Event Write Up - Digital Illustration Café: Workshop 1
Post by Hitomi Otani
On May 27th, a group of SCBWI Japan illustrators gathered at the Tokyo Women's Plaza, with their own iPads for the first session of a series of four illustration workshops, Digital Illustration Café. Not only was this the first workshop in the series, but it was also our first in person event back at the Tokyo Women’s Plaza, and we were all so happy to see each other again.
Being new to Procreate and digital art in general, I was anxious the night before and imagined myself being lost and falling behind in the session. However, the workshop coordinators, Daniel Schallau and Petar Tasev, put us novice users at ease by slowly going through the basics of Procreate, and helping us all breakthrough to delightful moments of learning.
First, the session began with a demonstration of how the screen's icons function. We explored the general interface and basic features, learned how to customize our layout, and organize our artworks in Gallery. Then, with a blank canvas in front of us, we went over some basic gestures by using our fingers to undo, redo, clear, zoom, and move around our canvas.
After becoming acquainted with the digital canvas, we practiced drawing shapes and tried outlines using ‘Size’ and ‘Opacity’ features. It was incredible to see how circles and lines could be straightened by holding the corner of the line. In addition to a wide range of built-in brushes, Procreate allows you to create custom brushes and Dan shared with us some of the brushes he created, which we used during the session.
The next step was to use Color Tools to select colors, create a palette, and fill the colors in specific areas of the drawing. There are many different color tools available in Procreate you can access through the Color Panel. While filling the shapes on the canvas with the selected colors, we explored and studied the Color Disc, the Classic Color Picker, Harmony, and Palettes, and worked out how to create our own palettes.
Finally, Dan introduced us to the Layers panel. As we browsed through this, Dan illustrated how layers could stack images on top of each other and allow us to move, edit, and delete elements in the images, using examples from his works.
While Dan gave us a session, Petar walked around the room and provided guided practice, ensuring everyone followed the session. No one was left behind, nor did anyone feel overwhelmed. The three hours of the workshop flew by, and it was such an enjoyable learning process.
Thanks to Dan and Petar, this workshop gave me a great learning experience that motivated me to think that I, too, could do this! On June 24th, we will be meeting for Workshop Series 2: Practice and Development, where we will dig into further technical aspects of Procreate with our own artworks. I can't wait for the second session.
SCBWI Japan members enjoying a meal together after the first workshop.
Hitomi Otani is a Japan-based picture book author and illustrator.
This program is made possible by an Illustrator Grant from SCBWI. We thank them for their generosity in funding these workshops.