Drawing as Meditation: Reconnecting with our Inner Artist

1. Drawing as Meditation: Reconnecting with our Inner Artist: Welcome to drawing as meditation. I'm Dave Red, better known as Jog Ridave coming from Brooklyn, New York. And today, this class is all about reconnecting with our inner artists, our inner creative selves, and just getting away from the hustle and bustle of trying to be the perfect artist and trying to be the perfect illustrator and get everything right. We want to just step back from that and just reconnect to ourselves. You can always use art to reset to get yourself back to a place where you feel comfortable, where you feel comfort, where you can just sort of relax. As much as you can follow along with me and do what I'm doing, you're going to find yourself deviating, and that's actually very much encouraged. I want you to follow you know, your mind and your creative sense. I think that that will happen naturally for most of you. So I'm going to be creating some shapes, and then I'm going to be sort of editing those shapes and adding things in and just adding a little more details. And that's how I sort of flow when I'm not thinking too much. So I'm going to show you the basics of how I get started. And however that develops for you is exactly what I'm looking for in this class. You are an artist, and the art is inside of you. All you need to do is get out of your own way. Sometimes you just need to chill, relax, be calm and just do some drawing and do some art just for the sake of it. That being said, let's move on to the next video class project. 2. Class project: So welcome to the class project. And I pretty much already explained what I want from this class. So of course you can try to follow along with what I'm doing and how I'm drawing. But I think it's gonna be difficult to do because we all run on different wavelengths and we create our differently. And we have different ideas of what we think is beautiful and things like that. So you can follow along as much as you want. But when you decide and when you realize that you're going in a different direction, embrace that. Because I think that's the most important thing for this class. This is your journey. Everyone just sees art differently and those are differently. And it's no different here. Once that part of your brain sort of switches and you start creating without really putting too much thought into it. That's a great place to be. And I think I think we need to get back there more. I know. I need to get back there more. Sometimes I fall into a box. And I think artists best when you start thinking outside the box and stop trying to be so perfect. First and foremost, make sure you download my Disney style brushes if you want to use those. I'm using an iPad Pro, using Procreate. So I have these brushes that I love. You can feel free to use those, but if you have other brushes that you feel more comfortable with, then of course, use those, use whatever medium and makes you feel the most comfortable in the most relaxed, I think it'll be really interesting to see what different people create and to see what different people come up with. I'm really looking forward to that once you get through with this class. So that being said, let's go ahead and get into some drawing. Let's move on to the next video, Getting Started. Although I think I titled it, something about lines. See, I'm not going to stress too much. I want to keep this same energy throughout the whole class 3. Drawing as Meditation: What's up, guys, welcome to drawing as meditation. So let's just set up our canvas first. I'm using just your regular screen size. I don't really like to draw on white because white is just, it's way too bright. So let's just turn the background color. So let's tap here and then tap on background. And we'll just change this. I usually like to go a little warm with it. So I'm reading over into this orangey. I usually like to sketch on something like this. And of course we're using my Disney style brushes. You can feel free if you have a favorite sketch brush you can use that. It's not that important that you use these. Of course, all the brushes are different. I like to use Disney sketch light to do my sketching. And for the color, I like to do a dark red. Something like this. Usually what I use to sketch with. But feel free to use any color, blue, gray, whatever, whatever brings you peace. When I start sketching, I always start with a circle. So let's try to use up this whole image or this whole Canvas. So easily start with the circle. And it's one of those things you noticed artists just kinda draw lots of circles just to kinda get a nice overall circle. And I tend to draw another line down the middle. And then another line here. And this is how I draw my character faces, but this doesn't really have to be a character. But this is usually how I start. And then I just like to draw shapes. And I usually like to draw sort of round shapes like this. You'll notice that my 3D classes, I sort of sculpt in the same way, lots of round shapes and things like that. But that's good for now. We'll leave that we'll leave that as it is. And wherever you drew, you don't have to really follow along, but we're going to try to fill in a lot of this empty space. So I'm just going to use some more spheres. I'm just going to use this spheres too. Fill in these spaces. But remember that you can really, you know, we can branch out. Doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be exactly like I'm doing it. Just kinda branch out. And let's shapes. Dictate what you're doing. And don't concentrate on anything else. But just drawing, drawing shapes. If you get stuck in a corner and you're like, I don't know what shape will fit here. Don't stress about it just draws smaller shape. And the key is not to worry too much about what these shapes are. But allowing yourself to be creative and do things like this. Maybe you want to do a little heart or something because the heart is just a shape. Lots and lots of these things are just shapes. Everything that we draw is this made up of shapes. The purpose isn't to fill up the canvas, the perfect. The purpose is to just let your mind relax and allow yourself to just not think. Notice I kinda go over the, uh, go over the shapes a little bit. And that's just to assist us, you know, kinda define them a little bit more. Because sometimes when I'm, when I'm drawing, when I'm sketching, you sketch really light because you're not sure if it's something that you want to keep or not. So you might sketch light. Once you have that shape, you can add a little bit more pressure. You can define it a little bit better even with this little bit of space here. And I'm not afraid to just add a little deviations. The shapes. I don't always have to fit cleanly as well. You know, sometimes they can be a little bit messy. You might want to fill in this little spots with just a circle. Sometimes I tend to think of, think about clouds and how they don't really have much of a shape. You know, we sort of think of them as a shape. But you know, clouds kind of a constantly moving, constantly changing. And that's sort of what we want to be doing here. And it's always nice, you know, it's, I even like just finishing off these little exercises. Even though I really haven't drawn anything. But even this is relaxing and itself. So just continue to work on your page. You can feel free to add in other shapes and fill it in as much as you want or as little as you want. You don't have to fill you don't have to fill it in all the way. You can even add shapes in shapes if you really want to kinda make it interesting. But we're going to add some more shapes in shapes. So I think that's the first phase. Feel free to go as slow as you need or as fast as you need. Again, this isn't trying to get through this or anything like that. Really. Just relax and just make interesting shapes. Try to vary them. Bigger shapes, heavier shapes. Take all the time you need. Work on the shapes and just kinda fill up your canvas. Sort of like I, like I have here 4. New Layers, New Ideas: Alright, so now we have our shapes and I like to just kind of embellish this shapes, make new shapes inside. I really like eyes and characters. That's more my style. But feel free if you like. Flowers, leaves, animals, human faces, alien faces, monsters, it doesn't really make a difference. What you draw, you can have more, you can have different types of drawings, different types of styles. But I'm just going to show you a little bit about a little bit of what I do when I'm just kinda relaxing and sketching. So I'm going to use this as my sketch layer. So I'm going to rename it sketch. And I'm just going to lock it for now. Because I'm a dumb, dumb and sometimes I'll accidentally try to edit something on this layer. But now as long as you have a lot of you won't do that. So I'm going to hit the plus and now we have a new layer. And I can just do some, some sketching on the new layer. So sometimes I dislike to make eyes. And again, I just use shapes. So I'm using this line. I'm using these lines as a guide. But, you know, everyone has different levels of drawing ability and showing experience. So I tend to lean towards making this sort of perspective and using the perspectives, but you don't really have to do that. Even, even though I'm using perspectives, I'm still just using shapes. I just like using shapes and other shapes. So I'll look at a shape like this and think, okay, what do I, what do I feel? Where do I want to put eyes into? I want them to be the same size. And I don't think too much about it. I just sort of start to just start to draw. I start to add lines, maybe something like this. And I just kinda add lines in there. You know what it is going to be. If I think I want it to be some sort of face or something, then I add the center line, always adding that center line, and then I add this line here. And an institute that's just how I sketch and how I doodle. All of these shapes. I might say, let's make a center line like this. So something like this. Look at it. Maybe it's like a weird bird beak, Something like that. Something like this. I'll just make a line. Maybe some sort of AI doesn't even really have to be. Maybe this is like a weird knows. But I'm not really thinking that much about it. I'm just sort of just going with the flow. What is this? What is this character? Let's just make some big eyes here. Maybe I want to make another I hear even outside of my line. I make this line here. Sometimes if I make a mouth, then I'll make another line that can be the body or something like that. Religious have fun with it if you turn it this way and you have another eye here. So maybe I'll make this into another, I like this. Maybe even make a pupil. Teeth like a crocodile or something. And this is when the fun really comes in. Because, you know, I just really like character eyes and I think they're very expressive. And that's sort of what brings me peace. Always just using shapes. These n, Why not? Doesn't have to be perfect. Let's make the eye here. Maybe this is a mouth or something. Maybe little fin here. Maybe a fin on the other side to remember if I do that, that line that kinda goes down the middle. Like a little fish or something. It's kind of interesting. You can do similar things with these little shapes. I'll do an I here. And then maybe this is like a little mouth. Sort of similar. Maybe as little things that have come out here. Give them a little x and maybe another one over here. This is another great way to just come up with, with cool characters, like different kind of pupils. And I like to do this like solid line over the eyes. But you've noticed, you see, you've seen that in my drawings and stuff like that. I don't like this. What can this be? Maybe it's literally just two eyes. Maybe they're looking this way. A little. Hang in there. Maybe this pupil is looking down some random lines there. There's really no, there's no, There's no rules. So you can pretty much do whatever you want. Make random shapes like that. See or could this be, let's make an I here. To make a bigger thing. You could always feel something in and then take a race. I like to use maybe just regular paintbrush with Erase and bring the size down. You can do this kind of thing too. But sometimes I'll do that at the end. Just kinda jazz it up a little bit. Maybe I want to bring this down and then make a maybe like a big little, big little, a little pudgy arm. Maybe with some fingers or something. Maybe a little fetus, something like that. Let's make the little I and the other side to give him a little round thing here. Maybe he has some little faint little I don't know what you would call them. But I like this like I would sculpt something like this. When you get weird things like this, you know, I don't even think too much about them. I just This is an eye. Maybe I'll just do something like this. And I have no idea where this is going to go. But, you know, it doesn't really matter because you're just doing it. So yeah, I don't really know where some of these are gonna go, but that's, that's okay. And what you'll find as you start to get into this little zone, you'll just start creating. And you'll start allowing yourself to make mistakes. And you'll realize that sometimes when you make mistakes is when you make some of the best artwork. Because you're doing things that you might not know why you're doing it. It might be wrong in the moment, but it turns out to not be wrong. That's kinda how it goes. Sometimes. Sometimes it's, it's, I feel like I have trouble with, you know, human figures are, you know, kinda cartoons, but sometimes this helps. And just so you know, it's okay to be weird. It's okay to draw weird things, you know, and draw like strange things, odd, odd things. Just give your brain a break. And just just let it flow. You know, you want that you want that flow state. Sometimes like even like I can tell when I'm when I'm at that place because I started drawing at a certain speed. Speed starts to become little bit faster. As I sort of pull away from trying to make things look good and I just start to just work. So hopefully you guys are coming along nicely and hopefully you're just in your zone or finding your zone. And feel free to just copy like what I'm doing. You know, you can, if that helps you, That's what you want to do. Like just completely copy what I'm doing. Food for those of you out there doing that, just know that that's completely fine. Okay. And encouraged. I just can't can't guarantee you'll have something interesting. Because, you know, I'm not really thinking too much about what I'm doing. But I do feel like I'm in and nice. So on. Changing things up a little bit. Eyebrows just shapes. Everything is really just shapes. When it comes down to it To some more little random characters. I really love character design. And just making little random characters. Back to our little birdie. Speed is starting to pick up as I get. And this is, this is kind of like what a warm-up is to this. These are these are the benefits of a warm-up. Warm-up just gets you going and it gets you it gets you flowing. And it can really, really help. Because I notice when I'm starting out drawing some time, especially if I haven't drawn in a little while. I really feel like i'm, I'm slow and I'm lacking. Some other little shapes here. These look like it looked like goggles. I'll make them goggles. Remember we used to do the lines down the middle like that. What this is. But we'll make it a little face too little to even see. I think we've pretty much got everything. Yeah. So again, just continue. Just draw some eyes, draw some shapes. Doesn't matter what level does matter how good or how bad. Don't think about it too much. Just work on filling in your shapes. Working on getting two years en place to where you're just drawing and then you're competent in making your lines. It doesn't have to be right or wrong, doesn't have to look perfect. It doesn't have to be even. You can go outside the lines, you can cross lines. Just worry about focusing, getting into your zen place and getting into your zone. So that's what this is all about. 5. Defining your Decisions: Okay, so now that we have, our sketches are very interesting, weird-looking sketches. There's more that you can, There's different levels that you can take this. One of the things that I like to do is I'll take little copy, different things that I really like. And then I'll sort of bring them over to a new canvas and really embellish them and work on them and just make them look very interesting. And that's one way that I get a lot of inspiration for things. So sculpt and things that I might want to print. And just, that's how I get new ideas. Like I really like this face here. But as far as, you know, staying in this end state and staying in this sort of creative meditative state. Let's go ahead and add a new layer here. And let's take this sketch layer. I press the little n and just lower it down a little bit. And we can take this sketch layer, I think we can, let's unlock it first. I can figure out how to do that. So we'll unlock it, will press the N and we can lower the opacity a little bit for that as well. Okay, so now we have a nice and light. And let's take this layer and let's rename it. Mines. Like to use a darker color for the line's not exactly black but pretty close. Maybe I'll use Disney ink. That's my favorite outline brush. But I also have some other brushes here that could be really fun. But Disney ink is by far my favorite when I'm kinda doing line work. So remember we're on this new lines layer. And I like to just do a nice test over the top just to make sure that it's the thickness and things that I want. So let's start with this little character. And I just like to trace over the lines. And again, line work is difficult, but this is a good way to work on your line work as well. This is a good way to just practice because none of this is a lot of these lines and curves are very unique. So it just gives you a good way to practice. And one of my rules of thumb is to, for example, this might be hard to get all in one go. So just break it up. I might start here where the foot is, things like that. But the more you do a lots of things like this, the movie just get confident in all of your lines and you're sketching and your mistakes and your imagination. Once you get comfortable with that, that's the wheel. That's when the real artist and you really starts making moves and kind of finding your own flavor and your own style and things like that. But for now we'll just do some relaxing line work. I think I can make it. I'm just going to stop. Start again from another spot. I'm just going to keep I'm not going to make it too perfect. If I get annoyed, I might change something, but sometimes the imperfections or what makes it human. So don't, don't forget that, you know, not everything has to be perfectly clean and sanitized. Because it kinda just loses. For me. At least. Things are a little bit less interesting. When they look completely perfect. I do really like this character is VDS. But even things like this, it forces me to Forces me to reckon with, let us not the right term forces me to acknowledge the lines I've made before and the sketches I've made before. And again, this is another opportunity to create and be creative. I don't have to follow all these lines, some of that, some of these lines aren't defined. And this just becomes another way, then I can define them. If I want to. You know, kinda like this, just like I don't know what some of these lines are, but it doesn't matter. And I think that's something that's really powerful and really freeing. And you kinda realize that you don't always have to be perfect. I mean, sometimes it's nice to be perfect, but usually perfect is created through a lot of imperfect moments. That's the only way you get better. You'll notice sometimes I get quiet. And that's, that's the zen state. And it's not necessarily like this isn't my best work. It's not really about that, but it is about just getting to that place when you're full focus is just on the lines, on whatever the next line is. And that's it. But then eventually I remember I might go. I'm teaching a class, I guess I have to speak. But then I know that that makes me feel good because then I want you to understand what it's like when you lose yourself in art. Because I just think that's very special. And I want more people to experienced are as fun instead of wanting to be the best. I mean, I understand wanting to be the best. I always want to be the best. It's hard, but wanted to be the best can cause you to stop creating art. I mean, it's hard to be the best. Dang near impossible to be the best human. You never know, I don't know how you would even know if you're the best. But I actually stopped drawing for some years. I was just doing different things. And, you know, I I stopped drawing for awhile. And that's also something that happens. But now I'm I'm cognizant of burnout and things like that. But it always comes back to things like this. And not thinking too much about it always comes back to that I know a lot of people like those coloring books. They get a lot of, uh, you know, a lot of what this is from coloring. I feel like I've been hearing a lot more about it lately. So hopefully, you guys can create to something that you can call yourself. It's really the same. It's the same thing. The only difference is you would be coloring something that you created. And I was thinking about this class and what I wanted to do for this class. Because I don't know if people have different interpretations of the word meditation. And I never really thought about it, is that for a long time? Then at some point in time you just realize that that is what it is. I like. There's something also that I like about adding details with the Ink brush. It almost has. This reminds me of when you draw traditionally and use pen. And you're like, I can't mess up because I'm using pen. There's no erase. Even though I can undo. I try not to undo things like this. Doesn't matter if you do or you don't, but I like to just make my decisions on the fly and either fix them by doing something else or something like that. Can't believe goggles made it on here. I would have never guessed that. But I'm really excited to see what you guys have drawn and come up with. One thing you'll notice about doing this a lot is the more you do it, the more you'll pick up different things that look good, different things that you're doing and that you like. And that's actually just a side effect of creating like this. But it's always kind of incredible how it starts to feel more comfortable. As you go. The speed just kinda picks up. Like this poor little guy is scared for his life. So you should make them happy. Release a little bit happier. This is the little bird guy. In the thing that I'm excited about seeing, especially with this class, is because everyone's idea of everyone's mind is going to be different. Everyone's going to sketch in a different way. So I think that's what's, that's what's exciting. Even if you're trying to follow what I'm doing, There's no way that it's gonna be exactly what I'm doing. So that's kind of exciting to see what you guys think. And if you continue, if you do this class and you do what I'm doing and then you make another one. Please post both. I want to see I really liked these characters up here. I don't know what kind of animal there. But I like this one. I like a lot. Okay. Now we're all lined up. What that is, but it's there. Now we're all lined up. Great job 6. Make things Colorful...or Dark!: So lastly, I just wanted to show you some other options that you can do with whatever you've drawn. Yours is going to look completely different than this and that's the beauty of it. But one thing that you can do that I do sometimes is I'm going to go to the layer below and just add a new layer. And I'll just name it color on the color layer. And you can even get rid of these other layers if you want. They usually look nice, but sometimes, um, I think I accidentally pressed on everything. Sometimes I just get rid of them. On the color layer. I would say stick to maybe three or four colors. And that's kind of a fun way to add some color to it. So let's see, maybe I'll use this color and the yellow. I might use either Disney outliner or Disney butter. Disney outliner. I like to go. I don't really do a lot of color drop when I'm coloring, coloring and a character I like to color in the character underneath. So for example, let's do this little guy here. So now I'm just going to use this brush and it's pretty thick. So I'm just going to stay on the inside. And I'm going to color everything in. This is like we were, like we were discussing before. Very similar to just coloring books or digital coloring books. But it's just be your own, your own line work. But I've always code in this way. I guess sometimes I might have used the drag and drop. Maybe for simple things like if I'm coloring eyes black or something, but I like to color like this underneath the lines because sometimes I want to change the color and stuff as well. Okay. Once you have a good outline, you can cheat and drag and drop. But it's important to get that outline because you want it to be on a different layer. So I said I'd use this color and this color. And I might even add a new layer. So now we have the color layer and then we have named this one yellow. And this can be green. And then on the yellow can just color the yellow parts. But I find that when you are coloring, it's usually best to use the very limited palette. Oh, and here's another little trick. So here's the green layer that I just made. I'm going to tap on the green layer, hit Select. And just make sure that you're in free hand. Down here. You should see all, you should see, see all these little lines on the artwork. And then you can go up here to the yellow part. The green selection is still selected. So I can color this in. And it makes it a little bit easier if you don't have to worry about going out of the lines on that side. And maybe it will switch to, let's try Disney butter. Disney outliner. I usually use like if I was going to make a white outline, that's what I would use. So it's a little more stiff. This, I think this brush is a little less stiff Okay, Let's do erase. And just erase this little line. And I might color in all of these if I want to, using the limited palette, but you don't have to, you can, you can pretty much just color them in what you want. But I really like a limited palette. I think that adds a lot to it. Maybe a few pops of a different color or around, makes it interesting as well. But I might, I might, I really liked this little character. So I might sculpt him. Or I might do some things with these characters as well. Since I really liked those. That's pretty much it. Hopefully that hopefully you learned some things about yourself and you let go and we're able to just enjoy the process of drawing without thinking too much into it, without worrying about things be looking bad, are looking good or being stuck. It's an art to get stuck and not really know what you're doing. But then to just let your hand and just let your mind just take a break and let your hand takeover layer instincts. Takeover. Because it's just a good place to be and it's just good to sort of reset and just get back to drawing every now and again. So hopefully this was helpful. I don't know. I don't know if anyone's going to be interested in this. I don't know. Hopefully, anyway, anyone who's still here, hopefully you got a lot out of it. And I'm really looking forward to see what you will create. And hopefully you continue to do things like this. Because I love art pages like this. I love seeing with other artists too. I love stuff like this. I think it's really important and I think it's really fun. And I think it's really freeing. And I think it helps get you out of thinking in this little perfect box that we all sometimes find ourselves in. So with that, I think I'll leave you there. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do. So remember to rate and review. It really helps me out and I would appreciate it. Keep trying, keep sculpting. I'll see you all. Next video. 7. Thank You!: Birds are going crazy out there. So welcome back. I hope that you got a lot out of this class. I hope that you made some really interesting art. And again, I can't wait to see them. I hope that you review this class and I hope you post your art in projects and resources. This is one of those things where you really do a lot of the work yourself, but the work actually becomes easy once I start sketching and I kinda get out of thinking about it too much. I can just sketch and sketch and sketch forever and I love it. And I think that's where I think that's where I find a lot of peace. You know what I mean? Because I'm just able to tune everything out. So I hope that you were able to tune most things out. Obviously. I'm sure you heard my voice all throughout, but I hope that it wasn't too distracting. Well, I mean, I guess you probably wouldn't have finished the class that my voice was annoying, so hopefully it wasn't too bad. But of course, you know, my social media, I post a lot of things on YouTube. I have a lot of things going on, which is one of the reasons I really wanted to make this class. And I'm glad that I make this class because I need this, I need this class. But I have a lot of stuff going on, on YouTube, youtube.com slash rugby, Dave, Of course, TikTok and Instagram, drug-free Dave, Facebook. I probably know most of you from there already. So yeah, I think that's I think that's about it. I don't want to take up too much of your time, but please continue to draw, continue to sketch, and continue to remember how useful and beneficial it is to sketch for yourself and to draw for yourself. Just take time and take mental breaks from the craziness. I don't allow myself enough mental mental breaks. I don't bless you. I don't have a perfect environment to record. So sometimes I can get stressed. I get stressed. I'm not making enough classes or I guess stress because I have a video that needs editing and I have something that needs to be painted and something needs to be drawn. But it's important to take the time for you. So that's why I felt it was important to make this class. So let me know what you think and let me know if you'd like to see more classes like this because I would absolutely love to make them. But of course, you know, that's only if people want to watch them and they get out of them. What I think that you will let me know if you don't if you don't mind. So anyway, with that being said, I will let you guys go. Again, Projects and Resources. I'm really looking forward to seeing your creations and kind of seeing how your mind works. Keep trying, keep sculpting, and I'll see you all in the next video.