Skillshare Class: Digital Paper Collage in Procreate | Embracing the Perfectly Imperfect

My latest Skillshare class, “Digital Paper Collage in Procreate: Embracing the Perfectly Imperfect,” is now live on my channel.

In this class, I will show you, step by step, my process of using Procreate as a pair of, “digital scissors,” to create fun paper collage inspired vegetable illustrations. We will add beautiful colors, and fun textures to turn ordinary veggies in to something more extraordinary.

When you take the class you will receive a full set of textured brushes, three color palettes and a set of high resolution, textured digital papers I created just for the class. You will have everything you need to begin creating your very own vegetable illustrations right away.

When you click on the link above, you will receive 14 free days to try out Skillshare, if you aren’t already a member. You can take unlimited classes on a wide range of topics from art to cooking, business and more.

Why Digital Paper Collage?

Whenever I create a class, or YouTube tutorial, I want it to include a fun project that helps teach a specific tool. Whether it’s learning more about how to use symmetry in Affinity Designer in, “Modern Folk Art Insects in Affinity Designer,” or how to use the vector trimming tool in Fresco by creating monstera plants in one of my latest tutorials, there is always some sort of specific lesson built in to the fun project.

This class is no different though, rather than focusing just on a process or a tool, in this case digital paper collage, it has an added focus. It’s also about giving other artists the nudge to allow themselves to simply enjoy the process of creating and try not to let the frustrations and mistakes, the need to achieve perfection, and comparisons, get the best of them.

We live in this era of social media where much of what we see is wrapped up in a perfect bow and all we see are highlight reels, not the behind the scenes. While some share the trials and tribulations, and frustrations, of being an artist, much of the time all we see is a finished product and not the hours, days, weeks, or months that went in to completing a piece, or the frustrations, multiple mind changes and mistakes that went in to it. We certainly aren’t witnessing the years it took to learn the process. Some artists can put out a new piece every day, and make it look effortless, while some of us are struggling just to come up with a subject.

So we become disillusioned as we begin to try to create something of our own. We get frustrated when we can’t figure out our style or can’t, “find our own voice.” It looks so easy for others, right? We get frustrated when we make what we see as mistakes.

Here’s the thing… every artist has had those moments; every one of us has started at square one. No matter what our education, whether formally trained in art school, or self motivated and taught via online classes or our own trial and error, we have all been there.

Every one of us has had those internal (or maybe not so internal) moments of frustration where we do really well creating what we see when taking classes but, when left to our own devices, trying to create something uniquely ours… we struggle. I’m here to tell you, we have all been there.

At the end of it all, individual voice and style aren’t things you’re going to find, they’re developed from within. They comes with time, and creation, making marks and, just as importantly, making mistakes, and embracing those mistakes as, “perfect imperfections.”

Also, who is to say what is and isn’t a mistake? There are no rules in art. If there were, can you imagine what the art world would have looked like over time? What if we like the mistakes we make and want to use them moving forward? When we relax, and enjoy creating, and stop trying so hard to achieve perfection, we can uncover some truly amazing things; it’s all part of developing our own voice.

So I chose paper collage because, by nature it is perfectly imperfect. None of us are scissor or glue Ninjas; we will all end up with wonky shapes and glue in unexpected places but will still end up with something beautiful at the end. While I’m leaving the messy part out of it by going digital, this class is still a celebration of the imperfections of paper collage and it’s intended to allow us the freedom to simply enjoy the process of putting these illustrations together, no pressure to be perfect.

So let’s embrace our perfect imperfections, enjoy creating for the sheer sake of creating and maybe along the way we will uncover a few new tools for our creative arsenal. At the end of it, we will have a wonderful set of collaged vegetable illustrations that we can use in a number of ways.

Click on this video to see my full introduction for the class:

Want to see the full class? Head to this link and get started.

I hope to see you in class! Happy Creating!