Transcripts
1. Let's Start!: With the fast-paced world we live in, we as creatives always stand in front of the challenges to come up with creative and practical solutions. Sometimes our worked up minds are not able to find the muse to achieve the results. With a simple warm-up exercises and actionable steps, we'll open our minds to detect inspiration and transform it into physical form. As a final product, you will get a couple of illustrations, drawings, paintings, but most importantly, you will get multiple ideas for your next project, and you will know the tools if you ever get stuck again. In case you are taking my class the first time, my name is Masho Margishvili, and I'm an artist, designer, and founder of a parallel universe called Masholand. Masholand is the place filled with different creatures, places, and stories. My work is a result of a constant flow of inspiration, because while I was starting up, I didn't have any proper art training and the only thing that kept me going was the muse. It doesn't matter if you are just beginning or if you are an advanced artists. If you're going through a creative block or if you are just interested in different ways of how to find the muse, this class is for you. I believe that waiting for the muse to come to you takes forever, and sometimes we just can't afford it. I found ways to get inspired whenever and wherever I want, and I'm more than happy to share those techniques with you. I hope that some of the tricks will unfold your creative blocks and help you move forward. If you have any questions along the way, I'm here for you.
2. Welcome to The Class: Welcome to the class. I'm excited that you decided to join us. What we are going to do are three main things; warm-ups, exercises, and product making. We're going to touch also three main parts of our inspiration; colors, words, and shapes. This class is for anyone interested in different ways of finding your muse, inspiration. The tools you need for the class are very basics, paper, pencil, pen, scissors. You will also need water-based colors and brushes and maybe some digital tools such as your smartphone camera and the software such as Procreate and Photoshop are optional. The documents you might need for the class you can find in projects and resources page and you will see some PDF templates there and also some recommendations and different links that might help you to get inspired. At the end of the class, I will be really happy if you can share your creations and your process. Let's dive in.
3. Observe: Observation is super important for inspiration because when you know what is happening around you, you can recognize what is lacking, and what is lacking can be a source of inspiration. You can experiment with a couple of different ideas. Something like, for example, imagine snow as being warm or imagine plants as animals, or it could look something like this. In the next video, we'll do warm-up exercises to strengthen our mental muscles and become even better observers.
4. Warm-Ups: In this video, we're going to do warm-up exercises that will help us to get ready for a real thing. As sportsmen need exercises before the actual game, this is a very similar thing. At first, you can find a PDF file in the Projects and Resources page, and it will look something like this. On each page, you'll see different tasks that we will do together. If you don't have a printer, you can draw the squares by yourself and you can write down the tasks by yourself. Let's start from the first page. We will start by using pen or pencil to fill the boxes with squares, circles, spirals, lines, dots, or fill it thoroughly. We'll start with squares. You can use as big squares as you want, you can also have different spaces in between of them; if you're tired of filling up with small boxes, you can always replace with the bigger ones. Let's use the second square to draw circles. This exercise will really help us to work with our hands and to awaken our skills. It's really simple and doesn't need any prior knowledge. Let's move on to the third square. As my pencil's tip is really tiny, I will use a marker that has a thicker tip, and I will use small dotted shapes to fill the box. You can use bigger spots or smaller spots, it's definitely up to you. We're halfway through the exercise, now we're going to use lines to fill in the fourth box. For straighter lines use your elbow, or shoulder to move your hand rather than your wrist. Now, is the time for the fifth square, and I will use the spiral shapes to fill it in. The direction of your spirals is also up to you, they can also cross paths, and then it's not as pretty. The last square is about filling the entire square thoroughly. For this exercise, I will use the thinker tip of my marker because it's going to be much easier to fill the box. We've finished the first page, it's not super beautiful, but that's already there as well. Let's move on to the next page. We're going to use water-based colors, or actually, any colors that you have to fill in the boxes. This is a fun exercise. Actually, if you feel like none of the boxes make any sense for you, you can use the colors to paint the entire page, but I will just follow the steps. I also use the color that I had in mind for magic, so I'm going to use a transparent gray color because sometimes magic is invisible. I think it's going to be interesting to use that. But actually, many people associate the color of magic with purple color. The second part of our exercise is done, and we will move on to the third page. On the third page, we're going to describe a couple of objects that we see in the room, and it will really help us to observe our environment and open our minds and eyes to the inspiration. You can write down what you see in your room and we will finish up the exercise accordingly. These are what I wrote down, and I'd like to show you a couple of objects that are used: Therapists object, something gifted, and this is the oldest object that I have in the room, it's a really, really cool book about plants. Now that we've finished all the pages, now it's time to destroy them. By destroying what we created, we will release the tension and we will get ready for the next step, which is going to be an actual exercise that will lead us to an actual product. We will burn the first page, cut the second one, and we will tear apart the third page. By the way, when you are cutting the second page, sometimes you can get really interesting shapes and interesting compositions. I can later use it for my illustrations or I can throw it away if I don't like it. If you have any questions along the way, please do not hesitate to ask me in the Discussion page. Also, be careful with the fire. Are you ready to move on? Let's go to the next video.
5. Words that Inspire (Text + Draw): In this video, we are going to use words to inspire us. You can find another PDF file in the projects and resources page. It will look something like this. This exercise will help you to come up with a very absurd phrase, and this phrase or this sentence will inspire you to draw something unusual, and sometimes it will push you to go out of your comfort zone. First of all, we are going to start by describing couple of objects. In the first table, we're going to write eight adjectives, on this second table, we're going to write who or what, and in the third and final table, we are going to write actions. First, I'm going to write mesmerizing, then crazy. Let's move on to who and what. I'll write, a pillow, elephant, dragon fruit. Dragon fruits are very common in martial land. Now, let's right actions. Maybe flying, sleeping, laughing. I hope you wrote down everything and now you're ready to cut out the paper, so you can find little icons of scissors and those are the places where you are going to cut the paper. At first, I'm going to cut different groups, so I don't mix them up. I have three tables like this, 1, 2, and 3, and now I'm going to cut each lines on each table and I'm going to put them separately from each other. I don't mix different groups. I have left some empty spaces on each table. if you are very inspired, you can write down more words. Then we will fold each paper, but don't mix groups. At the end, we will have three groups, and we're going to pick one paper from each group, and we will get entire sentence as a result. I randomly chose the words, crazy, flying, moon. Now I will start by drawing a moon. At first, I will draw the full moon shape in the center of the paper. I'm really curious what you have, what kind of sentence. I hope that you will share it with me. Then I will try to draw eyes as a crazy moon eyes with cricket mouth, and as we all know, moons have some spots. Those will be emphasized later, and then I will use eraser after giving a color to erase extra lines. Don't worry if you make many mistakes. I will make some features darker, so it's more visible. Something like spots, eyes, and, around the mouth. I'll use smaller brush, and at the end of the process, I'll outline the lines. I will use pens with thicker tips, and I will start outlining. At first I was thinking to add wings to my moon, but then I decided that it is already flying in the galaxy, so I didn't add it. I finished drawing and I got this weird looking funny moon, and I know that it's not perfect, but it is totally fine. I can always revisit and redraw it. But most importantly, I would never come up with an idea to draw a crazy flying moon. Maybe I would, but not necessarily. Now, we covered the first main exercise, which was about words to inspire us, and in the next video, the colors will be the ones inspiring us. So go ahead to the next video.
6. Colors that Inspire (Paint + Illustrate): In this video, we are going to use colors to inspire us. At first we will draw different spots. So our senses with colors will open up and then we'll all play with the shapes and imagine different forums inside of them, and we will use pens and pencils to draw inside and make cute characters and maybe some other objects inside. Let's start. In the resources page, you can find a couple of references that you can check and they might inspire you for this exercise. Let's start by taking what's our based colors. I have gouache paints and couple of brushes. You cannot imagine how many things we can come up with what we have here. Just play around, you don't need to be serious. You can use some blue colors, you can mix them together. Some blue lines maybe, maybe some pinkish colors. Now that we have our colors dried, we will start using pens to outline what we have here. For instance, this shape reminds me of an elephant, this shape reminds me of a snake, so I will start emphasizing all the details. I'll start drawing an eye, and I will draw a trunk and nostrils. Maybe this elephant will have some wings too. Now you're seeing what I'm doing here. I'm just outlining and emphasizing some of the shapes. I'm pretty happy with this creature already, so I'm going to move on to the next one. This one reminds me of a character from the shadow theater, somebody like this. Maybe I'll try to make it look like that a bit. I can outline the entire thing, by allowing how the colors are grading from lighter to darker here. Maybe I'll add some nostrils here, maybe three nostrils are enough or what do you think? I'll add some spots and that's it for the second one. Let's move on to the third or the fourth. Maybe I'll do the third character from here. This shape somehow reminds me of a beaver with an eye here and mouth here. But I'm going to do more abstract feature here, so I'll add an eye, it's going to be a nose, big nose here with one spot. Maybe mouth like this, I'll let some teeth as well and big ear and then maybe a couple of legs to make it more fun and at the end, we can add a tail. This one can be rain and it can be the part of the entire illustration. We've got three main characters, 1, 2, and 3. Of course we can go on and on about completing all the creatures, but most importantly you already got an idea of how this exercise works. If you are inspired, you can do as many features as you'd like. But for me, that's it for now. I will tell you how this exercise can help you. It can open your mind for detecting different characters in different shapes and forms and colors. The creatures that you are going to do, you can use it as gifts, or you can also make art prints or stickers or use it as book illustrations. For now, we completed two main exercises: one was about the words that inspire us, and the second one was about the colors that inspire us. In the next video, we're going to cover the shapes that inspire us and it's going to be about digital illustration and we will take a photo, then we will reattach it and we will see how shapes can help us to find a muse.
7. Shapes that Inspire (Capture + Digitize): In this video, we are going to choose an object in the room that you like, and then we are going to photograph it using a smartphone camera or any camera that you have. Then we will use digital softwares or tools such as Photoshop or Procreate to retouch it and reimagining the shape in different ways. I chose this object because I like how diverse the shape is, and you can also remove the part that you don't like. Now I'm going to photograph it. I'm using my phone camera. Try to have more solid background because then we are going to outline it in digital software and it's easier to do so. Now you can open the same photo in Photoshop or Procreate. I'm going to use my iPad to redraw it and digitize what we have. This exercise will help you to recognize different shapes around you and then reuse the shapes for different purposes. This exercise is also widely used for designers to reimagine existed objects, because sometimes we are getting used to the ideas and functionalities of certain items. While we imagining its purpose, we come up with new ideas. I will try to outline and refill the shape with different colors. I will lower down the transparency so the lines are more visible, and I will choose just any color that I want. I will outline the object. I will feel the outline with the color like this, and I will delete the layer behind it, which is the picture of an object. The main purpose and idea is that, now we can reimagine the shape into new function. For instance, we can rotate it to see if it reminds us of something different. It reminds me of a bunny. Maybe I will create a new creature out of it, maybe a blue bunny. I'm not sure if you are able to see it right now, but I will start adding small details, and little by little a new bunny will be in front of your eyes. I will re-adjust the canvas a bit because it's too small. Let's create a marshlander bunny. Don't worry if your object is not perfect because you can always retouch it. You can always redraw it. The most important thing is the idea and inspiration of something and then you can find multiple ways of making it happen. I think that my rabbit is perfect for children's book illustration or even a small animation, rather than something for adults. But I wouldn't come up with this same shape if I had to draw a rabbit and I'm really glad that I reshaped the photo that I had. I can go on and add as many details as I want, but for now, that's it. With this, we completed our third main exercise, and let's move on to the next video, where we're going to combine them to create a completely new product.
8. Combination: At this stage, if none of the exercises have inspired you yet, I have a final exercise for you. Sometimes, combination of all these exercises or a couple of them can be a source of an inspiration. We're going to choose two exercises that we did, and we will combine them together to achieve a result and to get a product at the end. The exercises that I chose were the words that inspire us and the colors that inspire us. I randomly chose the words. They are sleeping fluffy dragon fruit. I also am going to use the paints that I did earlier. This shape reminds me of a dragon fruit with its spots here as well. We have some green color here as well. Maybe I'm going to combine them to achieve the result, and I will try to see the words that I chose in this drawing. Let's start. The final part would be to add a face, sleeping face. We got a very strange and interesting result. Here is our fluffy sleepy dragon fruit. Actually, what you can do, if you don't like the background, you can always cut it out, and you can stick it on another paper, or you can photograph it, and you can retouch it digitally if it's something that you like more. Congratulations, you've finished all the exercises. I'm really, really proud of you. I will be more proud and happy if you can share your process and creations with me. See you in the next video.
9. Tips & Tricks: Today, we went through such a long journey and finally, we got results. We created an illustration out of the centers that we got. Then we outlined color spots and edit details to come up with different features. Finally, we chose one object. We outlined it digitally, we re-imagined what could be done there. Finally, we chose two of those exercises and we created a combination. There are many different ways of finding inspiration, and there are also short ways and longer ways. Short ways would be to take 10, 15 minutes a day just not to do anything, relaxing, and observing your surroundings, not doing even one teeny tiny thing. You can also have a walk outside in the park or in your favorite place. You can also remake your existing illustration or you can watch videos and movies that inspire you. For the long-term solutions, you can also join some of the challenges that you can find on social media. Some of them are for 30 days, some of them are for the entire year, it's totally up to you. If you have very vivid dreams, you can have a dream diary where you're going to write every single dream that you have every night. Then you can try to make a story out of it or you can try to illustrate them. If you have any questions, you can ask me on social media or you can also write somewhere here in the discussion page. I will be more than happy if you can share some of your creations or even working progress. Now, let's move to the final video.
10. Final Words: Thank you so much for taking my class. I hope that one of the exercises spoke to you. If you enjoyed watching the class and you want to explore more about inspiration, illustration, or a character design, you can check other Masholand's videos. I wish you a wonderful journey in your creative endeavors. Bye.
Masho Margishvili, Artist & Designer
