Short book illustration course for aspiring illustrators.

Improve your skills and learn how to create great children’s books.

Click here to purchase the full course or to find our individual modules!

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Building on the success of Pathways Into Children’s Publishing, we will be launching a brand new year-long Pathways Plus programme for anyone who wants to illustrate children’s books.

Want to hone your skills, learn some new ones, develop your book, and make connections in children’s publishing? Pathways Plus is a comprehensive course that takes you above and beyond just practical learning. The course includes 19 affordable masterclasses, short courses and professional development events, for aspiring and emerging illustrators aged 18 or over. Get unique insights, professional advice, creative guidance and critical feedback along with resource sharing, practical exercises and interaction.

Why join?:

- - The full year-long, three-module programme, takes you from character creation to pitching your book
  - Learn from 45 successful illustrators, publishing editors and art directors
  - 125 hours of flexible learning delivered on the weekend
  - Affordable and goal driven learning with option to pay in instalments
  - And you can choose to attend in-person or online!
With just 35 places on the full programme starting May 2023 make sure you sign up today! Have some questions? We may have already answered it in our FAQs or email us today on pathways@pop-up.org.uk.

Take a quick look at the full course below:

Prospectus 2023-2024

Our modules and full course

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Full Course Package

The Full Course Package enables you to attend all Masterclasses, Short Courses and Professional Development Events included in all three modules: Developing Your Characters, Developing Your Stories and Pictures and Developing Your Books and Pitching Your Stories.

£2,099.00

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Module One: Developing Your Characters

Module One explores the world of character design and development. Learn how to create appealing, engaging and authentic characters with award-winning illustrators and acclaimed art directors.

£499.00

Module

Module Two: Developing Your Stories and Pictures

Module Two dives deeper into the story world, developing sequential narratives, plotting, storyboarding, framing and page turns. Learn how to evolve your concepts into stories, and explore the industry of working with writers to create award-winning picture books.

£699.00

Module

Module Three: Developing Your Books and Pitching Your Stories

Module Three is the final piece of the puzzle, where you will apply your knowledge on character design and development, visual language, colour, typography, sequential narratives and storyboarding to work on developing picture books, comics and graphic novels, and explore the world of illustrated fiction and non-fiction.

£699.00

Our courses

Masterclass

Masterclass : Illustrating People

Learn from Jane Buckley and Sara Ogilvie about using observational drawing of body language and facial expressions to create authentic characters and scenes with humor and empathy, and the importance of sketching when producing these drawings. You will explore how to provide context when drawing from observation, and how to bridge drawing from observation into illustrative narrative. Finally, you will discover how characters are created from the perspective of both an illustrator and art director.

Masterclass

Masterclass : Illustrating Animals

During this Masterclass, you will learn how to add character and personality to your animals with author and illustrator, Jan Fearnley and Jane Buckley, Senior Art Director at Simon & Schuster. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module One.

Masterclass

Masterclass : Bringing Characters to Life

In this one-day masterclass with Selom Sunu and Chanté Timothy, you’ll explore character case studies, and use practical exercises to transform your sketched character concept into a believable character through movement, gesture and interaction. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module One.

Masterclass

Short Course : Developing Concepts into Stories

In this one-day Masterclass, you will learn how to take your initial concepts, characters and ideas and develop them into picture book stories. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module Two.

Masterclass

Masterclass : Working with Writers

In this one-day Masterclass, you will master the art of illustrating other people’s writing by exploring the processes involved in illustrating picture book texts – working both collaboratively and at-a-distance with writers. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module Two.

Masterclass

Masterclass : Working with Colour

In this one-day Masterclass, you will learn about colour theory and how to utilise colour effectively to create bold and eye-catching illustrations. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module Two.

£90.00

Masterclass

Masterclass : Hand lettering & Typography

In this one-day Masterclass, you will gain insight into the process behind font choices and typography within children’s literature. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module Two.

£90.00

Masterclass

Masterclass : Cover Illustration

This one-day Masterclass will explore a range of considerations from image selection to hand-lettering, and also give an insight into the differences between fiction and non-fiction book covers. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module Two.

£90.00

Short Course

Short Course : Creating Visual Sequences with Characters

Having worked together for nearly 20 years, children’s book illustrator Viviane Schwarz and Ben Norland, Executive Art Director at Walker Books, now share their unique insights into making a bestselling picture book. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module One.

£170.00

Short Course

Short Course : Making Sequential Narratives

In this two-day Short Course, you will explore the world of storybuilding, learning about plotting, storyboarding, framing and page turns. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module Two.

£170.00

Short Course

Short Course : Illustrating Place and Atmosphere

In this two-day Short Course with award-winning author and illustrator, Benji Davies, and David McDougall,Creative Director at Simon & Schuster you will learn about creating story worlds that come to life on the pages of bestselling picture books. This course can be taken individually or as part of Module Two.

£170.00

Masterclass

Masterclass : Picture Books

In this day-long course, Yasmeen Ismail and Louise Jackson will introduce themselves, providing an overview of their work, their professional backgrounds, their working relationship together, and their experience of working collaboratively in producing a picture book.

£90.00

Masterclass

Masterclass : Comics & Graphic Novels

With an emerging market in middle grade comics, and the YA (young adult) crossover appeal of many graphic novels, the reach and potential of comics in children’s literature has never been greater.

£90.00

Masterclass

Masterclass : Illustrated Fiction

Illustrated chapter books and novels support young readers’ imaginations, illuminating characters and their personalities as well as creating a sense of place and atmosphere.

£90.00

Acclaim for Pathways Plus courses

This was definitely the best, and most inspiring course that I have participated in over the years!

Having that author/illustrator and art director insight was the best thing.

A great opportunity for networking and exchange of ideas.

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