Taking a class here was an absolutely great and eye opening experience to me! Only few weeks later, my recognition and approach to work on an illustration assignment was totally changed and broaden, that even drove me to another challenge or excitement to work as an illustrator. First of all, it was just like a dream to be able to get lectured from such masters of illustration as Gary Taxali and Thomas Fuchs, almost one by one. Their critique and advise were very articulated and sophisticated, which you can acquire only from illustrators like them who are active at the forefront of this illustration world now. Certainly it wasn't easy going class, but I highly recommend to take a class here if you are eager to get better and serious about illustration.
And practically it works well for those whom, like myself, can't manage your schedule to go to school at particular time because of your job, etc. You can work on the assignment at anytime and receive the teacher's feedback without going anywhere. Or if you are like somebody who can't spend several months to finish a course, you don't have to worry. It's short period of the time, but you can get the most intense study of illustration!

Tutormill has been a great experience. The point of view of each of my tutors was great. It was completely different from what I was used to. They made me look at things from different angles. At first it was difficult, as I tended to stay with the first idea, but in the end I could see how much all this thinking process made my work evolve. I would definetely recommend this course. I might even take another one in some time!

Crave Entrance for Illustration Friday's weekly subject

Grupo Elba Image for decorating the walls of the Commercial Department offices of the company I used to work for.

January Image for a self-promotion calendar.

be steady Personal work image.

There´s a thing I can say: you can not learn more in less time, and in such a simple way.
You can take lessons in lots of different Schools (I´ve done it), but there is nothing like having a direct communication with profesional artists, one by one, illustrators talking to illustrators.

Forget the theory and the technique classes: here you´ll get the immediate impressions from illustrators you admire, from the sketch to the final art, in a fluent communication where they will tell you good and bad things of your work, and the most important thing YOU WILL LEARN things that you can directly apply to your working process or style.

100% recommended!!!!

The Dog-Faced Boy From the Sideshow series. There have been many cases of hairy people in the Sideshow: I´ve taken some details of each to create my own Dog-Faced Boy. All of them suffered from hypertrichosis, an hereditary disease and the scientific reason for the myth of the werewolf. It was made with nib for the body and a brush for the hair, and digitally colorized.

Artwork for Love Unique, by Sugar Mountain (2010) Album cover and artwork for the album Love Unique by Sugar Mountain, 2010. All the digipack and booklet was covered with panels made with a penbrush and multiliner. They are very focused on recording and rehearsing, so they wanted something that show that interest. They always use balck, white and red in their records, so those are the only colors I used.

Gram Parsons Review of Gram Parson´s GP album cover.

Apeman Spot for the song Apeman by The Kinks.

I think the concept is amazing! I'm really happy with the work I produced and Yuko and Marcos were both amazing teachers. The online "art director" relationship works really well for someone like me who is already working in the field but wants to branch out of their comfort zone.
I would say there are a few bugs in the way the site works but overall I think it's a great system and I would definitely recommend it.
I may even try another class in the near future.

I would love to see a student work gallery!

The Princess Academy

Playgirl

Peace

The Battle

I am not sure if my words will really describe how much I enjoyed the class. I honestly was not expecting as much interaction and dialogue as was had between me and my instructors. They took it very seriously, as did I. Brian and Emiliano never backed down and never let me fall short of achieving a really great idea, they pushed me to work harder, smarter, and faster. I think Tutormill is one of the more brilliant outlets for instruction, that I have ever heard of. With a roster of literally the biggest names in the business, the idea of getting feedback from any of these artists is like a dream. Thank you.

David Byrne A portrait of musician and artist David Byrne. The image is about his latest book, The Bicycle Diaries. Here we see David preaching the Bicycle gospel.

The Bachelor Conceptual Illustration about being a single man on a sexual rampage.

Conan O'Brien Portrait of Conan O'Brien losing the late night crown.

Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings Portrait of Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings.

I am very satisfied with taking the course with Tutor Mill. It was very intereting and dynamic. The tutors got very involved with the work, helping and incentivating me with their corrections. They did deepfull reviews of my drawings which helped me to develop the idea and composition of them. With this course I found the possibility to learn with very important illustrators without moving from my city of residence.
I am very pleased with this course, I hope I will able to repeat the experience in the future!

the thinker pilot, watercolour, photoshop

It was a very interesting and enriching experience. It's great, because although I live far away (Spain), the feeling of closeness and communication is constant. I learned a lot. The comments are sincere and guidance, and they've helped me growing and developing my work. No doubt, I will repeat!

cat

a cup of coffe

water

flowers

Really interesting class. I enjoyed my teachers, Yuko and Marcos. I thought they did a great job with critique and were very helpful during the process. Thanks for offering this course!

Brenna Lindblad this is my oldest (surviving!) illustration. I created it 4 years ago but I still get comments on it. It is one of a pair of illustrations that deals with two different opinions concerning Munchausen Syndrome.

Brenna Lindblad This illustration was for an Angolan director. The title is "The Underground and the Mainstream Have a Secret Love" (meaning music!)

Brenna Lindblad This is a mock up of a cover for Momotaro.

Brenna Lindblad This is a piece about dreams. The crows are nightmares and the orange cardinals are good dreams.

The class was great - I think this is a wonderful tool that people can use to get feedback and go through the process, ask questions and not feel like they are stealing time from the masters. I will take another class as soon as I chew through everything I learned in this one!

Thanks for this opportunity!

Nina

Illustration For Local Chapter of Sierra Club For the article about girl who chooses to bike over car and more nature experiences over owning stuff.

Illustration For Local Chapter of Sierra Club Article was about upcoming cuts in service because of budget issues.

Illustration Friday The theme was - Brave.

Sketchbook Page

If you have any doubts about whether to take a Tutormill course my advice is "just do it!"... you won't regret it!!!

I took the "Visual Metaphors" 3 week course, tutored by Emiliano Ponzi and Ellen Weinstein. Both tutors were brilliant and super professional, giving prompt guidance and advice without fail every day...

The course was excellent! As a self-taught illustrator this was my first opportunity to get some professional tuition and it couldn't have been a better learning experience.

Emiliano and Ellen gave extremely helpful feedback on all stages of my work... from inital concept sketches, to finalised drawings and final coloured images. They didn't let me get away with my first lame ideas but always (gently) encouraged me to explore different approaches and tried to get the best out of me...

One major benefit I got from the course was that it exposed the weakest areas I had as an illustrator, so upon finishing I knew exactly what skills I needed to focus on improving...

I can't recommend Tutormill enough, and I am already saving up to do another course in the near future...

The class was great - I think this is a wonderful tool that people can use to get feedback and go through the process, ask questions and not feel like they are stealing time from the masters. I will take another class as soon as I chew through everything I learned in this one!

A couple of thoughts on usability of the set-up:
I use Mozila Firefox 3.6.12 on the Mac.
1. when I was uploading sketches/drafts I had to manually reload whole page to do another upload every single time. Otherwise Add Draft button did not work
2. It was a little confusing that I had a chat window and a conversation window - may be it was me but chat was not very convenient place to place my questions - and people ended up answering me in the general thread for the project.
3. I did add tutormill e-mail to my addressbook and did not see anything in my spam folder - but I was getting only weekly reminder e-mails - and only once got an e-mail that a reply was posted to my questions. I think it would be better to get an e-mail every time when there is a new message.

Thanks for this opportunity!

Nina

One Man Spaceship

A red cat with teeth in his eyes

Two Cat's Jazz

Instructors Yuko Shimizu and Marcos Chin were absolutely great - very responsive and encouraging. Unfortunately I had to drop the class due to outside circumstances but have signed up again! Thanks for this awesome opportunity.

Lydia Portrait of a friend, done in watercolor and ink, in an attempt to showcase her personality through symbols and objects form her life.

Panzer People

Aladdin

What time is it...?! A tribute to Adventure Time, in pencil and colored in Photoshop.

What I wrote the artists:

The class was very eye opening and I learned a lot about 'focus' and problem solving in illustration as a way of extending a communication. Also whereas before I was flailing trying to catch attention via social networks I'm realizing it's just better to do good work and you know, go out and get real work. I'm likely to explore several other courses/instructor combinations since my strategy has always been more of tenacity and diversity and will eventually for different class types (like fictional book cover or album art) later in the year. This is a great system in that it made me feel less lost in the woods and inspired me to do more proactive research.

I would add, it would be nice to include more topics in a magazine spots, to have a "Magazine Spots II" to cover a wider range of topics to practice with. Also to add a kind of narrative story class (as well as book covers) since often I have stories not quite fantasy/sci fi but with that edge requested.

I look forward to taking more classes!

picking flowers watercolor/fountain ink on bristol, digital finish.

legba Character for a anthology project called The Red Phone Box

Fish Out of Water Tutormill's Newsweek Spots Class

Naga Skinned People 1 page comic

The class I took - Visual Metaphors with Brian Stauffer and Yuko Shimizu - was a wonderful experience. Both instructors really took the time to push me and make sure I was producing the best work possible, from sketch to final product. It was very refreshing for me to have a new perspective on my work, especially coming from 2 artists whose work I really admire.
I would definitely recommend Tutormill, and will probably take another class myself!

Red Tape

The Wealthy Make Cut Backs

Blue Bin Laden

Beholder

Wonderful course.
I really wanted the push and feedback from my peers and working with two professionals (Edel Rodriguez and Noah Woods) was a great experience.

thank you again

Wade Mickley Title: Do you carry a weapon for protection on the trail? Art Director: Jedd Ferris Client: Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine Medium: digital

Too many green products? Blue Ridge Outdoors

Should a nine-year-old boy be allowed to climb Mount Everest?

What is killing our bees?

I found "Visual Metaphors" with David Plunkett and Yuko Shimizu mentally challenging and creatively stimulating. The two tutors had a real synergy in their crit sessions and were extremely gracious with their time - particularly when I submitted multiple sketches.

As I reside out of the U.S., some of their references were lost on me, and I think we struggled on one of the assignments primarily from disparate views of a particular international issue. But I think this difference in opinion, and this struggle to push through and reach an end-point in the assignment showcased their dedication, their commitment to giving constructive criticism, and displayed an unwavering control over their own individual design processes. It was an utmost pleasure seeing such skilled individuals at work.

The Proposed Rescue of Ganymede Superheroes Roughage and Foliage re-enact their proposal to rescue Ganymede.

The Peranakan The plucking

The Cosmodogs Rescue Christmas Part of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Christmas Card for 2010. The series of illustrations at: cosmodogs.blogspot.com

Polar Grill

This has been hugely motivating and more worthwhile than I had ever anticipated. I began the course feeling like a fish out of water; I hadn't done any conceptual illustration for almost 20 years. After just 3 weeks I feel confident enough to try my hand at this type of work . My instructors (Henrik Drescher and Brian Stauffer) gave me an understanding of the need to focus on the problem and whittle away toward a pared down solution that speaks clearly to the issue. I appreciated their patience and terrific advice. I'm disappointed the course is ending!

Appeal for Disability Rights Poster

Arni and the Parrot fish Charcoal and oil on board

Jane Eyre book cover Pencil and digital, personal work

Manitoulin Poster Oil on canvas - poster for Aquaculture Company

This has been hugely motivating and more worthwhile than I had ever anticipated. I began the course feeling like a fish out of water; I hadn't done any conceptual illustration for almost 20 years. After just 3 weeks I feel confident enough to try my hand at this type of work . My instructors (Henrik Drescher and Brian Stauffer) gave me an understanding of the need to focus on the problem and whittle away toward a pared down solution that speaks clearly to the issue. I appreciated their patience and terrific advice. I'm disappointed the course is ending.

Continuation Size: 12H x 8.5W Medium: Etching with Aquatint I wanted to talk about relationship and communication. Though creatures in a picture are all looking at different directions and seem not to be interested in each other, they are somehow connected through the knitting thread the girl is holding. Though sole interest of many people these days seems to be themselves, and diverse ways of communication tools online seem to be somewhat empty, I wanted to express there still is a way to communicate and connect.

Carousel in Woods Size: 18W x 12H Medium: Etching with Aquatint I am often fascinated by the art of carousel. It contains different kinds of animals in different motions and expressions with fantastic colors and amazing craftsmanship. To me, carousel is like a gift basket of creativeness and imagination. This work is inspired by my imagination of setting these beautiful animals free in nature, out of endless going around routine of carousel.

Cat Dreams Size: 9W x 6H Medium: Etching, aquatint with color pencils This is a portrait of my little companion, Horang (meaning Tiger in Korean) in sleep. I always wanted to make a portrait of her, and when I finally decided to do it, it seemed natural depicting her sleeping since sleeping took up the major part of her daily task. At the same time, I wanted to include some paper cranes she liked to hunt down from my desk during the day, to add a hint of her playful characteristics.

Spring Has Gone Size: 6W x 11H Medium: Etching, aquatint and color pencils Indirect self-portrait. Though I am trying to include people's faces in my picture more, I like it better when I do not show the facial expression directly. It is certainly very interesting to see how people react when they do not see the face of main character of the picture.

This has been hugely motivating and more worthwhile than I had ever anticipated. I began the course feeling like a fish out of water; I hadn't done any conceptual illustration for almost 20 years. After just 3 weeks I feel confident enough to try my hand at this type of work . My instructors (Henrik Drescher and Brian Stauffer) gave me an understanding of the need to focus on the problem and whittle away toward a pared down solution that speaks clearly to the issue. I appreciated their patience and terrific advice. I'm disappointed the course is ending.

Boston Terrier Formation Cover for The Varsity magazine, January 2010

Mubarak's Escape Plan

Why Parents Fear the Needles

Shipbreakers

Top notch guidance from true masters!

I do not exaggerate when I say my three week course in Information Graphics changed the way I thought about Illustration completely. Working with a couple of supportive but demanding professionals not only pushed me beyond my comfort zone, but also loosened me up to take a more human approach to drawing and imagery. O. K. that sounds a little high falutin, but it's true. It was also a lot of fun.

Bike in the snow created with Painter and Photoshop, based on sketches from my iPad using sketchbook pro

Tim Geithner Photoshop portrait from my sketchbook that I kept while watching the global economy collapse on TV!

Colt .38 3D model created with SoftImage.

Water Pump Technical illustration Vector art.

I took Fictional Book Jacket Covers with Ellen Weinstein and Chris Buzelli, and I could not have asked for better instructors. Their feedback was always spot-on, and they really made me stretch.

The Tutormill interface is streamlined and simple. The assignments are challenging. My only regret is having signed up for a three-week course, rather than a six-week course!

Abecedario Self-promo piece targeted at children's market.

Lizard Brain Another self-promo piece.

Halloween promo Self-promo postcard. Connecticut Art Directors' Club (2011).

US Open theme art For US Tennis Association

I can only speak from my personal experience, but overall I found tutormill fantastic, and was conductive with personal growth.

I had Chris Buzelli and Yuko Shimizu. Buzelli was really good at being the "Bad Cop", finding the things you need to work an improve on. Yuko's teaching style balanced that out, since her style was pointing out both something good and something bad about your work. Both their critiques played off each other really well. As well as being really knowledgeable illustrators, they were great teachers, and I still go back to what I learned from that class from time to time.

I also really enjoyed the format of the critiques and the flexibility. You can reread them in case you forget something.

Sunny D Based on an article about how fortifying children with vitamin D protects them against the cold virus

Me in a Bottle Based on an article about a woman finding her self-identity through perfume.

The Filthy Moralist Based on an article describing Louis Ck's comedy style.

Things to Fear and Loathe Based on an article about how phobias are a compartmentalized form of our general anxiety.

It was a great experience working with such awesome tutors. I chose Marcos and Greg who's work I admire and they offer really great advice and critique as "Art Director" in the real world. Taking 6 week class gives me motivation and excitement to work as an illustrator again, and I really enjoyed 'humorous illustration' class even though some assignments were pretty tough. I would highly recommend to take a course from here and would love to try taking another class from Tutormill again in the future!

Thank you :)

YooJin

Micro Chicken Farming

Not Anymore

Diana Complex Diana complex is repressed desire of a woman to be a man. In Greek mythology, Diana was a goddess of hunting and protectress of woman.

PeterPan Complex A person who has Peter Pan Complex refuses to grow up and socially immature.

I found the class extremely, extremely useful. I received fantastic, professional critiques and was provided with challenging assignments which is precisely what I was hoping for!

While I Dream This was done as a part of an independent study I took with my instructor, Lee White as an exercise in editorial illustration. It was done to accompany this article; http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/frontal-cortex/2012/06/the-virtues-of-daydreaming.html

To Be Read Aloud For my editorial independent study at my school one of the assignments I had was to create a mock-cover for a magazine while incorporating a celebrity as well. I chose to do Morgan Freeman on the cover of The New Yorker.

Be Brave This is a personal illustration I did based on the idea of being brave even when you don't feel like you can be.

What to Do This was a personal illustration I did as an exercise in making a mock-comic cover.

I took the Visual Metaphors class with Chris Buzelli and James Yang. I found the class really challenging and valuable. Chris and James really pushed me to push myself, they didn't let me get away with mediocre ideas, but challenged me to come up with clever solutions and dynamic compositions, as well as showing me my strengths and weaknesses as an illustrator. I've learnt a lot and grown from my experience.

I really loved the class, it was hard work but it exceeded my expectations. I'd recommend it to any aspiring illustrators and am really keen to do another class. The Tutormill platform was also really easy to use.

Manila Map of Manila for Computer Arts magazine

Women in Tech Personal illustration based on a Wired UK article about the secret to getting more women in tech.

Stoker Postcard for the movie Stoker for Curzon Cinemas (UK)/Fox Searchlight.

Under the Sea Double spread 'Where's Wally?' style game for upcoming Anorak magazine.

Honestly, Tutormill provides a great platform for us to improve our works through helpful feedback from the professional illustrators. The teachers I had were Chris Buzelli and Yuko Shimizu and they are really fantastic. I really like their directness that helps to improve my works and that I was able to see the whole journey of the process. Despite of their busy schedules, I really appreciate their time in guiding me and showing me what visual metaphors are really like. With the great learning experience earned through this Tutormill with them, I can apply it to my future works and to create better works. I strongly recommend TM as a great stepping stone to anyone who is interested to dive further into conceptual illustration. Thank you, Tutormill!

Memories

Lost

I Will Be With You

Rise of the Tiger Nation

I was pleasantly surprised by how thorough the feedback was. I would definitely recommend this service.

Woody Allen Exagerated portrait

Tom Joad Portrait of the famous literary character.

Beer Poster

I loved being able to get feedback from select tutors, and the guidance with which to push my work forward. I intend on taking more classes, and possibly doing a portfolio review. However, the form for commenting could be improved. I had to continuously go back to the site and refresh the page multiple times, since comments to my posts didn't automatically ping me with an email. This is the singlemost thing that could definitely improve my experience. Overall, though, I'm very happy that this site exists – thanks tutormill!

Global Warming

Somali Piracy

Garden of Eden with two dudes

film poster for Das Boot