Skillshare Series: Chris Leavens

20 May Skillshare Series: Chris Leavens

Posted at 09:00h in Creativity by Stevo 0 Comments

We’re obsessed with Skillshare. We are genuinely and wholeheartedly in love with it. Little sick? Maybe. But it’s why we feel it necessary to write a whole series dedicated to the knowledge-sharing-and-soul-inspiring online platform.

Imagine being able to break away from everything that’s using up your energy (your work, your friends, your responsibilities), and for [insert course duration] you’re locked inside a room with a creative genius, as they walk you through their processes, their thinking, and they share all the little tricks they’ve learned in their profession, with you. Amazing! Then at the end of said course, there’s a little pot of gold with your name on it, inspiring you to pick up your [insert creative apparatus here], sending you into the realm of crazy inventiveness. Bliss.

Whether you need to wake up a little earlier, leave work a little later, or simply negotiate a “learning session” with your boss, making time to invigorate and swell your skills, is absolutely necessary. We’ve decided to allocate 90 minutes to learn something new every day, and we’ll be sharing some of our favourite courses (and finished creations) in this series.

Below is post 3 in the Skillshare Series: Chris Leavens.

Chris Leavens is as good at escaping this world and sending you on an imaginative and colourful journey, as he is at teaching digital tutorials, (and making an ex-Freehand-anti-Illustrator artist fall in love with Illustrator). He’s also an Art Director at Disney, so it’s really no surprise he can do all these things.

Grumpy flying birds, wonky metallic trees, and furry bearded bears with TVs on their heads are exactly what you can expect from Chris’ Skillshare class, Digital Illustration: Creativity, Style and Efficiency in Adobe Illustrator. Chris’ work suggests reality with subtle hints you’re familiar with, yet it’s so far removed from the world we know, you’ll find yourself looking at every little detail, questioning its existence. Our favourites are below.

Our Illustrator skills were definitely pushed, and what we know now, makes the smallest of moves have us say, “flip, I wish I knew this sooner!” Even though the illustrations were somewhat time-consuming (expected), and his technique took some getting used to (obvs), we’ve crafted two pieces we had a lot of fun with, and we’re very proud to call ours. Check them out below.

Chanel’s Illustration: