SVS Interior Environment Design is a short online class from the School of Visual Storytelling, taught by children's book illustrator Will Terry. It covers designing interior spaces from varied points of view and fixing the most common problems: flat angles, empty rooms, awkward placement of objects, and furniture or architecture that does not match the time and place of the story. The class has 14 lessons with about half an hour of video, a workbook, two exercises and three assignments, and is included in the SVS Learn membership.

The video is brief, but the class is built around practice. Most of the learning happens in the exercises, from rotating a room in your head to mapping it out to scale.

What You Will Learn

Adding dimension to a flat interior
Creating interesting point-of-view angles
Rotating a room to find the best viewpoint
Designing spaces to scale and mapping out a room
Adding props and overlapping foreground objects
Matching period and location in furniture and architecture
Putting it all together, shown in a timelapse demonstration

Who Is SVS Interior Environment Design For?

The class suits illustrators whose interiors look like stage sets seen from straight on, and picture book artists who draw many bedrooms, kitchens and classrooms. It is short enough to fit into a busy week.

If perspective is new to you, Basic Perspective Drawing and Practical Perspective will make the exercises easier.

How the Class Works

The class is divided into four short parts, each ending with an exercise or assignment. You start by adding dimension to a room, then plan the space, fill it with props and finally design a complete interior that matches its story's time and place. The workbook gives you the briefs, and the interior timelapse shows Will's process from empty room to finished drawing.

Course Structure

Welcome: introduction, workbook, Assignment 1: Adding Dimension
Planning Out the Space: POV angles, Exercise 1: Rotating a Room, designing to scale, Exercise 2: Mapping out a Room
Filling the Space: adding props, overlapping foreground objects, Assignment 2: Adding Visual Interest
Putting It All Together: matching period and location, interior timelapse, Assignment 3

What You Will Make

You will finish with a complete interior scene, drawn from an interesting angle and filled with props that suit the story, plus the studies that led to it. An interior designed around one of your own characters makes a strong portfolio piece, because it shows that you can build a believable world, not just a figure.

Price and Access

The class is included in the SVS Learn membership. SVS lists its Studio membership at $29.95 a month, and class pages show a $300 annual option. A 14-day free trial is available with a card and becomes a paid subscription unless you cancel. Membership includes live events and a monthly art challenge.

About the Instructor

Will Terry has been a freelance illustrator for 26 years, starting with magazines and newspapers in the Washington, D.C. area. He has illustrated about 30 children's books for publishers including Random House, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic and Penguin, and teaches from the SVS office in Provo, Utah.

How It Fits the SVS Curriculum

Interior Environment Design completes Level 3 of SVS Essentials, alongside Exterior Environment Design. In Level 4, Building Backgrounds for Characters asks you to place characters inside both kinds of environment.

Things to Consider

Time: half an hour of video; budget more time for the assignments.
Reference: photograph real rooms to study how furniture overlaps.
Before this: Practical Perspective helps a lot.
Next steps: Building Backgrounds for Characters.
Feedback: share your rooms in the SVS community.

Start the Course

Interested in learning with SVS Learn?

Start Interior Environment Design

For the full curriculum and membership options, visit the official SVS Learn website.

Looking for more ways to learn? Browse all courses and learning resources on Good Stuff Weekly.

Last verified: October 26, 2026

Interior Environment Design by SVS Learn