Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi there. My name is Kathy, and I'm
the owner of bits of joy. I make and sell Q creative and custom polymer clay products to people all over the world. In 2021, I began digitizing
my 3D products into digital art using Procreate and amazing design app you
can download on the iPad. I've also been an online
ESL teacher since 2017. So my experience
in teaching online will ensure that you'll have
a fun and engaging class. In today's class,
you'll learn how to make a coloring
sheet and procreate. Coloring isn't just for
kids anymore with my class, you'll have the ability to create coloring
sheets for adults and kids so you can use
them for any audience. You can think of why
coloring sheets? Well, they are
really fun to make. I find the process
very soothing. You can make them
for holidays events, or even as birthday presents. They are also a great product to add to your small business. I offer them as free Printables
on my website and as a lead magnet to promote
email sign-ups and to bring new customers
into my brand. However, if you
create a lot of them, you can even publish
your own coloring book or make digital downloads. The possibilities
are really endless. I'll share tips on
how you can do this. As a bonus, I'll show
you how you can turn your paper coloring
design into digital one. That way you can even
sell or color digitally. You don't have to be an artist to create a coloring sheet. I'll share how this
process can be adapted for everyone
of any skill set. It does help to have a
working knowledge or a beginners knowledge of
how to use Procreate. So you can follow along
with me. Are you ready? Let's get to coloring. See you soon.
2. Class Project: In today's class,
we are going to create food PAN themed
coloring sheets. It will include a
primary focal point, some lettering,
and some accents. If you need help coming
up with a theme, don't put too much
pressure on yourself. Just think about things that you like and start from there. If you're a small
business owner, think about things
that are relevant to your style or your brand, or even your products. So for instance, if
you own a bakery, maybe you can draw some cookies. And I'll show you
three ways that you can start drawing from
my beginner students. I'll show you how you can use a reference image to help
you draw your focal point. For my intermediate
and advanced students, I'll show you how you can use your own artwork as a basis
for your coloring sheet. This will allow you
to work smarter, not harder with artwork you've already created in the past. And of course, for my
most advanced students, you can draw it freehand. I'll show you how you can set up your canvas in this class, create your art, prepare
it for printing. And then we'll cover
how to convert it to a digital coloring page. I'll go more in depth with what you can do with your
coloring sheets. After we finish our project. I chose this project
because it's something I really enjoy making. I love that I can spread
the joy of coloring with others and help promote
quality time together. All you need is your
iPad and Apple Pencil, an idea in your procreate
app. Let's get started.
3. Setup: Let's dive in, power up your
iPad and your procreate app. We're going to begin
by opening an 8.5 by 11 inch canvas and you
can set it at 300 dpi. Okay, I like to create
a border around my coloring sheets because it
gives it a very clean look. I also like to bend my
website and my business name into my art so that people know where the coloring
she came from. Now these steps are
completely optional. So if you want a blank canvas, just skip along to
the next video. Otherwise follow along to help
set up a template with me. I like to use the monoline brush because it creates
even brushstrokes. Just test the width of how
thick you want your lines. And we're going to begin by
drawing a straight line. If you hold your pencil is
still for a few seconds, it will create a
perfectly straight line, adjusted if needed,
along your dotted grid. And then duplicate the layer. That way you have the same line on the top and the bottom. And go ahead and
just move it down. You can turn on
snapping and magnetics to make sure that
everything lines up nicely. And just move your line down
to the bottom of the page. Just a little bit further
here. Alright, there we go. That looks good. All right, Next up we are going to merge
the two layers together by pinching the two layers
together with your fingers. And then we are going to
create our vertical lines. So connect the two
ends of their lines. And then go ahead and duplicate that like we did with
the horizontal lines. Drag everything over, and take
a look at your rectangle, make sure it looks good. If any of the edges
aren't clean, you can erase or
adjust as needed. And once you're happy
with your shape, go ahead and merge all the
layers together by pinching. And once you have
everything on one layer, you can adjust it as needed. Try not to go too far over on the borders because it could
get cut off by your printer. And I'm going to turn
magnetics and snapping off. Now that we are
done with our box, that way we can be
a little bit more free handed with our drawing. You can also turn off your drawing guide at
this time if you'd like. And I'm going to
create a new layer. And this will allow me
to add my logo or text. So I'm going to
type bits of joy, which is my small business name. Then I'm going to
make a few changes to the text size and the text font. You can also embed your
website if you wish. And I like to keep
this consistent, and I usually put it in the bottom right-hand
corner. But you can.
4. Let's Draw: Okay, Now that you have
your Canvas setup, we are going to draw a
waffle with the phrase, I love you a waffle lot. If you're a beginner
or don't have a lot of drawing experience. Don't worry, go
to Google Images, search for a waffle, find one you like, and then add it to your photos. And this will serve as a reference image for you to
base your drawing off of. Okay, so go back to Procreate. Make sure you are
on a new layer. And go ahead and
import your file. So click on Insert a
Photo, find your waffle, size it to where you'd like it, and then move it out of the way. Create a new layer. And this will be
the layer that we begin drawing our waffle on. So go ahead and
select your brush. We are using monoline from the calligraphy brush set today, but feel free to use
whatever you'd like. And double-check
your brush size to make sure that you're happy with the width
that you're using. So we're going to start with some basic shapes,
like a square. Remember you can hold down on your iPad for just a few
seconds when creating lines, to create straighter lines. Another tip is to make sure that your streamline
is turned all the way up to max under
your brush settings. Now we're going to
create another layer. And this will be for all the little
individual grooves that we see on a waffle. So instead of drawing these
little squares a 100 times, we can destroy it once. That's the great thing
about digital art, you can save yourself
a lot of time. So what I'm doing now is
duplicating the square, turning on magnetics and snapping to make sure
it lines up properly. And then I'm going to pinch
the two layers together to combine them and
duplicate them. That way we can
start duplicating two or four or six at a time
rather than individually. We're going to repeat
this process once more. And now we have six across. Now instead of copying
two at a time, we're going to copy
six at a time. So go ahead and duplicate and repeat the process as
many times as you need. And now that I look at it, waffle is a little off center. You can see the, it
doesn't really line up. So I'm going to turn on
magnetics and snapping off. Now that we're done
copying and pasting. And I'm going to try to adjust the angle manually
from my waffle. Alright, that looks
a little bit better. Now go ahead and pinch all of your waffle layers together. That way it's just one image. And I'm going to turn the
opacity down on the squares. That way we can put
a face on top of it. So I'm going to make
sure that I'm on a new layer and I'm
going to draw circle. Now, same thing with the lines. If you hold down, you will create a
quick shape and you can change it to a
circle or an ellipse. And I like to add
little white dots to make my picture's a
little bit more collide. Adjust the sizing as needed. And instead of drawing
the circle twice, so we are going to
duplicate it to save some time and to create
some consistency. And then all we need
is a little smile. So have fun with this. Add
eyelashes, create a mustache. You can add a little
bow to your waffle, whatever you'd like to do. And once you're done
with your drawing, you can delete the
reference layer. Go ahead and move your waffle
anywhere you'd like on the screen and size it
however you'd like. You can even duplicate it
if you want multiples. Now let's talk about
the second method. This is for more
intermediate students. Now, I've already created a
waffle drawing in the past. So I am going to
use my own drawing. As an inspiration
for my next piece. Once you find your drawing, go ahead and copy it by swiping
down with three fingers. Make sure you hit Copy all so that it gets all of your layers. Go back to your coloring sheet, swipe down with three
fingers and hit Paste and adjust it as needed. Now in order to trace this, we need to lower the opacity and create a new layer
on top of this. That way it acts more
like a tracing sheet. So click on the little n
and lower the opacity. You wanna make sure that
you can still see it, but it doesn't interfere
with your layer on top. So when you're ready to draw, make sure that you are working above your image
and start drawing. It doesn't have to be exact. Just use your
artwork as a basis. Feel free to erase any little
mistakes you might make. Now we also have lines
here on the waffle. So what I'm going to do is
create a new layer because I want to show those
as more opaque again, like we did with
the waffle squares. So I'm going to manually
draw in my straight lines. Going to try with a thinner
brush size this time. Okay, that looks good.
Now we are going to hit the little n and
decrease the opacity. I'm going to delete the layer underneath because all I need
to do now is to add a face. Now I like to create
templates of faces. That way I can keep my
artwork consistent. So I'm simply just copying and pasting something
that I drew previously and then
putting it on top of my artwork and sizing
it appropriately. Okay, this little
waffle looks good. And what I'm going
to do now is use my monoline outline
brush to create the little strokes
for shadowing. And to create a
little glossy look. Give it a little
bit more dimension. You do want to test sizing. So at any point, if you want to print out
your artwork to make sure that you can
still cover it with a colored pencil or
crayon or marker. Go ahead and do that
as a test print. That way, you know, if you need to make your brush
sizes bigger or smaller. And let's go ahead and
talk about Method 3, which is the most advanced
method for drawing. And this is simply
for those that would like to free
hand everything. I like to use the
procreate pencil, but you're welcome to use
any brush that you'd like. So once you're on a new layer, go ahead and just
start sketching. It doesn't have to be perfect. So for today's purposes, I'm just going to create an
example of this process, but I'm not going to
actually use this image. So once you're happy
with your sketch, create a new layer, and then go back with
your monoline brush and trace on top of it. The image that you create
with the monoline brush will be your third image
if you prefer to use it. And then all you have
to do after that is just delete your sketch layer.
5. Lettering & Accents: Alright, now that we are
done with our drawing, Let's get to lettering. So I'm not a
professional letterer by any means. I just enjoy it. There are a wealth of
videos on hand lettering, if that's a skill that
you'd like to learn. But for now, let's
just have fun with it. For now we're going to do
a mix of lettering so that people can actually color
in some of our letters. So let's break down our phrase, I love you a waffle lot. I want to accentuate
love and waffles so that people can
color those words in. There's two ways to do
that. Let me show you. Alright, so the first method, we are going to grab our
monoline outline brush and this is the easiest one. Adjust the sizing. And this person is really
neat because it allows you to essentially create,
outline the letters. All right, let's begin
by drawing in an L, O, V, and E. So one thing to keep in mind
with this particular brush, I'm not sure if all of
them are like this. However, the one
that I purchased is, if you pick up your brush and then draw
another brushstroke, it will not be fluid. For example, this E here, you'll have to erase
some of your strokes. So just keep that
in mind as you're lettering for today's class, I'm just going to
use a lowercase E because it looks cuter. Now, met the number two. If you don't want to
purchase a brush or if you don't have the ability to
create your own brush, you can use a thicker brush on a larger setting,
any brush you want. And basically just draw your word in and then trace
it with another brush. I like using monoline
just because it creates even steady
brushstrokes. So I'm going to turn
it all the way up. Make sure you're
working on a new layer. When in doubt, use new layers. And the reason I'm doing
all the different words, entrepreneur layers is
because I want to be able to move them
around the page. So let's go ahead and
write in our word waffle. And we are going to turn the opacity down because this is going to be our
tracing layer. Create a new layer on top
of your waffle layer, and then simply
trace what you drew. So this is a great technique
to use when you want to get creative and not use
a particular font. And again, it doesn't
have to be perfect. Okay, this looks good. So now that we're finished,
go ahead and delete the tracing layer and size the word and place it where you want
it on your screen. Now this is a free
method because it's a great way to incorporate
your style into your art. And you're tracing
your own lettering. I really like doing this. For today's class. I'm going to just keep
it consistent and use the monoline brush that way both my lettering
styles look the same. So here I am. Lettering
the word waffle again. And remember, if you
lift up your brush, you'll have to do some erasing. Dan, go ahead and
resize your word and then place it where you'd
like on your canvas. And then I'm going
to create a new layer for my other words. And I don't want people
to be able to color these other smaller words in. So I'm just going to
letter them with monoline. However, if you want
your customers or your clients where recipients to be able to color them in, go ahead and use your
outlining process again. So I'm going to write, I
love you a waffle lot. Now, the reason we
work in layers is because you're able to move things around anytime you need. So you can see here that I didn't really
play in that well. And I forgot that I need
to put an a somewhere. So I am rearranging things. This is one of the things
I love about digital art. Can never make a mistake. Now let's talk about accents. Now the sheet we have
is pretty plain, but we want to spruce
it up a little bit. So what we can do
is fill in some of the negative
space with fillers. So you can use the same
monoline outline brush to make little circle dots or even sprinkles if that
fits your theme. You can also draw and
little stars or use stamps. I personally love using stamps because it creates
consistent images. So I'll share where I got my
stamp sets in the resources. But you can also Google
free procreate stamp sets, and you'll see a variety
of options available. I also like to play
around with sizing here to help with
the composition. And I also like to turn down the opacity and then turn it
up with different shapes. So think about whether
you want fillers or accents that
people can fill in. You can also hand draw
your own shapes and then duplicate them if you prefer
a more personal touch. All right, once
you're happy with the place and then everything, I will show you in
the next part of this process how we can
convert our files for print and convert our file into a digital file that people can color directly on the iPad.
6. Converting Files: In this next part of the video, we are going to talk about how to properly export your file. So it's always important
to save your work as a Procreate file in case your iPad just shuts down
or the battery dies, you want to have it as a file that you can access
in case of emergencies. And what I like to
do is export it as a PDF file and also
as a PNG file. Now when exporting
as a PNG file, it's important to protect
yourself and your work. So try to watermark it
with your logo or sample, or write it on top
of your artwork. And this prevents people from downloading it if
you're charging for it. Okay, so I like to
adjust the opacity and I also like to
use a light gray. Once you go into
your Google drive or wherever you exported your file, you can view your files
in a larger format. Typically, I will
upload PDF files onto my website for people
to download directly. Depending on the
website that you use, Etsy Shopify, you may need
an additional app for this. I have a Shopify
website and I use the app digital
downloads, it's free. So just make sure to uncheck
this has a physical product, so it doesn't charge
your customers shipping. After you save your
product listing, you'll then go to Add a
digital attachment and upload your file when your
customers purchase it, there'll be able to download
it automatically and also have a copy in their email. So regardless of
where you sell this, just make sure that you write
out your terms of use in your product description
so people know how they can use
your file properly.
7. Let's Get Digital!: All right, so let's say
you want to sell or share your art as a coloring
sheet that people can color in Procreate. So
let me show you how. First, duplicate your
file and rename it. That way you don't confuse
it with the other one. And the first thing you'll
wanna do is make sure that all your shapes that you're
using are closed shapes. Otherwise, when people
use color drop it may color in the whole
page and one color. Take out anything
that you don't need, and go ahead and pinch
everything into one layer. And then go ahead and
duplicate that layer. Now the top layer will be
the layer that you color on. The bottom layer will
be the reference layer. Go ahead and rename
it as reference, and then also tag it as
reference on the left. And then swipe over
and lock the layer. And this prevents people
from messing with it. For the top layer, go ahead and name it
something like color here. And that way people know
when they open your file, that this is the layer
they need to color on. So the great thing about
digital coloring is that people can color freehand or
they can use color drop. They can also use whatever
brushes they want, and they can even use
the paint brushes. So you have a lot
more creativity and flexibility going to use a marker brush today because it actually
mimics a real marker. So this is some
freehand coloring. If you want things a
little more precise, you can use color drop. By dragging the color you
want into your shape.
8. Bonus: All right guys,
you guys have done such an amazing job
following along today. I hope you really
enjoyed this class. So let me show you a
few additional ways to share your coloring sheets. So if you're selling them, you can create coloring
contest among your customers. You can also offer them as a
lead magnet on your website in exchange for email
subscribers to build your brand, you can also offer them as
a freebie with purchase. If you've made enough
of these sheets, I want to put them together
into a coloring book. You could do a digital
version or a print edition. So with a digital version, all you have to do is
combine a couple of PDFs together into one file. If you want to publish
your own coloring book, you could use
something like ADP, which is Kindle
Direct Publishing. Basically Amazon will
print and fulfill your coloring book and you'll have an actual
physical copy, but you don't have to
physically make anything. So all you have to do is
just make sure you have all of your PDF files together. So when people order one, Amazon takes care of the
printing and fulfillment, oftentimes with Prime shipping, and then you get a
portion of the profits. So it's a great way to make an actual coloring book if you don't want to have
a lot of inventory, you can also try to
outsource this process to a local printer
in your community. The coloring sheets are also
great for holiday promotion. So try to think of fun, quirky holidays outside of your normal
Christmas, halloween. For example, for American
Pharmacists month, I created this cute little
pill bottle coloring sheet. For Valentine's Day. I created a Valentine's punchy. So basically what we did with
the little waffles today, I combine a whole bunch of different categories and put
them all into one sheet. And I also did a
miniature version where I started with smaller
canvas sizes. And I created individual
prints and then put them on an eight by 8.5 by 11 sheet. You can also try
to help highlight your small businesses
in your community. So here's a local
restaurant in my area. I created a coloring sheet
that she can give to customers to color while
they wait for their food. And all of the
images are based off her actual customer
favorite foods. And lastly, if you wanted
to bring joy to someone, these make wonderful
birthday gifts. So this is a little
coloring packet that I made for my nephew who
loves Bobo and loves cats. If you have a young
child at home, you can even create educational coloring feeds with
shapes and letters for them to practice and
then curate them towards your child's individual
needs and interests. You can also use your
designs to create greeting cards or color your own postcards
that people can color. If you really enjoyed
this class with me today, I want to thank you for taking
the time to learn with me. Please share your
projects with me, whether they're in-process or completed for some feedback. And if you can tag me on
Instagram at bits of joy crafts, thank you for
watching this class. I can't wait to see what
you create and color.
Kathy Austin, Owner of Bits of Joy
