Heres a great Illustrator tutorial called "Making of Jamukha Got Milk" by Rodney Mella. In this tutorial you have to already know some basics in Adobe illustrator. Like creating gradients, gradient Mesh, pattern swatches, brushes and layer management. You could get by if you have a book called Visual Quick start guide covering Adobe Illustrator. So you could look up on how to do gradient meshes and etc. Or you can search the web on how to do them. This is one of those tutorials you fell you did a great accomplishment when completed. The final image will look better then most art created in illustrator. Heres the link "Making of Jamukha Got Milk" by Rodney Mella.

"Making of Jamukha Got Milk" by Rodney Mella.

My version of Jamukha

I crave a cold glass of milk when I eat chocolate chip cookies.

So, I added a jar full of chocolate chip cookies to the image.

I enjoy working in Adobe Illustrator for my children's picture books. But, I attended a book fair, and Daniel Kirk the writer and illustrator for Library Mouse mentioned in his lecture. That in the early 90s their was a huge wave of digital and 3D illustrated children's books that hit the market. But they have since went away and went back to a hand painted style. Regardless if the illustration was hand painted or created on a computer. I decided to make myself more marketable by using photoshop to illustrate my next picture book, leaving the comfort of working in Adobe Illustrator. I wanted to practice illustrating loose style before I start my next book. And I ran across a youtube commercial selling a video tutorial teaching painting with textures by Will Terry. The tutorial is called "Digital Painting in Photoshop" its a downloadable video which cost $29.99. I really enjoyed working on the tutorial. I learned several new techniques in the lessons. And was well narrated describing color theory, use of lights and darks, and texture. He also broke down his brush setting and opacity setting, which is often forgotten in other tutorials. Terry talked a little about children's picture book industry working with publishers, and art directors. I would recommended Will Terry video tutorial to both professional and amateurs. He also has video tutorial on "How to illustrate children's books" and Acrylic painting. Here the link to Will Terry Store http://www.willterry.com/store.php

My image created by Will Terry tutorial