Digital Painting: Sketch to Final for TCGs
A focused 6-week course on rendering, color theory, and composition, applied to trading card illustration.

What You’ll Learn

This course focuses on developing the essential skills behind strong digital paintings—rendering, color, and composition. Each week builds on key principles that help bring clarity, depth, and impact to your illustrations. The trading card format serves as a practical application for everything you learn, offering tight constraints that sharpen visual storytelling.

By the end of the course, you’ll have:

  • A stronger grasp of light, form, and material rendering

  • A functional understanding of color theory in storytelling

  • A complete digital painting workflow (sketch to final)

  • Personalized feedback to help you identify strengths and growth areas

  • One final polished illustration ready for use in your portfolio

INSTRUCTOR: LUIS F. CASTRO

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How It Works

  • 6 live sessions

    one per week (2:30 h each), focused on core painting topics

  • Weekly assignments

    clear, focused exercises to apply what you’ve learned

  • Personalized feedback

    each student receives recorded critique once a week

  • Small group size

    limited to 6 participants for more direct guidance

  • All sessions recorded

    so you can review the material on your own time

  • Private Discord channel

    for questions, progress sharing, and informal discussion

What You’ll Work On

  • Introduction to Digital Painting

    We’ll begin by breaking down what digital painting actually involves—how to think in layers, workflows, and structure. You’ll explore the mindset behind digital tools and get a clear view of how the full painting process takes shape from the ground up.

  • Rendering Materials

    This lesson focuses on how to render different types of surfaces—metal, fabric, skin, stone, and more. We’ll study how light interacts with each material, how to simplify those properties without losing believability, and how to use materials to support storytelling and contrast in your illustration.

  • Value Matrix

    Description goesThis lesson focuses on value as structure. You’ll learn how to break down an image into grouped value areas that support composition, lighting, and focal point. The value matrix becomes a visual logic map for your entire painting. here

  • Colour Theory

    We’ll go beyond the color wheel and focus on practical, image-driven color choices. This lesson includes value-to-color transitions, temperature control, and building harmonies that support mood and legibility.

  • Lighting and Rendering

    This lesson explores how to create believable lighting setups and consistent form. You’ll work on rendering with purpose, keeping materials, edges, and surface qualities under control while supporting the larger composition.

  • Composition

    Here we shift to spatial design and storytelling. You’ll learn how to structure an image to guide the viewer’s attention, establish hierarchy, and design for clarity within a tight visual format like trading cards.

MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR

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MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR /////////

LUIS F. CASTRO

Luis Castro is a Costa Rican illustrator and concept artist with over a decade of experience in animation, games, and visual development. His professional credits include work on Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Titmouse), Barbie: A Touch of Magic (Mainframe Studios), and the indie game Star Stuff (Tree Interactive).

Luis has also illustrated for franchises such as Hearthstone and RuneScape, and has worked across roles ranging from 2D/3D designer to art director. He spent over six years teaching at Thammasat University and King Mongkut's University in Thailand, where he focused on perspective, tone, composition, and digital painting.

In this course, Luis draws on both industry and teaching experience to guide you through a structured approach to digital painting—focused on rendering, color theory, and composition, with the trading card format as a creative constraint.

  • Designing and developing concept art for characters, environments, and props that bring stories to life in animation, games, and comics.

  • Creating dynamic and detailed backgrounds with a solid grasp of perspective, composition, and the effective use of color to set mood and atmosphere.

  • Guiding artists to build industry-ready portfolios tailored to their goals in animation, concept art, or games.

LUIS’ AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Class Starts Soon

Class Starts Soon

  • 6 weeks

  • One session per week

  • Real-time instruction with screen sharing, demos, and open discussion

  • Each participant receives one personalized recorded critique per week

  • Maximum of 6 students per cohort

Frequently asked questions

  • No. The course uses the trading card format as a creative constraint. You’ll focus on making strong, small-format illustrations, whether or not you’re familiar with the game world.

  • It’s designed for artists who already have some experience with digital painting tools. You don’t need to be advanced, but you should know your way around brushes, layers, and basic digital workflows.

  • Any digital painting program works—Photoshop, Procreate, Clip Studio, Krita, etc. The instructor will be using [insert program], but the ideas and techniques are transferable.

  • Yes. Each participant receives one personalized recorded critique per week, based on your assignments and progress.

  • All sessions are recorded and shared with the group. You can catch up anytime, and you’ll still receive your weekly feedback as scheduled.

  • Yes. This course will be repeated in future cycles. If it’s full or the timing doesn’t work for you, you can join the waitlist to be notified when the next session opens.