, encouraging you to dive right in with your brush and use fluid strokes to capture the essence of your subject.
LESSON 3The Prophet
This exercise pushes you to combine the power of imagination with inspiration from the natural world. You’ll explore how to create characters and designs rooted in both fantasy and real-world elements. Then, you’ll take inspiration from the natural world by merging organic elements into your character’s look.
LESSON 4Leading the Eye
In this exercise, you’ll explore techniques for guiding the viewer’s eye across the page. You’ll also practice harnessing your creativity through spontaneous exercises that push you to think on your feet and collaborate with others.
LESSON 5Drawing from Memory
How well can you trust your memory? Drawing from memory is an excellent way to strengthen your visual recall and push your understanding of form. This exercise will challenge you to recreate familiar animals with and without reference, testing your observation skills and building your mental library.
LESSON 6Drawing Emotions
Expressing emotion through drawing is key to bringing your characters and scenes to life. This exercise focuses on conveying mood and feeling through facial expressions and body language, helping you improve your ability to communicate emotions visually.
LESSON 7Drawing from Life
Life drawing helps you capture the energy and movement of your subject, builds your confidence in sketching live environments and human anatomy, and gives your work a sense of realism. This exercise is designed to sharpen your observation skills by drawing real-life settings and figures.
LESSON 8Drawing in the Dark and Transforming Ideas
This exercise focuses on working out your ability to capture both likeness and emotion through memory and reference. You’ll challenge yourself to convey a subject’s personality and emotions, draw from memory, and turn an everyday object—like your shoe—into a monster!
LESSON 9Re-imagining Icons
Character design and reference drawing combine in this final exercise, where you'll re-imagine an iconic figure. Using their distinct features as your foundation, you’ll bring your own creative interpretation to the characters while preserving the essence and storytelling elements that made their original designs legendary.
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Iain McCaig
Iain McCaig divides his energies between a lifelong love of storytelling, and a passionate belief that everyone in the world can learn to draw. McCaig is best known for his cover art for Jethro Tull's 'Broadsword and the Beast' and for his Star Wars designs for Queen Amidala and Darth Maul. His film work includes 'Interview With the Vampire', 'Dracula', 'Terminator 2', 'Hook', 'Peter Pan', 'Charlotte's Web', 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', 'The Avengers', 'Guardians of the Galaxy', and 'Star Wars Episode VII'. He is also a Chesley nominated illustrator, having illustrated books ranging from 'Fighting Fantasy' to J.R.R.Tolkien's 'The Hobbit'.
In October 2008, Palace Press International published 'Shadowline - the Art of Iain McCaig', a 28 year retrospective of his film and publishing work. In May 2014, Spectrum Fantastic Art honored him with their lifetime achievement 'Grand Master' Award.