Jennifer Nichols - Free Procreate Class for Beginners

I love Jennifer Nichols Procreate resources and classes. I have several of her brush sets and I I memory serves me her Skill Share Procreate classes were some the first ones I took. So when I saw her new Free Procreate Class slid into my inbox the other day, I knew I was all in.  Never let a class marked for beginners dissuade you from taking it, especially if it’s free.  Keep reading to find out why I feel this way.

Rocks #1

So why would someone like me, who’s been working with Procreate for nearly four years now, choose to intentionally spend time taking a free beginner level class?  What could I possibly learn?  These are some of the I might elect to take a beginner leaves class:

• I enjoy the teacher presenting the class.  
• It’s a technique or style of art I have yet to try.
• It includes some sort of added value I’m interested in, this is especially true if there’s a free Procreate brush set involved.
• I can generally glean some sort of cool tips and tricks are tucked into the offering.

What were my take aways from this beginner-friendly class?  

• You can save up to four size settings on the brush size slider
• Pressure and Smoothing with a slight curve in the pref settings will help with wrist fatigue
• Variation on how to create a “taped edge look”
• How to use the drawing guide for straight border lines
• How to move the center of a drawing grid to the top corner to get an even division of the grid
• How to adjust grid size to inches instead of pixels

This class was also very similar to an art style I love - neurographic art.  We’ll talk more about neurographic art another day.  Back to this class.  You start by painting different sizes of rounded shapes and then adding designs and texture to each shape.  Getting lost in the simple methods of shapes and lines will slow the racing mind.  You also don’t need Procreate to follow along with the methods in this class, you could easily do the same things with physical supplies.  

Above I shared Rocks #1, which was the first piece I created following along with class.  I enjoyed it so much I decided to create a second one.  Creating River Rocks was even more cathartic or meditative, if you will.  I have no clue how much time was lost to creating all the smaller rocks and tiny dots to mimic sand, but I was lost in the work while I listened to the birds in chattering around me.

River Rocks

There’s honestly no better way to get lost and let go of your thoughts than to spend time making various size rock shapes and adding bits of texture and design interest.  Whether you want to delve into learning Procreate on your iPad or you dig out physical supplies, painting rock shapes might smooth your busy mind and relax you.  

I hope this encourages you not to underestimate a beginner level class even when you in a more advanced artist.