Line & Color Intensive - The Drawing Codex

Create Two Portfolio Pieces in 8 Weeks With Live Feedback

The last 10-20 percent of quality is what separates good artists from working professionals and mastering it is more attainable than you think.

Enroll Now - $790

Apr 20 start • Weekly feedback & Q&A • 2 Portfolio Pieces • Week 1 satisfaction guarantee

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8-Week Live Cohort

Transform Your Skills Into Finished Portfolio Work

The Line & Color Intensive is an 8-week live cohort where you'll create two complete portfolio pieces, from initial thumbnails to final polish, with expert feedback at every stage.

You'll master the professional 4-step illustration process (thumbnailing, construction, line work, color) by applying it twice: first on a manageable character piece, then on a complex multi-character scene.

Each week includes focused exercises, asynchronous feedback with draw-overs and paint-overs, live Q&A sessions, and real-time process demos showing exactly how to turn your ideas into professional illustrations.

The Intensive

Getting the last 10-20 Percent Right

Figuring out how to create images with depth, dimension, and a high level of polish is what unlocks many doors as a professional artist.

The line and color style has a huge range of uses, from comic books and graphic novels to concept art and keyframe illustrations, from book covers to trading cards, from animation to game art.

What makes this style so powerful is its versatility.

You can create living, breathing worlds with simple flat color and clean lines.

Or... you can combine lines with painted backgrounds. Creating hybrid line styles. Echoing the classic animation styles of Ghibli or Classic Disney.

You can work fast for production or slow for cover-quality pieces.

One of the biggest challenges though, is creating illustrations with a high level of detail and polish. Making sure you can take your image from an idea to an image with depth and dimension and a sense of finish and polish.

Most intermediate artists who are trying to get to a professional level with their art struggle to get the last 20 percent of detail working properly.

Keyframe Illustrations

Creating Keyframe style illustrations is one of the most exciting art jobs out there. This kind of polished work opens many doors.

The Challenge

No Easy Task

If you take my journey as an example I was not naturally good at creating detail. In the beginning, I struggled with this exact problem. I wanted to create those big splash pages, those epic scenes with multiple characters and environments.

I had ideas, I understood composition and color theory, I could draw decently... but I couldn't put it all together at a professional level.

This stopped a lot of good opportunities from really playing out!

I'd get close to landing better work, but my portfolio pieces lacked that final polish. When you're competing for concept art jobs, book covers, or high-paying illustration work, people pick the shiniest thing. They pick the artist who can deliver consistent quality and detail. I was missing something crucial, and I didn't know how to get it.

Professional Cover Work

Making things look clean and finished doesn't have to take weeks. Strong composition and clean simple shapes can make things feel refined.

What I Discovered

Process

The breakthrough wasn't learning new techniques. It was understanding process.

I realized professional artists weren't just "better" at drawing. They had a reliable system.

They knew exactly what to do at each stage. They knew how a thumbnail set up the final detail. They knew when to inject perspective, anatomy, color theory into their workflow.

They knew how to build illustrations so that adding polish wasn't stressful guesswork. It was the natural result of proper preparation.

Once I figured out my process, how to go from thumbnail to construction to linework to color, everything changed.

I could finally create those comic splash pages. I could land keyframe work. I could deliver book covers that looked professional under scrutiny. The same skills I always had suddenly worked way better because I knew when and how to apply them.

Complex Scene Work

The more characters, the more backgrounds, the more action and interaction... the harder an image becomes.

The Process

Master the Professional 4-Step Workflow

The same process professional illustrators use for comic covers, keyframe illustrations, and concept art. Simple to understand, challenging to master.

Idea & Thumbnail

Plan and perfect images that move your audience and communicate effectively.

Construction

Solve all technical problems before the visible stages. This is where real improvement happens.

Line Work

Focus on motion, expression, texture, emotion. Getting your story into the line work.

Color & Rendering

Define the style and mood. Flat color or full rendering, you decide.

Ready to Master Your Process?

Join the 8-week intensive and create two portfolio pieces with expert feedback at every stage.

Enroll Now - $790 Learn More About The Curriculum

The 8-Week Structure

Two Portfolio Pieces, Simple First, Then Complex

Master the 4-step process on a character illustration (Weeks 1-4), take a 1-week break to finish and rest, then apply it to a complex scene (Weeks 5-8), with bonus Week 9 for final polish.

The mid-course break prevents burnout and gives you time to finish your first piece without pressure.

The 8-Week Structure

Watch how the cohort is structured for maximum results

Course Schedule

APR

13-19

APR

20-26

APR-MAY

27-3

MAY

4-10

MAY

11-17

BREAK

MAY

18-24

MAY

25-31

JUN

1-7

JUN

8-14

JUN

15-21

JUN

22-28

APR

13-19

APR

20-26

APR-MAY

27-3

MAY

4-10

MAY

11-17

BREAK

MAY

18-24

MAY

25-31

JUN

1-7

JUN

8-14

JUN

15-21

JUN

22-28

Week by Week Your 8-Week Transformation

Week 0

Early Bird Access

Apr 13-19, 2026

Jump in early and get oriented before the intensive officially begins. Meet your cohort, explore the community platform, and get personalized feedback on where to focus your growth.

What You'll Get

Special work review: Submit your current best work for feedback
Personalized guidance on your #1 focus area for the intensive
Early community introductions and platform orientation
Strategic planning for how you'll use the 8 weeks

Outcomes

Start Week 1 with a clear understanding of what to prioritize, community connections already forming, and confidence in the platform. Use the work review to build a better plan for your intensive journey.

Week 1

Thumbnailing

Apr 20-26, 2026

Plan composition and explore ideas before committing. Sketch 10+ variations before selecting direction.

Focus Areas

Explore composition through multiple thumbnail sketches
Find what works before investing time in details
Plan character placement, environment, focal points

Outcomes

Create 15+ thumbnail variations of your character concept and select your strongest direction.

Week 2

Construction & Drawing

Apr 27 - May 3, 2026

Build solid forms and structure. Find groundplane and establish space.

Focus Areas

Construct character with proper anatomy
Build forms for background elements
Sort out perspective and environment
Create solid underdrawing

Outcomes

Complete structural drawing ready for final linework.

Week 3

Linework & Inking

May 4-10, 2026

Create emotion, texture, and character through lines.

Focus Areas

Choose linework approach (painted BG vs line/color BG)
Create texture through line effects
Use thick/thin variation for depth
Organize layers for color separation

Outcomes

Professional linework ready for color application.

Week 4

Color & Finishing

May 11-17, 2026

Professional polish and final grading for your first piece.

Focus Areas

Choose finish: flat color OR rendering
Paint backgrounds (if using painted approach)
Add shading and lighting effects
Professional color grading techniques

Outcomes

Complete first portfolio piece - Character illustration with background.

Mid-Course Break

📅 May 18-24, 2026

One week to finish your first piece, get final feedback, and recharge before tackling your second illustration. Community stays open.

Week 5

Thumbnailing

May 25-31, 2026

Apply thumbnailing to a more complex scene with multiple characters and detailed environment.

Focus Areas

Plan composition for multiple figures and elements
Establish depth and dimension
Create visual hierarchy across complex scene
Explore 15+ variations before committing

Outcomes

Complete thumbnail plan for complex multi-character scene ready for construction phase.

Week 6

Construction & Drawing

Jun 1-7, 2026

Build solid structure for multiple characters interacting with detailed environment.

Focus Areas

Construct multiple figures with correct anatomy
Build background with depth and overlap
Establish perspective across entire scene
Create relationships between characters and environment

Outcomes

Complete structural underdrawing for complex scene ready for linework.

Week 7

Linework & Inking

Jun 8-14, 2026

Create your finished linework! Emotion, texture, and character through lines.

Focus Areas

Differentiate materials and textures through line quality
Use line weight to create depth hierarchy
Organize layers for efficient color workflow
Maintain consistency across complex composition

Outcomes

Professional linework for complex scene ready for final color application.

Week 8

Color & Finishing

Jun 15-21, 2026

Bring your scene to finish with color and refinement.

Focus Areas

Color multiple characters maintaining visual unity
Paint or render background elements
Apply lighting and atmosphere effects
Final color grading

Outcomes

Complete second piece - Complex multi-character scene ready for portfolio.

Week 9

Bonus Feedback Week

Jun 22-28, 2026

The course is complete, but Week 9 gives you one last opportunity to get feedback and finalize your portfolio pieces.

What's Included

Final feedback on your second portfolio piece (complex scene)
Catch-up time to complete any unfinished work

Outcomes

A final week to wrap up any loose ends from the second image and get one last round of feedback. No new lessons or exercises this week. Just time and space to finish strong.

8 core weeks + bonus week 9 • 1-week mid-course break • Weekly feedback & Q&A • 2 complete portfolio pieces • Lifetime tutorial access

Ready to Start?

Join the 8-week intensive and create two portfolio pieces with expert feedback at every stage.

Enroll Now - $790 See What's Included

Weeks 1-4: Character Focus

Build Your Foundation With Manageable Complexity

Your first portfolio piece focuses on a single character with environment so you learn the process without overwhelming complexity. Explore compositions through thumbnailing, build solid construction, create expressive linework, and choose your finishing approach.

Character with Environment

Single character with environment, the foundation for character-focused illustration.

Depth & Atmosphere

Focus on foreground, middle ground, and background to turn a simple character illustration into something special.

Effects & Texture

Special effects and tonal patterns. You can play around with a lot of advanced effects, textures, ideas just through using a simple image.

Weeks 5-8: Complex Scene

Level Up With Multi-Character Narrative

Apply the same 4-step process to a complex multi-character scene with detailed environment, atmosphere, and narrative. This is where you prove you can handle high-level illustration challenges.

Multi-Character Action

Even just adding a couple of characters and having them interact can make a huge difference.

Story & Atmosphere

Focus on telling a story or a scene with atmosphere to take your work to the next level.

Strong Color & Narrative

Combining illustrative quality with a complicated composition and narrative.

What You Get Each Week

Assignments, Feedback, Q&A, and Community

Weekly Exercise Videos

Short, focused 1-2 hour sessions explaining the assignment, key concepts, and what to focus on at each stage.

You Create

Work on your assignment at your own pace throughout the week, posting progress and asking questions as you go.

Asynchronous Feedback

Submit your work and receive detailed draw-overs and paint-overs with specific guidance on what to refine and why.

Live Q&A Sessions

Weekly livestream where you can jump on and ask questions live. Recordings available if you can't attend.

Real-Time Demos

Watch Tim work through the same assignment in real-time, fully narrated, showing mistakes, problem-solving, everything.

Community Arena

Post your work, get feedback from peers, share inspiration, ask questions in dedicated chat area for real-time help.

Professional Results

Strong composition and clean execution create professional-quality portfolio work.

The Intermediate Artist Transformation

Breaking through the 80 percent barrier to professional polish

Student Success

The Power of a Hero Image

Once an artist can create finished, highly polished illustrations, they act as hero images that go out and fight battles for them.

Most of the time when art directors contact me, they don't really know who I am. They just know: "You're the person who did that one image."

That one image sparked their imagination about working with me. People remember artists for their standout work, not scattered studies.

Noobovich

Ibrahem took one of my 8-week courses about 12 years ago. We worked on:

Thumbnailing and exploring ideas

Combining solid drawing with story and narrative

Planning compositions (foreground, middle ground, background, atmosphere, focus)

Understanding that light and dark shapes need to be planned in the thumbnail

His ability to take his skills and turn them into epic illustrations has helped him build a successful artistic career.

First Workshop Piece

One of the first images Noobovich created for the class.

Second Workshop Piece

Great solid composition and story.

Career Breakthrough

Top of Artstation for 3 days, #1 on Reddit for 24 hours, #9 artwork of the year on Artstation.

"To this day I still use Tim's methods when tackling large illustrations — from his structured process and layer management techniques to the brush set we received during the course."

Ibrahem Swaid

Hear More →

The Transformation

Work With Confidence Instead of Guesswork

When you master a reliable process, you sit down to create knowing exactly what comes next. You finish pieces instead of abandoning them, your work becomes consistently better, and you can take on opportunities knowing you can deliver.

Focus on What Matters

With a reliable process, you can focus on story, emotion, and the art itself.

Your Instructor: Tim McBurnie

Tim McBurnie

Professional Artist & Instructor

25+ Years Professional Experience Published Author Concept Artist Illustrator 14 years teaching experience

Professional Experience: I've worked as a professional artist for almost twenty-five years, as a comicbook artist, illustrator & concept artist. I've helped launch several successful Kickstarter campaigns My client experience includes:

Editions Delcourt
Gunfire Games
Animal Logic
Blur Studios
Blizzard Entertainment
Wizards of the Coast

Teaching & Community: Over the past thirteen years, I've taught hundreds of 8-week and 12-week intensive classes through Concept Design Workshop and CG Society. My tutorials have been published on multiple platforms since 2009. I'm the founder of the Drawing Codex and the host of the Visual Scholar Podcast. I run the Drawing Codex community which helps people find their creative rhythm and make more art as well as build sustainable artistic careers.

Current Work: I'm currently working on building the Drawing Codex and Mighty Artisan into the best places to hang out and learn art as well as developing a series of new graphic novel pitches.

Portfolio Highlights

Everything Included

Character Illustration Tutorial

$160 value

Complete 4-week tutorial taking you from thumbnails to finished character piece with environment.

Complex Scene Tutorial

$290 value

Advanced 4-week tutorial for multi-character scenes with detailed environments and atmosphere.

8 Weeks of Live Feedback & Q&A Mentoring

$800 value

Weekly asynchronous feedback (draw-overs and paint-overs) plus live Q&A sessions where you can ask questions in real-time.

Bonus Week 9 Live Feedback

$100 value

Extra week for final polish and feedback to ensure both portfolio pieces are truly ready to share.

3-Month Community Experience

$149 value

Access to community arena for posting work, peer feedback, dedicated chat, and group learning throughout the intensive.

Bonus: Line & Color Academy Mega Course

$290 value

Full access to all training and tutorials. Lifetime access to refine technical elements of your process.

Portfolio Images

Priceless

Two complete, portfolio-ready illustrations that showcase your professional line and color process.

Reliable Illustration Process

Priceless

Master the 4-step workflow that you can repeat for every future illustration: plan, construct, line, color.

Total Value: $1789

Your Price: $790 USD

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Cohort starts April 20

Week 1 Satisfaction Guarantee

Week 1

If you're not really enjoying the Line & Color Intensive, just let me know before Week 2 starts and you'll get a full refund, no questions asked.

A Scattered Process

Why Artists Stay Stuck

Here's what happens when you don't have a reliable process:

You collect knowledge. You understand color theory, composition, anatomy, perspective.

You watch tutorials.

You practice.

But when you sit down to create, you're guessing. "Should I add more detail here? Am I spending too long on this stage?" How do I get to that level of polish I see in high quality professional work?

You have all the right parts, but no way to put them together.

This is what caught me out so many times!

Your work is good, but inconsistent. Sometimes an illustration works, sometimes it doesn't, and you're not sure why. You can't replicate your successes.

The most important skill, making art, telling stories, finishing pieces you're proud of, stays frustratingly out of reach because you're always wondering what step you're missing.

This is often the product of not having a reliable process.

Inconsistency

Without a reliable process, even skilled artists struggle to finish pieces consistently.

Reliable Process

Work With Confidence

When you master a reliable process, everything changes.

You sit down to create and you know exactly what comes next.

You finish pieces instead of abandoning them halfway. Your work becomes consistently better over time.

You can take on better opportunities because you know you can deliver. And the process of creating art becomes more enjoyable, more reliable, more satisfying. This is what separates artists who struggle from artists who can actually focus on the important parts of art.

The story. The idea. The actual art itself.

Relax and Make Art

With a reliable process, you can focus on the things that really matter.

What's Included

Complete 8-Week Intensive Experience

8 Core Weeks + Bonus Week 9

Complete intensive curriculum with extra feedback week for final polish.

1-Week Mid-Course Break

Built-in break prevents burnout and gives time to finish your first piece without pressure.

Weekly Exercise Videos

1-2 hour focused sessions explaining each assignment and key concepts.

Asynchronous Feedback on Every Assignment

Draw-overs and paint-overs with specific, actionable guidance at each stage.

Live Q&A Sessions Every Week

Jump on livestream to ask questions. Recordings available for all time zones.

Real-Time Process Demos

Watch Tim work through the same assignments showing complete process, mistakes, and problem-solving.

Community Arena for Posting Work

Share progress, get peer feedback, post questions, and see everyone's iterations.

Dedicated Chat for Real-Time Questions

Get quick answers and support from community members throughout the week.

Line & Color Academy Access

Full course included. Technical tutorials and process reference available anytime. Lifetime access.

Lifetime Access to All Recordings

Revisit feedback sessions, demos, and tutorials forever. Learn at your own pace.

Two Portfolio-Ready Pieces

Complete first piece (character focus) and second piece (complex scene) ready to share professionally.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Start Creating?

In 8 weeks you'll have two portfolio-ready illustrations, a reliable process you can repeat, and confidence to share your work professionally.

Enroll Now - $790

Videos

Podcast

Latest

Create Two Portfolio Pieces in 8 Weeks With Live Feedback

Transform Your Skills Into Finished Portfolio Work

Getting the last 10-20 Percent Right

Keyframe Illustrations

No Easy Task

Professional Cover Work

Process

Complex Scene Work

Master the Professional 4-Step Workflow

Idea & Thumbnail

Construction

Line Work

Color & Rendering

Ready to Master Your Process?

Two Portfolio Pieces, Simple First, Then Complex

The 8-Week Structure

Course Schedule

Early Bird Access

What You'll Get

Outcomes

Thumbnailing

Focus Areas

Outcomes

Construction & Drawing

Focus Areas

Outcomes

Linework & Inking

Focus Areas

Outcomes

Color & Finishing

Focus Areas

Outcomes

Mid-Course Break

Thumbnailing

Focus Areas

Outcomes

Construction & Drawing

Focus Areas

Outcomes

Linework & Inking

Focus Areas

Outcomes

Color & Finishing

Focus Areas

Outcomes

Bonus Feedback Week

What's Included

Outcomes

Ready to Start?

Build Your Foundation With Manageable Complexity

Character with Environment

Depth & Atmosphere

Effects & Texture

Level Up With Multi-Character Narrative

Multi-Character Action

Story & Atmosphere

Strong Color & Narrative

Assignments, Feedback, Q&A, and Community

Weekly Exercise Videos

You Create

Asynchronous Feedback

Live Q&A Sessions

Real-Time Demos

Community Arena

Professional Results

The Intermediate Artist Transformation

The Power of a Hero Image

Noobovich

First Workshop Piece

Second Workshop Piece

Career Breakthrough

Work With Confidence Instead of Guesswork

Focus on What Matters

Your Instructor: Tim McBurnie

Tim McBurnie

Portfolio Highlights

Everything Included