You want to create professional illustrations. How can you use design tools to get started?

I think this article is a bit out of order. I would say that the first thing to do is start with a pencil and paper. Get sketching and then figure out how to make it digital.

I agree @jacob that starting out with a Pencil and Paper is a great idea. That being said, I know that there are many talented digital artists that don't ever use a pencil and paper to create. I find it fascinating that there are so many ways creative brains work! My process is, yes, using a pencil and paper to sketch out my ideas. I then scan and refine in Adobe Fresco or Adobe Illustrator depending on the type of illustration I'm going for. Practice with a few ways that "feel" good for you to create. You need to feel comfortable with the program/device you are using. Frustration doesn't help the creative process ;)

Si quieres pasar del papel a la ilustración digital, lo más importante es conocer el dibujo vectorial. Normalmente cuando te formas lo haces con programas profesionales como Adobe Illustrator, pero para iniciarse hay varios y gratis como Krita. La herramienta indispensable es la tableta gráfica para saber si te desenvuelves bien. Importante que sea lo más delgada posible, así conseguirás trazos más naturales, te recomiendo la Trust Flexy. Después irás avanzando y podrás tener una más pro como las wacom. Un detalle a destacar es que toda ilustración que hagas tiene que tener una calidad y unas medidas aceptables para su posterior impresión, muy importante. No empieces a dibujar a la primera, haz bocetos en capas, prueba y let's go!

Always experiment! Don't limit yourself to only one tool if possible. Make designs in one program or on paper first, and then transfer it into another tool and play. Follow design principles and also break them.

Oh yeah, this is a wild place to start. I've never started an illustration by choosing between a pencil and a marker. Hey, if you're wanting to learn how to use a tool, or you're curious to see what a tool could inspire given its (and your) limitations, then cool. I had a pink marker that I loved the look and feel of. And I did a series of pieces with that just to explore it, but otherwise, no, weird place to start.

When learning how to draw, we always begin with basic shapes: circle, triangle, and square. Every object is made out of basic shapes. If you understand basic shapes, you understand how they will form an object. Like, for example, drawing a pine tree on a design tool: can be made out of 3 triangles and a rectangle. Simple, right? From that, it's important to always keep experimenting new objects and shapes to make more complex designs.

Mastering the software and tools you use to illustrate is very important in digital media. You should research carefully when picking one, since most softwares tend to be either easy to pick up but limited in what they can do or very powerful tools with a steep learning curve. Pick whichever suits your needs at the moments and do some research. It's important to remember you do't need instant dominion over the totality of the software. Learn and research at your own pace, and learning whilst drawing is also very fun, since it leads to exploration. The key is not being afraid or overwhelmed, but instead seeing it as a natural process in which learning and mastery are the consequences. Good luck!

Learning software is always best by trying to do a thing. Tutorials don't embed themselves into your brain the same way you're own problem solving does. Give yourself a brief, or try to make a copy of a piece you like using the new tools and figure out how to do it. Everytime you get stuck, google the answer, and repeat. You will feel far more confident after that, than after a tutorial.

I'd advise on, at this stage, think not only about lines and anatomy or other details, but to also remember the fundamentals of lighting and silhouette. It's easier to fix these basic parts of compositions at this stage, so keep these in mind, also deciding on mood, if the lighting is overexposed or underexposed, cause these will help you on defining shapes and shape language.

Sketching is great. Thumbnailing is better. Try to get in the habit of nailing a composition and idea small before you go big. I don't do this all the time, and I know better. But try to thumbnail before you get lost in sketch and realise the composition is wonky, or there is a better solution.

Some basics of refining a composition is figuring out the focuses of the drawing; a piece cannot be fully rendered out in details, it will become noise if you're not careful. At this stage, be mindful to add details and definition where it's needed, to balance between hard edges and soft edges and that not everything needs to be completely rendered out for an image to read nicelly.

Acknowledge that inevitably you can't preserve the quality of your imagery. Compression happens constantly. Over compensate for that inevitability, maybe saturate your colours a little, be less delicate. If you do some experimentation you will see many platforms will degrade your art, so try your best to work around it.

Here is the workflow I would suggest: ? figure out the size or size ratio the illustration needs to be ? sketch your idea ? scan your sketch and trace over it in your design software (consider that you don't have to trace over it exactly. You can even refine parts of it while tracing it).