Learn How To Create Animal Characters That Belong in Picture Books.
Welcome to the Animal Character Design. A self-paced program.
This Course Is for You If…
- You love drawing animals but are unsure how to turn them into believable picture-book characters.
- You have lots of ideas, references and sketches—but struggle to make your characters feel original or expressive.
- You want to understand animal structure without becoming overwhelmed by technical anatomy.
- You want your characters to have more personality, movement and storytelling potential.
- You are building a children’s illustration portfolio and want a strong, character-led piece to include.
- You are a beginner, returning artist or practising illustrator looking for a clearer, more playful design process.
Inside the course, you’ll learn how to:
- Make your characters expressive through pose, gesture, facial expression and body language.
- Use anthropomorphism thoughtfully, so your animals feel relatable while still retaining their animal qualities.
- Develop an animal character in a way that supports a story, personality and emotional moment.
- Explore and strengthen your own illustration style rather than copying someone else’s.
- Design a scene around your character and create a finished picture-book illustration for your portfolio.
By the end, you’ll have a repeatable process for creating expressive animal characters, plus a finished illustration that reflects your voice as a picture-book illustrator.
"The passion that Nina has for animal character designs definitely showed is this course. Each week Nina gives you enough tools to improve your skills making you want to practice more and more. It covers a lot in just one month, and it's worth every penny!"
Carol Arantes
Animal Character Design Course, 2022
"Nina was an excellent teacher – professional, brilliant, fantastic artist, and easily understood… By the end of the course, I had created several animal characters that I've used for some of the books I'm currently working on."
Karla Hull
Animal Character Design Course, 2022
"I loved the step-by-step illustration techniques. It was a very logical course that kept building. Love the teaching styles with so many examples and practical instruction."
Rachel Fia
Animal Character Design Course, 2022
Why You’ll Love Learning This Way
- Self-paced and flexible:Â Learn in your own time, wherever you are.
- Practical, not overly technical:Â Build skills through clear demonstrations, sketchbook exercises and creative projects.
- Designed for picture-book illustrators:Â Every lesson connects character design to expression, story and portfolio development.
- Supportive resources:Â Includes video lessons, demonstrations, recorded live sessions, expert interviews, downloadable resources and a workbook.
- A meaningful final outcome:Â Create a finished animal-character illustration you can be proud to share.
Your Animal Character Design Journey
This self-paced program is divided into four modules. In each module, you’ll work through video lessons, illustration demonstrations, and creative exercises before bringing everything together in a final push project.
You can pause, revisit lessons and develop your animal characters at a pace that works for you.
Tasks & Projects
This course features four Modules, each with four Tasks and a final Push Project, along with video lessons & demos.
Workbook
A comprehensive workbook that complements the video lessons, helping you deepen your understanding.
Portfolio
Bring your animal characters to life in your portfolio by capturing their heart, personality, and imagination.
Week-by-Week Overview
This self-paced program includes four modules with tasks, a final project, video lessons, demonstrations, expert interviews, and a comprehensive workbook.
Learn the foundations of animal character design: how to look closely at real animals, gather useful references, and transform what you see into imaginative character ideas.
You’ll explore:
- What makes an animal character successful
- Why observation matters
- Sketching from reference versus sketching from life
- Moving from observation into imagination
- Establishing a sketchbook practice that supports your ideas
Discover how to give your animals personality, emotion and human relatability—while keeping them believable as animals.
You’ll explore:
- What anthropomorphism is and how to use it
- How animal bodies move
- Construction, volume and simple forms
- Pose, gesture and expression
- Using body language to suggest story and personality
Learn how to push, simplify and exaggerate animal features to create characters with instant personality.
In this module, you’ll explore caricature as a playful design tool. Rather than trying to draw every detail realistically, you’ll learn how to notice the features that make an animal distinctive—then amplify them through shape, proportion and expression.
You’ll explore:
- What caricature design is and why it works so well in children’s illustration
- Animal archetypes and the visual clues that help us read character quickly
- A repeatable sketch–design–refine process for developing ideas
- How to break down reference into useful shapes and design decisions
- How to create a caricatured animal character that feels expressive, original and true to your style
By the end of this module, you’ll have a stronger understanding of how to make bold design choices that give your animal characters more personality and appeal.
Bring your characters together and explore how relationships can make a story world feel richer, funnier and more memorable.
You’ll explore:
- How fables use animal characters to communicate personality, conflict and meaning
- The role of villains, obstacles and opposing characters in storytelling
- A simple five-step process for building a character persona
- How silhouettes, shape language and scale can distinguish one character from another
- How to design and illustrate your own animal “dream team”
By the end of the course, you’ll bring your learning together in a final character-led illustration: a lively, expressive scene that showcases your animal designs, storytelling skills and personal visual voice.
"First time trying animal caricature but absolutely loved everything. It's a whole new world for me and the ideas are flowing continuously. Thanks so much, Nina for putting this out into the world – I can't wait to see where this journey leads me!"
Sue Lippiatt
Animal Character Design Course, 2022
"I now find myself creating animal characters with much more ease, and without being enslaved to the initial references. The course is very well organized and self-paced."
Alan Rolle
Animal Character Design Course, 2022
"I really loved it and I learned so much that I can keep practicing. I loved how it was organized and I resonated with Nina's teaching style."
Randi Winters
Animal Character Design, 2022
Learn from a Published Picture-Book Illustrator
I’ve illustrated more than a dozen published picture books, including Boom Bah! by Phil Cummings, No More Kisses by Margaret Wild and Good Dog Hank by Jackie French.
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My book Pooka received the YABBA Award in 2013, and I also wrote and illustrated Ballroom Bonanza, an animal alphabet picture book. Animals have appeared throughout my work because they offer so much scope for humour, emotion, movement and imaginative storytelling.
In this course, I’ll share the practical design approaches I use to develop animal characters that are expressive, appealing and ready to play a meaningful role in a picture-book world.
 How I Teach
I believe learning animal character design should feel practical, playful and encouraging—not intimidating.
My teaching combines clear demonstrations with hands-on sketchbook exercises, creative prompts and projects that help you put each idea into practice straight away. You will not simply watch me draw; you’ll experiment, make discoveries and build confidence through your own work.
Along the way, I’ll encourage you to:
- Observe animals with curiosity
- Experiment without needing every sketch to be “perfect”
- Make design choices that support personality and story
- Strengthen your own artistic voice, rather than trying to draw like someone else
- Create work you feel excited to include in your portfolio
Whether you are new to animal character design or ready to take your existing illustrations further, you’ll leave with a clearer process, stronger characters and more confidence in what you can create.
Ready to Create Animal Characters Full of Life?
You do not need perfect drawing skills or advanced anatomy knowledge to create memorable animal characters.
You simply need a playful process, a willingness to experiment and the guidance to turn your observations and ideas into characters with personality, expression and story.
Join Animal Character Design and start creating the animal characters only you can bring to life.
