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Registrations for Beginner's Guide to Dark Fantasy Character Illustration are closed!
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What you will learn:
Set Up & Plan Your Illustration
Learn what separates dark fantasy from horror and how to speak its visual language; from getting painting-ready with the right software, canvas, and brushes to developing a character concept, setting mood and emotional tone, building references, and thumbnailing ideas that tell a story in a single frame.
Build, Compose & Light the Scene
Master the fundamentals that give an image its drama; composing with shape and silhouette, controlling value to lead the viewer's eye, constructing the human figure with a subtly twisted, unsettling look, and shaping mood through dramatic lighting and limited dark fantasy palettes.
Render & Finish a Portfolio-Ready Piece
Follow the full process from clean underdrawing and blocked-in values to fully rendered skin, eyes, hair, and cloth, then add effects, color grade, polish, and export a finished character illustration you're proud to share with your community and loved ones.
MEET THE ARTIST
Xiaofan Zhang
I'm a concept artist and illustrator based in Toronto, known for horror and dark-fantasy illustrations in a cinematic style with a heavy emphasis on narrative. I started drawing at four and instead of art school I taught myself online with working industry professionals, which is exactly why I love teaching this way now.
In Beginner's Guide to Dark Fantasy Character Illustration, I'll walk you through my full workflow: starting from a story and a sketch, then carrying it all the way to a finished illustration. You don't need to be an expert. You just need a drawing tablet and a love for the dark and fantastical.
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