What are you going to do as we all distance ourselves for the forseeable future? Well, there's always art!To the left is a bit of a work in progress, but one of the ways I have been passing the time, when not virtually at work, is to work on my digital art skills. A question popped up in my Facebook feed about services like Skillshare and that led me to thinking about this post...
So, I did have a Skillshare membership, but I have since dropped it. There's a few reasons, but the biggest was that I simply wasn't using it. Why? Lots of great Youtubers out there offering some really impressive tutorials, especially in the realm of digital art, and so I thought I would share a few with you:
Art with Flo is fast becoming my most favourite Youtube channel for digital art tutorials. They're well produced, she makes the palettes and brushes used available, and she goes at a generally easy to follow pace.What I really like is the variety of different tutorials and all of them get you to use a lot of the essential tools in Procreate. That's a really nice touch because you start to learn all of the ways these come together.
Next up is Let's Draw with BeyJayDeL who specializes in more of a cartoon style of art that is easy to follow and fun to watch. Similar to Flo, I find his approach to teaching to be accessible and fun, you get lots of tips and you can try out a lot of what he does on your own.Now, he doesn't give away his brushes, but they're not very expensive if you want them. They are also not necessary, you can generally use what Procreate (or other apps) offer and his techniques transfer quite well to traditional media as well.
ergojosh is another Youtuber specializing in the digital realm and has some great tutorials, not just on Procreate, he also uses Photoshop.As an added bonus, for the tech geeks out there, ergojosh also does some hardware reviews. So, if you're thinking about picking up a piece of hardware for digital art, it may be worth a visit to see if he's reviewed it or not. Never hurts to get a perspective from somebody who is using these things to make a living.
James Julier has been doing a lot of Procreate tutorials and has amassed a pretty good following on Youtube and Facebook as a result. His tutorials use the standard brushes and he makes the colour palette information available for those who want to match. Now, he doesn't make the palette downloadable for free, unlike Flo, but keying the colours isn't usually a big job anyways. Regardless his tutorials are well paced, clear, and cuts away a lot of the fussiness of some of the approaches you may encounter.
Finally, and certainly not a last choice, there is Bob Ross. Even if you don't want to paint or draw, just watching Bob put together a painting in a half hour is just plain fun. This is classic entertainment for art junkies and I am super grateful that his entire catalog has been made available on Youtube.So, that's my roundup for the stuck at home. Enjoy.