Transcripts
1. Intro: [MUSIC] Hi and welcome. I'm Dora Domjan, a self-taught illustrator, hobby crafter, and educator currently at home with a two-year-old
sweet boy and a cute and funny little
dachshund who also thinks and acts like a
human being sometimes. As the founder and
owner of Anyarajz, I showcase my art journey
and educate other beginners on how not to be afraid to
show their own real self. Sometimes I also accept logo design projects from
local brands or organizations. My art is mainly
inspired by nature, family, and all the beautiful
small things in life. You're going to learn an
easy technique to draw a flat-style illustration
easier than ever. The goal here is to show
you that you don't need to be a pro to create something
visually pleasing. Whether you're just
starting out with Procreate or working
as a freelancer, or maybe doing just
hobby projects, this class can really help
you to widen your horizons. Please keep in
mind that however, I build this class around
using Procreate on an iPad, any other graphic tablet [inaudible] drawing
software is also good for this project if there
is a possibility to draw proper circles. This class is not a
Procreate tutorial. However, I will explain everything I do and we're
building up the class projects step-by-step from
start to finish together so beginners can also have
fun creating with us. This class can be a
good starting point for anyone interested in
character illustration, but are afraid to
start somewhere. You know what? That somewhere
is right here, right now. Let's do this together
because first, everyone was just a beginner. [MUSIC]
2. Class Project: [MUSIC] In this class project, together we will
create a dynamic, almost mood geometrical
illustration of an athlete of your choosing. By applying the
technique I show you, you will be able to translate
a real-life picture to an almost mood
geometrical illustration with adding your own style
as a signature element. I'll show you an opportunity
to design faster, easier, but still adopt your
own personality style into the final picture. After finding the
reference picture, we would like to use as the main reference
for our illustration, we'll create the sketch and the bubblegram of the
illustration in Procreate. I'll provide all the
necessary information about how to create an illustration
like this in Procreate, so even beginners can
easily follow along. After we finished
the illustration, I'll help you to export it
in different file formats. In order to have a backup
copy for future modification, printing or uploading on
the web or P or the sites, or even make a print
out of it to decorate your space or share it
as a gift with someone. I hope that by now you have a clear understanding
about the class project. So I suggest you to let start and create
something together.
3. Finding Inspiration: Hi, and welcome to this lesson of Play
With Circles class. In this session, we're going to talk about what is inspiration, where can you find it, and how do I use nature as
a source of inspiration. We're also going to do a
basic shape exercise which you can find in the downloadable
section of this class. Please note that if
you're watching this on a mobile version
or in the app, you may have some limitations in terms of downloadable content. So if you find one, please switch to browser view. At the end of this lesson, I'm also going to share a downloadable link
sheet with you with all the helpful
inspirational resources online. Now let's dive into finding
some great source together. What is inspiration really? Sometimes, it's transpositioned
with motivation, but what is the difference
between the two terms? In my words, I would say that motivation is something
that you feel from inside, a urge to achieve
or do something. But inspiration comes
from the outside as an impression which you can
use later on in your artwork, activities, or even your job. When I'm looking for
some inspiration, I usually visit
three main sites. First is dribbble.com. I recently found out that
the style I admire most, the flat type illustrations are thriving on these
sites currently. Many great artists stroke
is their work to born new clients or to have a
digital gallery for themselves. What I'm usually searching on these pictures are
the techniques they use and the
style they have, not to copy them, but to get inspired by them. The second is behance.com, because there I
can also dive into great graphic design projects
as logo design, branding, and packaging graphics, which can really fire up
inner motivation to create something from my own world with the help
of these inspirations. The third source is not
surprisingly, Instagram. What I love about
this platform is that hobby artists are also
showing their work, their achievements,
and most importantly, their struggles and failures. It's really important to see
that you're not the only one struggling sometimes
with a sketch or a digitalizing process. So be brave enough to share
the bad parts as well to get some valuable
feedback and encouragement. Artist communities tend to be really helpful and receptive. What I usually do
when I'm looking at those pictures is that I'm taking notes in
terms of linework, shading, and color combinations. This helps me later on in my sketch process to try
different techniques. I wouldn't say I
found my style yet, but all these searches
make me learn a lot of new techniques to one day find my own voice in graphic design. I would like to help you
with a guide to make some useful notes along
the way which you can use now or later for any
of your illustration works. But how can nature help you to create something
beautiful? You could say. I just love nature. This is what inspires
me the most, along with my family and dog, who is a cute Dasant. In nature, there are all
the different shapes and colors you can
use as reference, and they just make
perfect sense. Try to take a closer look
on leaves, flowers, trees, and see all the
lines and forms in a bit different zoomed version. Try to imagine a
face animal shape with the help of natural forms, and use the colors you can find outside as a color palette. Trust me, nature has
its own perfect way of creating perfect shapes
and color combinations. When I'm outside with my family, I often take reference photos
for myself for later use. I also create color palettes of these pictures and in the next
lesson, I'll show you how. At the beginning of this class, I mentioned that
we are going to do a basic shape exercise
as a warm up. Now please open
your Procreate app. We need to create
a canvas first. With picking a width, height, and DPI for your project
or you can just choose from the previous canvas
sizes that you used before. Now it doesn't matter at
all what size you choose, so I go for A5. It's beneficial to do warm up
exercises like this before drawing because this can really fire up your drawing muscles. As next steps, we are going to insert one of the downloaded
pictures as reference. Please first choose the easiest, the file name is Easy. The reason why I think
it's the easiest, it's because my face
is also there as reference to help
to see what I mean. Then I assume you immediately see why
am I standing there. Now, I take down the
opacity for this layer, I also rename it. [MUSIC] Now please choose a brush. I'm going to choose monoline because this has a
really steady line, you can try it out here. I'm also going to choose a color which is
this blackish now. This color, by the way, is chosen from CatCoq, she's a top teacher here at Skillshare with a lot
of great classes, so please check her out too. A head, an eye, a nose, and a mouth, and of course, a
neck and the body. This is really just
a basic sketch, but what I would like you to see are the shapes [MUSIC]
within the tree. Here I have another example. This is interesting. What I see here is a monster. I hope you can see that too. [MUSIC] This was really just
a warm up exercise. Please follow along and upload your findings in the
project session. I'm really curious what
you see on those pictures. During this class, please use your project gallery as
a portfolio as well. So if you have anything to add like inspirational pictures, sketches, or just questions that you would like to share
with us then please do. I'm really curious what you're working on and I would
like to comment it. During this whole process,
please also encourage others. So if you have any pictures that you like from
other artists, don't forget to
comment it or like it. Now that we have all our
inspirational pictures together, it's time to find the
right color palette for our illustrations. Let's move on to
the next lesson, which is going to be color
hunt. See you there.
4. Color Hunt: I hope that we set the mood with the previous lesson
finding inspiration, and you're excited
to move on with the preparation of
our class project. In the next few
minutes, we're going to talk about color and why is it so important to find
your own special palette. How does nature
[inaudible] help to find balance between colors? How to create a custom palette. We're also going to
discover other options, finding the right color
palette for your illustration, even if you don't have much
time to create your own. If you remember in
the previous lesson, I already mentioned that there's a downloadable
link sheet. I also add the links related to this Color Hunt
student document. First things first, let's spend a few minutes on color and
how can color make you feel? Now, we're not going
to cover color theory. However, it's an
important knowledge. But if you're not familiar
with it at all, no worries, check out my
recommended links or I suggest to read
a book about it. Bookstores have tons of great publications
with this topic. Color theory is the
art of using color. It explains how humans
perceive color and the behavior of how colors work together when mixing and
standing by each other. Do you remember the
feeling when summer almost ends and you have to prepare
for going back to school, and supplies need
to be purchased? Well, I do. What was the
best part of it for you? For me, buying the
24-piece beautiful untouched pencil set and
the other stationery. Just so you know, I
couldn't draw anything, even basic shape figures,
right at that time. I thought I'm totally untalented in drawing
and never will be. But I had a dream
that one day I will learn it. Here I am. Now that you see the
importance of color, I would like to show you an
easy technique to create beautiful palettes with the help of royalty-free stock photos. So let's go to Pixabay. On this website, you immediately
run into the search bar. Please type in any word that is really inspirational for you. For example, I
really like water, so I type in Shore. Well, the results are stunning. The only thing you
need to do is pick a picture with a pleasing color. You have the option
to download it for free without any registration. Tap on the size you wish to get and prove that you're
a human being. Got it. Then download
the picture. Save it to your own picture
gallery for later use. Now please open
your Procreate app. Just like in the
previous lesson, choose any canvas size you wish. It doesn't really matter
for this project. To the upper right corner, you see a color bubble, please tap on that. Now you can see all your
previously saved color palettes. If you tap on the plus sign, you have four options
to create a palette. The first one is
when you're mixing colors, that's a custom one. With the second one, you can
make one from your camera. Now you have the option
to create it from file, and you can create one
from your existing photos. For now, please go with
the fourth option. If you move to the
top of your palettes, you can see that the
software created a color palette itself from
the previously saved photo. Now you have the
option to rename it and use it later as well. Sorry, my camera
was shaking a bit. Just like that, you're done. Now, you have a color palette
for your next project. But what if you
would like to create something with a
limited palette? You can choose your own colors
from this picture as well. Now, I show you how. Open your actions bar, tab on Canvas, and turn on
your reference picture. Here, you have the option
to import a picture. Now that you have
your reference here, please open your
color menu again, and choose the custom palette. You immediately get a
clear custom palette. Now, with the help
of your finger, please tap and hold, and you can put colors
into your color palette. Now let's do this again. Tap on the picture, search for a color. Let's see, I go for this one. Tap on the color menu, and put it in your
palette, here. Let's do this one more time. I usually recommend to use three colors at least
for one illustration. Of course, you can do it again, and again, and again. It's recommended to rename this Palette 2 for
further reference. Now that we have our
custom palette together, it's time to start drawing. I think the best if I
can give you regarding color hand is that
if there's a place, a building, a statue, a scenery, or even a leaf
that you really like, don't forget to take a
picture for later reference. If you followed along, at the end of this lesson, we have two key things
out of three for creating the almost smooth geometrical
illustration in Procreate. In order to complete
the next lesson, please have your
iPad or drawing tab, pencil, color palette,
inspirational thoughts, and all your good
vibes prepared.
5. The Bubblegram: Hi, guys. How are
you feeling today? I'm really happy and excited
to be here with you, and finally start the making
of the bubblegram together. [MUSIC] The class project, as we previously discussed, is going to be an illustration of a dynamic sports movement. Now, you have two options here. Either you follow along and do the same steps with me
with the same picture, or you choose something
for your own taste. If you go for the second option, please try to find
something that is a really clear
sports movement to make your first try with
this technique easier. The bubblegram technique is
something that I created for my own help to create
smoother lines in Procreate. If you're already familiar
with the software, you know it's not a
vector-based program, so you need some hacks
to create those lines. I think this technique
can also help you to create rounder edges and smoother corners as well. [MUSIC] I make a new document. Now, I choose the screen size. That's perfectly fine for me. Let's start creating. If you go to the
upper left corner, there's the Actions tab. At the Action tabs, you see an Add button. You see here the
Insert a photo line, please tap on that, and then choose the picture
which we already chosen. Perfect. Now I zoom in just
to see it a bit better. Now all we need to do
is make the bubblegram. First, I rename the layer. This is going to be reference, and I take down the
opacity just a little bit. Now, I make a new layer
and rename this layer. This is going to
be my bubblegram. Perfect. Now, we can really start
working on those pictures. [MUSIC] Open your color menu and please find the color
palette we previously created. I'm going to use these colors. But now for the sketch, I only need something
that is a bit blackish. Now, I choose this
brownish-blackish. We need steady lines, so I
choose the original monoline. Now we can start creating. I zoom in on the toe, and what I start to
do is making circles. In Procreate, if you make a circle and hold
down your pencil, it's going to make
a round circle. But if you tap on the
screen with two fingers, it's going to be an even circle, and this is what we need. Please try to make even circles
at the edges of the toe. The circle should
touch the upper and the lower part of the
toe as well, like this. Please try to find an in-between
version with the circle. Here, try to put
circles everywhere. Now we will have a basic measure that how
big is the toe going to be. Oops, I just create a new one which is fairly the
same as the previous. Yes, something like this. As you can see in some cases, we are going to need circles that are outside our picture. Please try to use a different
color like this bluish, and this is going to be the outside of the
circle like this. At this circle, I know that I need to make a rounded corner. That's perfectly fine for me. Now, I go back to the
previous one and do it again. You don't need to put
circles everywhere, but what I would like you to do is to put circles where you think the measurements
are changing. I mean like here, you see that? I've put a circle here, and I put one here, great. [MUSIC] Here's the hand. The hand is an
interesting thing, because not everyone
likes to draw hands. I also like to just make
them a bit simpler. What I do is that I put
circles here and here, and I'm going to make just
a really simple hand here. [MUSIC] Cool. Now if you just turn
off the reference, you have a nice bubblegram
that we can use later on. But we're not finished yet, because we also need to do the
other circles I mentioned. I mean, the corners. Now I choose this bluish again, I zoom in, and I just make a few blue circles where I think I need to have a
really good rounded corner. For example, here. I also try to touch
the other two circles. [MUSIC] Now, do you see what I mean? I drew circles inside
the body and outside the body where I would like to create nice and round edges. Now I turn off the
reference picture, and I have a cool bubblegram. This bubblegram is going to be the base for
our sketch lines, and then we can refine
those sketch lines to make really nice and
steady smooth lines. Great, you did it. Now we have the base of our illustration and
we can move on to refining our sketch in
[inaudible] before coloring it. Please don't forget about
our project gallery. Upload your bubblegram
or sketch there, and then I can see what
you're working on.
6. Outlining: In the previous lessons, we learned how to gather
all your thoughts and inspirations together to
create a beautiful artwork. We learned how to use
the bubblegum technique, and now it's time to make our final line work for the illustrations
before coloring it. [MUSIC] We have our reference picture, bubblegram, and
the outline layer. It's really important to
draw on the outline layer. Please check it twice. Otherwise, you need a few
extra steps to just come back. But now that we are
on the outline layer, I start creating. I choose this orangish
color for my outline. Please note that this is
also a sketch outline, so if it's not perfect, it's not that bad. Now, I explain how are we
going to use these circles. At the round edges
I'm going to just follow the circle to make
a perfectly round edge, and then I try to stay within the circles' boundaries
and connect the dots. [LAUGHTER] Like in the old days when you had that
dot connecting game. Now I'm going to need
a half circle here, and then I connect the dots. See, and just follow the
circle. It's really easy. It helps me to
create rounder edges and smoother lines like this. Don't worry about
these small details, because we are going to do
something with that later on. What we need now is to have a steady outline of the picture
that we're going to use. [MUSIC] Here maybe I also need
another circle later on, I'm not sure, we will see. But yeah, I just go
back and do it now. I would like to have a more
rounded version of this. I put an even or
perfect circle here, and this is going to help me
really to make it better and not to have a sharp edge
like the previous one. [MUSIC] You see I always put my pencil down then leave it there
for a few seconds, and it makes some nice outline of my sometimes wobbly line. Here's a corner or edge. I still try to see the
reference picture lines, because that's the basic shape that we would like to follow. [MUSIC] The only thing that
I need these circles for is to avoid sharp edges, because I don't
want sharp edges. [MUSIC] If we zoom out and take
away the group we have, there we have a really cool
outline of the body shape. Now, this is our base
sketch and we're going to refine these lines to have
the final illustration. [MUSIC] Just to sum it up. Now we have a nice
color palette, a sketch, a
bubblegram, line work. I think we have
everything to bring our illustration alive
in the next lesson.
7. Coloring and Exports: From the previous lessons, we have a nice
bubblegram, an outline. It's time to make this
illustration alive. Let's do some coloring. Here we are with our
previously designed outline. Now what we're going to do
is use the color ballet we created earlier and
color this illustration. What I suggest you
to use here is a really easy technique
for coloring. Now, I make a new layer
above my outline layer. This is going to be the first color that
I'm going to apply. But before that, I duplicate the outline and use only one. The other one is a backup for later if I screw anything up. Now what I do is make a proper skin tone
for all the body. Since it's a beginner's class, I would like to offer you a really easy solution to put
some clothes on this girl. What I would like you to do
is take down the opacity of the outline layer and turn
on the reference layer. This comes in handy because now you see the line of the clothes, also the t-shirt
and the trousers. What is also visible, her hairline, and we're also
going to need that later. Now we're concentrating on
her clothes, so zoom in. Just not to be the same
as on the picture, I would like to give her
a long sleeve t-shirt. It's not going to
be this tanked up. We created a new layer. Now what we're going to do, we switch to clipping mask. What clipping mask does
is if I just pick a pen, then we go there
and choose a color, let's choose this bluish, and start to draw, the drawing only appears inside the previous
layers shape. The drawing is only
visible on the human body. I'll just show you
the full opacity. See, if I turn off
clipping mask, you see all the lines
that I created. But this is really handy because if you would
like to do a full coloring, this can prevent you from
just moving out of line. Now I clear this layer because I don't want her to be striped. Then what I'm going to do
is bring back the opacity to around 40 something. If I'm on the right layer, I start drawing the t-shirt. Double-check if you're on the right layer
because it's really hard to just move back if not. I choose this light
green and start to draw. The important thing here
is to close the shape. Now what I do, I show you, because the opposite is down, it's not really visible, that I created some
lines here at the hip, here at the hand, and here at the neck and
now I'm coloring it. Something happened.
I can easily see what's happened if I just
turn off clipping mask. I know exactly what happened. What I tried to do, blindfolded, to close the shape, because if you close the shape
you can easily color it. But here it's not closed, so I close it now,
here and here. When I, again, start to color it, now it's going to be fine. I turn back the clipping mask on and I have a cool t-shirt
with long sleeve. Now that I have the trousers, I try to make these two
line, again, visible. I, with the eraser, just erase some parts of this trouser to make
the toe visible. [MUSIC] Now, what I would like to do
is to make the face finally. What I see here is
that the face shape is a bit less rounded
than it should be. On the skin layer, I just add some
details to the face. This is where your
style comes in. I keep saying that it's an almost smooth
flat illustration and that's what I think. You have the chance to just
make something custom on it. [MUSIC] Now one thing
we can still do is to put some shades on
this picture to make it a bit more deep and
a bit more better. Let's see. For example, I would like to put some
shadings on the t-shirt, so I make a new layer. I also have the
clipping mask on. Then I choose the
color of the t-shirt, make it a bit darker, maybe just slightly, and then I apply some shadings. [MUSIC] Then the cool thing that
in this layer you can choose which color mode
you would like to use. If you do, for example, I multiply and take
down the opacity, it makes the shading and
the patterns more natural. But you can also
choose anything else. I also like this one
because it's not that harsh, or color burn. That's also one of my favorites. Don't be afraid to
experiment these and then just choose the one
that you like the most. [MUSIC] I think here comes
the best part, to make this illustration
really to pop out, is that you go on the top of the layers and then
on the action step, you insert a file,
a texture file. I already have this
craft paper downloaded. I've put it on top
of my illustration. I make it as big as my
illustration to cover it all up. Then I choose a
different blending mode. My favorite is linear burn, because that makes a really nice texture
to my illustration. I take down the
opacity not to lose all the colors I
previously mixed. Yes, this is it. Here, I have a great illustration of a girl doing yoga. What do you think? There's only one thing left, to export this picture. There are several
ways to export it. Here in the action step, you go on share. Then you can share this image in a lot of different formats. You can share it in
a Procreate format. Of course, that's editable
later on in Procreate. You can choose PSD, which is the Photoshop file. You can edit it in Photoshop. You have the standard PDF, JPEG, and of course, the
PNG, and the TIFF. What I usually do is I
choose the PNG because that's a better
quality than the JPEG. I export it to my images. It immediately appears
in my image gallery, and then I can easily
print it later on. I always recommend you to
make some different format saves because at the end of the day if something's happening
to your original file, these can really help you just to move on with your
original picture. Hey, congratulations for your first almost smooth
geometrical illustration created with the bubblegram
technique in Procreate. Please don't forget
to share your art in the project gallery
because this is the best part we've
been waiting for, for a long time now. Now that we're finished, I think it's time
to wrap this up. Next is the conclusion video.
8. Conclusions & Thank You: Hey, congratulations for
your first, almost smooth, geometrical illustration
created with the bubblegram
technique in Procreate. [MUSIC] If you're here, it means that you watched all my video lessons
in this class. I would really like to thank you for taking this journey with me. This was my first
Skillshare class, and hopefully not the last. Throughout this class together, we've discovered ways
to find inspiration, created custom color palettes, and use the bubblegram
technique to create a nice flat style
illustration for your wall. You're next step
could be to watch really great Skillshare
classes about lettering, and put a nice
motivational quote beneath your illustration. I also plan to make
a new class on creating a one-line
illustration of your house bed. But till then, please
provide me some feedback to know how you like
my teaching style. I would really appreciate
if you could do that. This is it for now, I really hope that you had fun during these hours with me, and we will meet in my
upcoming Skillshare class. See you there.
Dora Domjan, Let the flow of creating take u away!
