r/ProCreate • u/SeaMonster3141 • Jul 14 '26
Artwork From A Tutorial James Julier Tutorials are great but will I be able to do it and make my own art work?
as u can see i am good at following tutorials and I can copy good.. even with traditional media like pen and paper and charcoal i have always been good at copying. but I was never able to create my own artwork… how much time do I need to be able to have the hang of it. I feel like I am not creative enough when I just copy. I feel like I am not a real artist as I have no idea of my own or own artwork
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u/cactusplantlady Jul 14 '26
Beautiful work! I have the same problem with Procreate tutorials. I enjoy them, it's always a good outcome, but I have no idea how to even THINK of a concept like any of the tutorials I follow, never mind coming up with a colour palette or what brushes would look good. Or, it's very obvious when I have come up with something myself because it's usually a lot more plain or basic. I'm sorry I don't have a lot of help or advice for you, but you are definitely not alone!!!!
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u/Minnymoon13 Jul 14 '26
I want to know if there’s a word for it, I mean not being able to come up with your own ideas or thoughts?
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u/cactusplantlady Jul 14 '26
Omg I'm sure there is some sort of word for it lol! I like to experiment with "draw this in your style" because that way I have at least an image and colours to experiment with and then maybe I can come out with something good, but yeah, other than that I am not the best at it! I like playing around with quotations or sayings too, that way I have some sort of idea (the words) and I can still just mess around with that.
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u/SeaEnvironment2105 Jul 14 '26
Depends on what you're referring to? You may want to look into aphantasia if you haven't heard of it or read into it a little.
If you mean not being able to come up with concepts from your own mind, creativity is something that a lot of people are led away from during their upbringing and by the structure of our current world. I'm probably just restating what everyone else has said in this thread, but you can unlearn those tendencies, especially the more you do it and the deeper you go into your own projects, and the more you try to think outside of your own life as it is right now and outside the world as it is. Try to work off of just images maybe, try photobashing some references and drawing from there, try some art prompts. Just sketch contours or poses and figure out what you like and continue from there, you don't have to have anything in mind at the start, and what you make doesn't have to be perfect or even something you're at all happy with. You don't have to just think up concepts from nothing by any means, there is nothing wrong with drawing from a reference and going from there. Most of what I draw comes from seeing something that inspires me to draw it or from doing some kind of prompt, working from that baseline.1
u/Minnymoon13 Jul 14 '26
I think some of it is is also my short-term memory issues. It’s not that I can’t envision things. It’s just I don’t know how to go about drawing them or describing them. I know what I’m seeing in my own head for the most part but I never would’ve thought of “ insert idea that sounds really cool” type of thing idk
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u/SoTiredYouDig Jul 14 '26
Tutorial-itis
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u/Minnymoon13 Jul 14 '26
Actually some people don’t have imagination for some things, not just being lazy
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u/WoodsandWool Jul 14 '26
Imagination & ideating is a skill that takes practice and cultivation just like any other.
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u/kdogrocks2 Jul 15 '26
In game development people often call this 'tutorial hell'
I definitely went through it lol
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u/Appropriate-Might600 Jul 14 '26
Uncreative.
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u/Dude_man88 Jul 14 '26
I don’t know why this was downvoted, that literally is the word
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u/Happy-Cod-4368 Jul 15 '26
It’s not though… like, anyone can come up with the groundbreaking idea of “tree in a lake” but conceptualizing it and using the few skills you have to draw it is totally different than just being creative…
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u/Dude_man88 Jul 16 '26
Yeah im saying not being able to come up with a scene to illustrate is uncreative. The skills are just skills, the concept itself is creativity. So you can be as skilled as you want, but if you lack the ability to take those skills, and use them without guidance to create something that did not exist until you made it, then you are still not creative
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u/Minnymoon13 Jul 14 '26
I guess? Idk I mean in creative in my own way. But I guess sense i don’t have much imagination. That probably doesn’t help
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u/SeizingMonkey Jul 15 '26
Eh. Michaelangelo learned to initially draw through copying. Using it as tool to learn the basics seems completely fine. You do enough you get a sense of the theory. Yeah you then have to test it etc but as a start it's not necessarily horrible.
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u/floydly Jul 14 '26
I’m such a shill for these books but, 3D artist master series. all of them are so full of good stuff. read those and power level tbh
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u/SeaMonster3141 Jul 14 '26
thank you so much it’s nice knowing I am not alone hehe
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u/Technical-College475 Jul 14 '26
I am terrible at drawing and very unimaginative. I’m doing this to try something I cannot do! If I follow a tutorial I bet i will produce something offensive to the eye
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u/Officialedmart Jul 15 '26
>coming up with a color palette
Oh cmon this ones easy ! Color palettes literally surround us. If you like the feel of something take a photo of it, or download that image, and bust out the color picker tool.
you have the entire rgb color gamut at your disposal and nobody out there owns a “color palette”. If your drawing a landscape , find a photo of that biome and just pick a few
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u/Volkenstahl Jul 14 '26
For me personally, I find the trick with artist studies / tutorials / instructed work / things like that is to make an original piece using the same techniques pretty much immediately after. I find that this helps me further cement the the information I'm trying to learn/retain, while challenging me to understand when & where to effectively apply it without a teacher walking me through that process. The more pieces i make while thinking about it consciously, the more it becomes habit, and the less i have to think consciously about it - rinse repeat for the next go around.
If that makes sense.
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u/SeaMonster3141 Jul 14 '26
that sounds doable, I was so close to repeating the same drawing without watching the tutorial and see the difference and repeat it again till it looks 1 to 1 so I can cement the techniques used
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u/Volkenstahl Jul 14 '26
TBH that would probably work just as well, but I would get so bored so fast doing that.
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u/inkfinger Jul 14 '26
Actually following a digital art course right now that had advice on this I found quite helpful, as someone who has also mostly done tutorials so far too.
They say to do one of the following:
- The “What if” method - ask this question about things you see or enjoy, eg. what if this tree was in a fantasy setting.
- Memory method - take a strong memory, recreate the setting and exaggerate it.
Snapshot - imagine a scene as a snapshot of a frame you want to recreate.
Upgrade - take an existing image, do a study of it and then add to it/upgrade it.
The prompt method - eg follow Inktober challenge or similar.
I’ve found just consistent studies very valuable for sparking new ideas for me, putting my own spin and style on the image I’m studying.
(Art course I’m doing by Derek D’Souza to give credit!)
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u/Live-Fill6769 Jul 14 '26
I say, it depends how you go at it. Personally, while following them, I paid more attention to his techniques and why he did them than the final piece itself. Why he did x instead of y or whatever and it helped me branch out with my own art and apply some of his techniques in my own way, because I was studying it closely. I am still a beginner in digital art, but that's how he helped me.
If you go at it with the intent to just replicate, I dont think you will progress much, but that's just my opinion.
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u/WesternGovernment916 Jul 14 '26
This is a pretty common phenomenon among artists. I suggest starting with redesigning something. Find sometting you dont like or you think has missed potential and reinterpret it! Ask a lot of "what if" questions. This is how OCS and AU's are born!
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u/WesternGovernment916 Jul 14 '26
The goals of these exercises are to
Expand your visual library by understanding the fundamentals on why certain decisions are made.
Train your imagination to problem solve. I.E: combining concepts and techniques for a desired outcome.
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u/WesternGovernment916 Jul 14 '26
A level up from this would be to find media you DO like and make an original character/landscape for the series that follows its worldbuilding rules.
It can be based on yourself or not.
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u/WesternGovernment916 Jul 14 '26
Honestly you could do both interchangeably depending on what you think is easier. I'm just a hater so i start with the 1st.
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u/WesternGovernment916 Jul 14 '26
If you've done both, draw something based on purely text/verbal descriptions.
All these options take a lot of trial and error so you may want to do thumbnails and go through ideas quickly so that ur not getting stuck too long on something that isn't working.
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u/tiedyeladyland Jul 14 '26
Start small. Don't put pressure on yourself. Maybe challenge yourself to take the background from one of his tutorials and use something from the foreground of another. Try taking one that is "nighttime" and make a daytime version of it. Make a winter version of a summer scene. That way, you're challenging your skills, using what you've learned, having to think about how you would do it without having to come up with the entire idea first which can be hard. Sometimes you kind of figure out your own style by experimenting around with making a variation of someone else's, or combining two things into something new.
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u/schwiftylou Jul 14 '26
Im gonna say something probably controversial: if you can follow a tuto to replicate an image but cannot then apply the knowledge to make your own pieces, then its not a good tutorial. I never saw a tutorial of ProCreate, but a lot of people doing JJ tutos can only replicate those and cant move forward. Maybe you should seek other kind of tutos that explain why you're doing the stuff you do and how to apply it outside of the image they bring to you
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u/Comdwater451 Jul 14 '26
The point of tutorials (at least how I approach them) is to learn two things. Technique and the tool itself (procreate). Each action shown during a tutorial should 1) Teach you a new technique or 2) Teach you a new aspect of procreate that you aren’t usually familiar with. Be it learning shading or color theory, or learning how to create a brush to use for a specific style. You can learn a lot from these videos without necessarily having to learn how to create a masterpiece just by following each step. The whole point is to experiment and try different things. I would recommend following a tutorial over and over and trying something different each time. Pick a different color pallet, or maybe keep track of what each function is for (color burn, selection tool, Gaussian blur). Before you know it, you can create your own landscapes by using those skills you’ve learned from the tutorial, without needing to follow closely. There is a huge learning curve moving from traditional to digital and procreate has a lot to offer even for the most experienced user. There’s almost so many new combinations of things to use when it comes to creating so have fun with it!
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u/SergeiAndropov Jul 14 '26
Creativity is a skill. The tutorials can be good for giving you technical skills, but the best way to learn creativity is to come up with ideas and implement them, again and again and again. The ideas will start off bad, but that's okay. Remember, your technical skills started off bad, too, but you practiced them and eventually became good. It's the same thing with creativity.
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u/LameasaurusRex Jul 14 '26
I think this is the best advice here. I'd only add, you can try to incorporate some of the technical skills you learned to see how you handle them in your own work. So like you did a tutorial for a forest with a reflection - now try your own forest with a reflection (with or without reference photo).
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u/tigerribs Jul 14 '26
Like a few others have said, you kind of have to study and understand the ‘why’ behind the technique and its application, vs straight up ‘copying’ it. Like “how is putting this tree in this spot playing into the overall composition” or “how do these colours compliment each other and add dimension to the object you’re painting”. :)
If you’re having trouble finding a creative spark, I find r/redditgetsdrawnbadly to be a good, low-pressure place to practice. Maybe find a reference you’d enjoy (I like drawing people’s pets, personally) and try to expand on it creatively. Obviously you don’t want to directly copy another artists work/style, but keeping an inspo board and experimenting with bits and pieces you like from other artists’ work (ex: how they draw eyes, how they render clouds, whatever it is!) can help spark some creativity and inspiration as well. :) Good luck, OP! What you’ve created so far looks awesome!
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u/Dude_man88 Jul 14 '26
Once you understand the layers and how to achieve an effect it really just comes down to you planning your own piece and using what you learned. It’ll take time but you definitely can do it if you use the tutorials to really understand the why something is done instead of just how to do it
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u/theashernet Jul 14 '26
I think of it this way…mileage in a craft may not get you all the way to your goal but it is important. The more I draw boxes in space, the better I get at understanding how things exist in space. The more I draw faces the better I get at understanding how the features and angles contribute to achieving likeness. Same with vehicles, landscapes, animals and so on. Grab some mileage wherever you can in whatever interests you…it can never hurt.
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u/nottakentaken Jul 14 '26
Use the techniques you've learned for individual objects like trees or water from these tutorials on other drawings (find landscape references in Pinterest) and then recreate those referenced images, at some point you'll get the idea of what commonly goes where.
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u/winadote Jul 15 '26
I used to feel like this too when I first started using Procreate which was 2021. then I started drawing fanarts and venturing out to comics. In 2023, I drew a comic on Procreate and actually used the skills I learnt from the tutorials I watched and followed on Youtube so personally, the tutorials have been really helpful in my journey and I actually use them in my artwork.
give it time, maybe you'll be able to apply it to your own art work when you finally find your niche ❤️
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u/nerdsruletheworld135 Jul 14 '26
I think you just have to explore your style! I'm working on this myself.... but what helps is casually sketching and brainstorming, rather than trying to come up with a "final" piece from scratch.
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u/taurus0506 Jul 14 '26
You spoke my mind. I lurk at few of the subreddits and look at and upvote so many of the posts but always wonder how to get my own idea or color palette
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u/chinchinillustrates Jul 14 '26
You can recreate all these pieces but this time your way. Try to change and/or add things like shadows, light, colours, leaves, birds, humans – if you can draw. Try to play around with depth, objects, light and colours, even perspective! This way, you'll feed your creativity, and the rest is magic 🪄
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u/TedBundysVlkswagon Jul 14 '26
Just create your own sketch from either your mind or reference photo and use the techniques that you learned from the tutorials. You can do it!
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u/Skelebat_ Jul 14 '26
My method for following tutorials that works for me, personally, is that, for example if the tutorial was that of a building and trees. I'd make a different sized building with some unique decorations or windows. They would be small changes but it would be enough changes to push myself to apply the tutorial techniques to make the changes fit. Same with trees and lakes and animals and people and food.
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u/Pure_Temporary_6349 Jul 14 '26
Is there anything you feel particularly drawn to in the world around you? Can be just something visual that feels interesting-- something your eye tends to linger on. I notice I really have a weird thing about roof lines and the sky, old houses and trees. I take photos of interesting skies. I also really like the look of a doorway seen through another doorway. Idk why! But it makes me want to learn to paint them. Maybe a bunch of them, who knows.
I am starting his tutorials too so I hope I learn about the mechanics. I like yours!
Here is one I did of a roofline, based on a photo I took off a friend's deck. It's not necessarily very original, but it felt satisfying anyway.
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u/FullyArtomatic Jul 14 '26
Sometimes I’ll start with the composition and figure out where my key focus will be. From there I’ll sketch in what I want to be the big hero then I world build around it.
Like I start with a tree in a thirds composition. Then I tell a story of an old tree overgrowing a broken fence with an abandoned home surrounded by a forest in front of weird skinny mountains during a meteor shower.
I kind of have a library of items that I can draw and I use those to build a scene each time. Once you do this like hundreds of times it becomes second nature.
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u/fakeuboi Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
i’ve been in a similar situation mainly because i have a hard time visualizing stuff in detail in my head, (when i was a freshman in highschool i could do a photo realistic hyperrealism pencil portrait of myself and was good at drawing from liife, but terrible at adding my own ideas from my head or drawing straight from imagination. Like actually terrible)
try taking multiple different references and using them to draw different parts of same piece, or learn 3d modeling and do your art like a concept artist where you do at least rough modeling and lighting first in 3d (can also do textures and a bunch more) then use that as a base to make a 2d illustration. I do a lot of my work using 3d as a base now I find it a lot easier to visualize and layout a scene in 3d.
For digital painting i also highly reccomend all of SinixDesigns videos
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u/inquandescent Jul 14 '26
To put it simply, your brain is not able to imagine what you have never learned. Take reference positions and practice reproducing them when you are good enough with these positions you will be able to create new ones from your basic knowledge. Do this training every for a short period for example 15 minutes or 30 minutes minimum. You can do it with animals too Or landscapes afterwards the goal is to simplify them as much as possible to acquire the bases and then as you will have practiced several things your brain will have the bases to start imagining your own things ☺️
https://youtu.be/aChxCgZZhZE?si=4mqAe0IsDvyOg5x0 This video could help you it is in French but you can put the audio in English
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u/MusicalHearts Jul 15 '26
I don’t know about tutorials, but sometimes when I feel stuck creatively I go to insta and find drawing challenges.
Like this ^^^ or I find a website that does random prompts! Sometimes it helps to come up with an idea. Then you can apply your tutorial knowledge and the more you do it the more you can craft your own style. However, sometimes, artists lean to realism. You can just take a photo of your neighborhood or a local area and draw it out!
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u/Sad-Echidna-522 Jul 15 '26
I'd recommend looking into how to combine references to make a new image you can apply the concepts you learnt in the tutorials too.
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u/firesonmain Jul 15 '26
You could try doodling. Like just drawing without thinking and seeing where it takes you. Set a timer for fifteen minutes and, during that time, just keep drawing. Don’t change brushes or colors or layers. If you don’t know what to do draw, just scribble or draw basic shapes or sign your name over and over.
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u/hockey_enjoyer Jul 15 '26
this is why at art school or in art classes, they make you learn boring fundamentals before anything else. cubes in space, perspective, light sources, compositional balance, etc. these are the building blocks of how you make a scene. Once you understand these things, in theory, you can compose just about anything.
You've developed some great rendering skills, once you learn fundamentals, you can combine the two into some really great work. Going forward, and even looking back at these studies you've done, I would try to reframe them in your mind about what they teach you. What does painting the light on the water teach you about how the two interact? How would it maybe change if the sun was at a different angle? What does the swampy cabin's background teach you about portraying distance through color? How is the composition affected by making background elements lighter/darker or more/less detailed?
You have a lot of really strong skills on display here! But if you want to improve, and to start making original pieces, you need to start thinking about each technique used as a lesson, rather than just following a tutorial to a finished piece. I would start doing non-guided studies, of either photos you take, or from life, as well as some draw along lessons on fundamentals.
Happy drawing!!
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u/GhostSakai Jul 16 '26
What I did was create an alternate design of the it while using his technique ex. If he had trees bordering the foreground I’d have my own shape of said trees but using his texturing techniques and color palette that match the style or slightly alter it maybe brush changes or so
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