Joyful Sketches: Whimsical Illustration for Relaxation & Creativity

1. Class Introduction : You ever feel stuck or felt like you need fancy art supplies to begin your creative journey, trust me on this. You don't need fancy art supplies. All you need is a pen, maybe color pencil or a watercolor. Hey, everyone. I'm San Asad, founder of Wild About Art Studio based in Bahrain. I'm a mixed media artist, art educator, and a certified holistic art therapy practitioner. I've been teaching art and design for the past 15 years to children, teenagers, as well as adults. In this class, I'll guide you through six whimsical spring inspired art project using simple material. We'll start with basic shapes, add playful doodles and slowly build drawing that feels light, expressive and completely doable for any level. This is not about perfection. It's about starting, enjoying and reconnecting with your creativity. If you've been waiting for the right time or the right tools, this is your sign to begin. I'll also be sharing simple pen sketching techniques, how to create loose flowy lines using arm movements, how to avoid stiff drawing, and how to bring more life and freedom into your sketches. Let's begin together. See you in the class. 2. Material Guide: For this class, you really don't need much. All you need is pen, some paper or your journal, and any tool you already have for coloring. If you just have a pencil, pen and paper, you are absolutely good to start. I have these color pencils. You don't need any fancy art supplies for this class. The only slightly fancy material I'm using is a stamp with a vintage writing style that creates a soft newspaper effect. But this is completely optional. You can always skip it, use a piece of newspaper or any paper collage, or even just scribble lightly with a fine pen to create a similar texture. Use what you have and let's begin. 3. Class project: For your class project, all you need to do is follow along and complete these six illustrations. Once you are done, I'd love for you to share at least one of your artwork in the project gallery on Skillshare. You can also download the handout from the resources section. It will guide you further and give you idea to explore. You will also find out the templates there. As an additional and more reflective project, I invite you to choose your own theme, something that makes you feel happy or calm. This can become your personal theme for the class. Use the idea from the handout if you need inspiration, create your own illustration based on that theme and share your artwork in the gallery. If you have any question, feel free to ask in the discussion section. I'll be there to guide you. I can't wait to see what you create. 4. Lesson 1 — Decorative Eggs: Hey, everyone. Lesson one is all about starting simple and letting go of pressure. We are not trying to create anything perfect here. We are simply warming up our hands, eyes, and our mind through basic shapes and gentle movement. Here I'm taking a three size paper, washy tape, and going to make six boxes. This lesson is called decorative eggs, or you can call it Easter eggs or simply simple forms. The title is not important. What truly matter is the shape and the movement we are creating. To begin with, grab your pen, different sizes or just one size at a pencil. We will begin with a pencil sketch, and then we will outline with our pen. In this lesson, we are focusing on the oval shape. As you move your hand in a soft curved oval motion, you begin to build control in your drawing. Start by drawing one egg shape. Then slowly add another. Let them overlap. So in front, some slightly behind. This is how we begin to understand layering and depth in a very simple way. Don't worry about perfection. Let your lines be light, loose, and flowy. This will bring a fresh feeling into your artwork, something calm, something growing, something full of life. You can keep your shape simple or you can start decorating each egg with pattern. Line dots, curves. Once you're happy with your sketch, start with outlining with your black pen. If you just have one single pen, try not to press too hard and if you have multiple sizes, begin with 0.5 or 0.6. Now I will begin adding watercolor. This step is completely optional. If you enjoy watercolor, you can go with watercolor, or you can use color pencil, acrylic paint, or markers, whatever you feel comfortable with. The idea here is not to copy exactly what I'm doing, but to enjoy the process. This lesson I design is more like a design practice, a general way to add something layer by layer without overthinking. Here I'm using mix of different colors which make me feel happy, joyful. You can sit with this exercise for just ten to 15 minutes and allow it to become a small ritual of calm. When we work with small simple object like these, our mind does not feel overwhelmed. It feels safe, focused, and slowly begin to settle. Keep adding a little color, a few details, soft layers. Let it be imperfect. Let it yours. In the end, we will add the final touch. So splatters. Once the splatter and watercolor is completely dry for me, then I'm going to use the stamps. But if you don't have fun, you can always create your own texture. You can doodle add light scribbles with pen, or even use a piece of a newspaper to create prints and patterns. It doesn't have to be fancy. I just need to feel playful and expressive. We are almost about to end this lesson. I would like to ask you a few questions. Which part of this process made you feel the most calm today? Did you notice your mind slowing down while creating this? What small details did you enjoy adding the most? How did this 10 minutes of drawing make you feel? Till next time, keep creating and take care of yourself. 5. Bunny: In this lesson, I am getting inspired by a bunny, a simple, gentle character. If you like, you can change the character completely. You can change the position of the bunny instead of the side view. You can also try the front view. Keep it personal. You can follow along with me and then later explore your own creative ideas to make it truly yours. I begin with very simple shape and then slowly make them a little more organic, soft close eyes, tiny nose. I will create a long relaxed ears. And once I'm happy with the nose, which I am not right now, I just want to create that softness in her in the face of the bunny. So the laugh line needs to be more curve. If drawing makes you feel overwhelmed, you can always trace the template available in your handbook. Now I'll start adding a small wine on the side of the bunny with flowers and leaves to bring in that whimsical spring feeling. Keep your doodles loose. Loose flowy lines, small flowers, tiny details. Nothing too controlled. Let it feel light and playful. And as you draw, I want you to pause for a moment and think about your childhood. Do you remember how you used to draw flowers back then? Not thinking about realism, not worrying about perfection, drawing freely. Some petals were uneven. So flowers had four petals, some five. So leave had so many lines, and some had none at all. Yet it was beautiful. So why not allow yourself to feel that again? Through this lesson, I want you to enjoy the process more than worrying about the outcome. As mentioned before, you can always trace from the template, and there is no pressure here. You can trace and then slowly add your own details, your own mood, your own story. This is your space. You pace, your way. Once you are done with your sketch, you can begin adding colors. Choose any medium you like, whatever feels good and comfortable to you. For this one, I am planning to use colour pencils because the details are small and I want to keep it everything loose and light. I purposely did not show you the step of coloring inside the leaves and flowers because the moment we see something, our brain immediately start copying it. Instead of enjoying our own ideas, we begin to think, This looks nice, so I should do the same to make mine look prettier. Making things prettier is not wrong. But sometimes it takes us away from our own voice. This exercise is not about perfection. It's about slowly coming out of that inner critics. When we don't have a fixed reference, we begin to trust ourselves more, let your hand more freely, let your intuition guide you. Allow the colors to choose you instead of you overthinking every choice. Just make something like this, simple Imperfect and truly yours. Last, to create the artwork looks more whimsical, I am adding the stamps. As mentioned before, you can skip this part or you can just simply use the fine pen and just add the doodles and scribbles. Now it's time for the closing reflection. Did you notice yourself trusting your own choices a little more here? Till next time, keep creating and take care of yourself. 6. Lesson 3 — Little Lamb: Hey, everyone. In this lesson, let's draw our little lamb. Do you remember the nursery rhyme? Mary had a little lamb. That is the inspiration for today's drawing. Spring is often connected with lambs because they remind us of softness, new beginning, gentleness, and fresh life all around us. Lambs are such sweet, soft animals, and that makes them a lovely subject to draw in spring lessons. You can always use a template to trace if that feels easier, or you can follow along and draw it step by step with me. For the face, begin with an oval. If you carefully observe the shape, you will notice that this little lamb is made with very simple form. One oval for the face, one rectangle for the body, and four long rectangle for the legs. Take your time as you follow the steps. It is absolutely okay to erase and try again. Just remember not to press the pencil too hard on the paper. Keep your lines nice and light because that will make it easier to erase without leaving strong marks behind. And, you know, this reminds me of something from my childhood. When I was little, my dad once brought a real lamb home for me, a baby. I still remember how soft its fur was like touching a cloud. I couldn't stop petting it. One day, we even got a chance to shave its wool, and I was so surprised the fur filled up two big bags. I couldn't believe all that come from one tiny gentle animal. It made me see how special and magical these little creatures are. As you draw your lamb today, think about that softness, that warmth, and maybe even imagine how it would feel to gently hold one. Try to feel that into your lines. Here, my lamb is not very fluffy because I'm imagining that this is a lamb after it has been shaved. So it looks a little smoother and lighter. Now, once I'm happy with my sketch, I'm going to start adding beautiful spring garden. I'll add some tulips and fresh green grass around it to bring that spring feeling into my drawing. You can create your own background, too. Maybe choose your favorite flower or add anything that reminds you of spring. And did you notice the garland? It adds a more whimsical, playful feeling to my artwork. Pause for a moment and look at your drawing. What feeling does your lamb give you? Does it feel calm, playful, shy, or full of joy? If your lamb could tell a story, what would it say? Now for the final touch, I am adding some stamps. This time, I'm using different stem just to bring a little texture and interest. If you don't have the stamp, you can simply use pen to scribble, doodle, or add tiny details on top, or you can just leave it like this the way it is. Sometimes simple is the most beautiful. Until next time, keep creating and take care of yourself. 7. Lesson 4 — Hatching Chick: This lesson is all about new beginning and new life. Think about an egg hatching and a tiny chick coming out. It's such a beautiful visual of how life can begin from something so simple. Let's start by drawing oval shape for the egg. Once you're happy with your oval, then add a little crack using zigzag line to show its opening. Now, this part is completely optional. You can draw a cute little chick peeking out or you can keep it as just an egg. After drawing your egg, I want you to keep your lines nice and sketchy. Don't try to make them perfect. Let them feel loose and natural. Now, a small technique tip here. Try not lock your wrist. When I say lock your wrist, that means do not touch your wrist on the paper. Instead, allow the movement to come from your shoulder and your whole arm. When you draw this way, your lines become more flowy, more confident and less stiff. It also help you create those beautiful rounded shapes much more easily. Once your pencil sketch is ready, you can go over with black pen. Again, keep it sketchy. Don't trace like you are outlining perfectly. Let your pen move freely just like your pencil did. Now let's add a little texture. You can use something called hetching. Hetching is simply a group of lines going in one direction. This could be diagonal, vertical or horizontal to create shading. If you add another layer of line crossing over those, that's called crosshatching. This helps to build more depth and make your drawing feel a little more dimensional. You don't need to overthink it. Just play with your lines, enjoy the process and let your drawing come to life. Here I'm adding a little bit of cross hatching behind the check. To create some shadow and depth, it's very light, very gentle, just enough to give that form a little dimension. Now I am moving into some doodles, just simple lazy daisy flowers. I'm not thinking about perfect shapes or sizes. Just letting my hand move in a soft natural flow. You can follow along with the flower or you can create your own pattern. Maybe circles, lines, zigzag. Whatever feels right to you in this moment. Pause for a second and look at your page. What kind of feeling is your drawing giving you right now? Is it calm, playful, soft or something else? Here I'm going to use my gold pencil. It's from Prisma colors. It doesn't have a metallic touch, but it just a gold brown color. Here I want to add something really important. I want to share, sometimes you might feel like you have made some mistake. In fact, you'll even notice towards the end of this video, I made one too. But someone once told me, an artist is the only person who knows where the mistake is. Trust me, no one else see it that way. To them, it's just art. In art, there are no mistakes, only happy accident. Keep going. Keep adding your colors, your lines, your little details. Let it be imperfect, let it be yours and just enjoy the process. I Now my hand grabs some watercolor. Although this paper is not suitable for watercolor, but I still want to do it. Here I'm adding some watercolor just in the background of my flower, if you want, you can use color pencil. Just make it yours. However, whatever color you want, you can always change the flowers to any other pattern. Might be zigzag, might be doodles or circles or hearts, anything. Now, after adding all these soft whimsical colours from my watercolor palette, it's time for me to add a final touch the stem. As you've seen in other artwork, the stamp usually create a very gentle soft effect, not too bold, just a subtle finish. But here's something real I want to share with you when we are in rush. Things can easily go a little off, and that's exactly what happened here. I didn't pause, I didn't give time to dry. It just went ahead and I stamped it and the ink started bleeding. Yes. In this moment, I'll be honest. I don't really like how it turned out right now. But that's also the part of the process. Take a breath with me for a second. How often do we rush through things without pausing? What would happen if we just slow down even for a moment? Instead of reacting immediately, I'm going to give this some time. I'll come back later and see if I want to fix it, or maybe I'll just accept it as it is. Because sometimes in creativity and in life, not everything needs to be perfect to be meaningful. And here I am after completing the rest of the boxes, I am using a little white gosh to cover that area. Then we'll add stamp again. This is how I fix it, and this is what happens when you pause. There is always a way to adjust to improve, to begin again. Till next time, take care of yourself and keep creating. And 8. Lesson 5 — Duckling in Tulips: This lesson is inspired by ugly duckling. You may remember this story, a gentle mother swan, and among all the white swans, there was one little yellow duck who felt different. It's such a beautiful story about belonging and becoming. This was one of my favorite childhood memory. Reading this book with my mother always brought me so much comfort and joy, and that's what inspired today's drawing. I thought, Let me sketch a sweet little duck holding a beautiful tip, something soft, gentle, and full of story. This drawing is made using very simple shape as you can see, an oval for the head and another oval for the body. Once your pencil sketch is ready, go over it with a pen. I'm sure by now you are starting to see how every character, object or inspiration around you can be broken down into simple shapes and that's make the whole drawing process much easier to understand. You'll be able to follow the steps more confidently now. You can always use the template to trace if you need a little support or simply follow along with me and draw it freehand. Both ways are absolutely okay. Just choose what feel comfortable to you. I Here I'm adding a final touches to my duck before moving to the pen. When you start using your pen, remember to keep your lines loose and sketchy. Instead of one continuous line, try using small short strokes, almost like itching. I am following the same direction with these strokes, and you can see how it start to create a soft hair like texture on the duck. H. Now it's time to create your own background. By now, I'm sure your creative ideas are already starting to flow. Something very interesting happen when we engage in a creative routine. Our brain actually start working in a more imaginative way. The more you create, the more ideas begin to come naturally. That's why even a small regular practice can make such a big difference. If we are taking a long break, that creative flow can slow down a little. But the good news is it always come back when you begin again. Trust your ideas, even the small one. Just start. Add something on the left, something on the right, let it grow naturally. You can use color pencil, watercolor, markers, whatever feel natural to you. In the end, I'm going to add some stamp. Again, this is optional. You can do some doodles, you can stick some collage, or you can let it be just like this. Till next time, keep creating and take care of yourself. And 9. Lesson 6 — Spring Cat: This lesson is all about drawing a cat, a super easy one using simple shapes and triangle ears. For this last box, you can choose to draw anything you like, maybe another animal, a character, or even an object. It's completely up to you. But if you love cats, you can follow along with me and here's something to think about. Have you ever noticed how children draw, they create small simple character without worrying if it looks perfect or if anyone will like it or not. When was the last time you created something just for yourself without judgment. These little drawings are a reminder that art doesn't have to be big or complicated. Sometimes the smallest sketches carry most joy because they are free, honest, and truly yours. Here I'm adding the garland with eggs on it. These eggs will turn into the pattern and instead of flowers, I add hearts. Once you're happy with your sketch, take your pen and begin outlining. This time, it's completely up to you what style you want to give more loose, more sketchy, or slightly defined. Just remember from our previous lesson, if you want those soft flowy lines, try not to lock your wrist. Let the movement come from your arms. Once your pen outlining is done, gently erase all the pencil marks. We do this so the drawing looks clean and fresh without any extra lines showing through. It also helps your colors stand out more clearly. After that, you can move on to coloring. Here I'm using gel pens and add patterns, colors, but you can choose any medium you enjoy. And here we are almost at the end of this course, from lesson one, where we begin with simple shape and small steps to now, where you are creating with more confidence, more flow, and your own creative voice. You've come a long way. You showed up, you practiced, you explode. And most importantly, you allowed yourself to create without judgment. Now it's your turn. It's time for you to take everything you've learned from these lessons and create your own artwork as part of the class project. Don't worry about making it perfect. Focus on making it yours. What will you create? What story will your drawing tell? I would love to see your work, your ideas, your process. So don't forget to share your projects. Till then take care of yourself, keep observing, keep creating, and keep trusting your creativity. 10. Final thought: Thank you so much for joining me in this whimsical spring inspired Illustration class. I truly hope you enjoy the process as much as I did creating it for you. I can't wait to see your projects and hear your feedback, how this class made you feel and what you created from it. The main idea behind this class was to keep everything simple, easy, and approachable for any level, something that doesn't feel overwhelming. Doesn't require a lot of supplies and something you can do even if you have just ten to 15 minutes in your day. Before we end, I want to leave you with a small thought. Art is not just about making something beautiful. It's about giving yourself a moment to pause, to breathe, and to connect with yourself. Keep creating, keep exploring and trust your creative voice. Thank you once again for being here with me and I'll see you in the next class very soon.