Nadia Veltri
Illustrator, educator, and the person behind the guides on Choicegateway.
Illustration as a learnable craft
Nadia Veltri spent the better part of a decade working as a freelance illustrator before she noticed something consistent: most people who wanted to draw well were being taught in ways that made it harder than it needed to be. Too much theory, not enough doing.
She started writing practical guides in 2023 as a way to document the processes she actually used — not the idealised versions from textbooks. The result is a collection of step-by-step resources that treat illustration as a skill with learnable mechanics, not an innate talent reserved for a few.
Her background spans editorial illustration, children's book character work, and digital painting for independent game studios. She prefers Procreate for quick ideation and moves to Photoshop when a piece demands more control over texture and layering.
Three principles behind every tutorial
Process before polish
Every guide starts with rough thinking — thumbnail sketches, loose composition decisions, colour blocking before detail. The messy middle is where the actual learning happens, so it gets documented honestly rather than skipped.
One concept per guide
Trying to cover perspective, colour, and anatomy in a single tutorial is a reliable way to teach none of them properly. Each guide picks one idea and stays with it long enough to be genuinely useful.
Specific over general
Advice like "study your reference carefully" is technically correct and nearly useless. The guides name specific things to look for — edge quality, cast shadow shape, value grouping — so there's something concrete to act on.
What the guides actually cover
The subject matter on Choicegateway reflects the problems Nadia ran into repeatedly — either in her own work or in conversations with other illustrators who were stuck at the same points.
Character design gets a lot of attention because it's where most beginners stall. Getting a figure to read clearly at a small size, making poses feel weighted rather than stiff, building a face that stays consistent across angles — these are solvable problems with a clear method.
- Character design and silhouette clarity
- Digital painting — light, shadow, and edge control
- Composition decisions before you start drawing
- Colour relationships in practice, not just in theory
- Building a consistent visual style over time
Get in touch
Questions about a guide, feedback on a technique, or something that should be covered — the inbox is open.
support@choicegateway.onlinePrimary tools
Procreate on iPad for ideation and character work. Photoshop for final rendering and texture-heavy pieces. Pencil and paper for anything that needs to be thought through slowly.
What to expect
Guides are written for people who already know what a layer is but haven't quite figured out why their drawings look flat. No beginner hand-holding, no advanced gatekeeping — somewhere practical in between.