Kickstart Your Creativity with Procreate Course

Editorial Take

Kickstart Your Creativity with Procreate, offered through Coursera and taught by Skillshare instructor Lisa Bardot, is a gentle on-ramp for individuals who have always wanted to draw but never knew where to start. Designed specifically for iPad users, the course leverages the intuitive power of Procreate to demystify digital illustration. With a focus on everyday themes like food, plants, and animals, it transforms abstract creative anxiety into structured, achievable projects.

The course’s strength lies not in technical rigor but in psychological accessibility—making it a standout choice for creative beginners who need encouragement as much as instruction. While it won’t turn learners into professional illustrators overnight, it does something more valuable: it helps them believe they can create. This shift in mindset is often the hardest barrier to overcome, and the course addresses it with empathy and clarity.

Standout Strengths

• Beginner-Centric Design: The course assumes zero prior drawing experience, making it ideal for complete novices. Each lesson starts from first principles, ensuring no one is left behind. This inclusive approach removes the intimidation often associated with art education.
• Thematic Project Structure: By organizing content around food, plants, animals, and objects, the course makes learning feel playful and relevant. Themes provide creative constraints that actually boost imagination, helping learners focus without feeling overwhelmed.
• Encouragement Over Perfection: Lisa Bardot emphasizes expression over technical mastery, fostering a safe space for experimentation. Her tone is supportive, often reminding students that mistakes are part of the process. This mindset is crucial for sustaining long-term creative habits.
• Tool Familiarity Through Practice: Rather than overwhelming users with Procreate’s full feature set, the course introduces tools gradually through hands-on use. This ‘learning by doing’ method ensures retention and builds comfort with the app’s interface.
• Habit Formation Focus: The curriculum is designed to help learners draw regularly, not just complete assignments. Daily mini-tasks encourage consistency, turning creativity from an occasional act into a sustainable practice. This behavioral focus is rare in art courses and highly effective.
• Accessible Technology Requirements: All that’s needed is an iPad and Apple Pencil, devices many already own. This lowers the barrier to entry compared to courses requiring expensive software or high-end computers, making digital art more democratic.

Honest Limitations

• Limited Technical Depth: The course avoids complex topics like perspective, anatomy, or advanced layering techniques. While appropriate for beginners, this means learners won’t gain skills needed for professional illustration work. It’s a starting point, not a comprehensive training.
• No Personalized Feedback: Submissions are not reviewed by instructors or peers, so learners must self-assess progress. This lack of critique can hinder improvement for those who benefit from external input, especially in subjective fields like art.
• Repetitive for Experienced Artists: Those with prior drawing experience may find the pace too slow and concepts too basic. The course doesn’t offer tiered challenges, so advanced beginners might not feel sufficiently challenged throughout all modules.
• Platform Dependency: The entire curriculum relies on Procreate, an iPad-exclusive app. This excludes Android and desktop users, limiting accessibility. While Procreate is excellent, the course doesn’t teach transferable skills to other digital art platforms.

How to Get the Most Out of It

• Study cadence: Follow the course at a pace of one module per week to allow time for practice. Spacing out lessons helps internalize techniques and prevents burnout. Consistency matters more than speed in creative development.
• Parallel project: Apply each week’s skills to a personal theme, like drawing meals you eat or pets you see. This reinforces learning and makes the practice feel more personal and meaningful beyond the course assignments.
• Note-taking: Keep a digital sketchbook with notes on brush settings, color choices, and challenges faced. Documenting your process helps track progress and builds a reference library for future projects.
• Community: Share your work on social media or art forums using hashtags like #ProcreateBeginner. Engaging with others boosts motivation and exposes you to diverse styles and tips beyond the course material.
• Practice: Dedicate 15–20 minutes daily to free drawing, even if not required. Short, regular sessions build muscle memory and creative confidence faster than infrequent long sessions.
• Consistency: Treat drawing as a habit, not a task. Set a fixed time each day, like after breakfast, to reduce decision fatigue. Over time, this ritual will make creativity feel natural rather than forced.

Supplementary Resources

• Book: 'Steal Like an Artist' by Austin Kleon complements the course’s ethos of creative experimentation. It reinforces the idea that inspiration comes from remixing, not originality, reducing pressure to be 'perfect.'
• Tool: Use Procreate Pocket on iPhone for on-the-go sketching. It mirrors the iPad version and allows continued practice when traveling, helping maintain creative momentum between sessions.
• Follow-up: Enroll in intermediate Procreate courses that cover animation, advanced brushes, or digital painting. These build directly on the foundation laid here and help transition from beginner to intermediate level.
• Reference: Follow Lisa Bardot’s Skillshare classes for additional projects. Her teaching style is consistent, and extra content can provide new challenges once the Coursera specialization is complete.

Common Pitfalls

• Pitfall: Expecting immediate mastery can lead to frustration. Digital drawing takes time to internalize. Focus on progress, not perfection, and celebrate small improvements to stay motivated through early awkward stages.
• Pitfall: Waiting for inspiration before drawing often results in inaction. Instead, draw daily regardless of mood. Inspiration usually follows action, not the other way around, especially in skill-based creative work.
• Pitfall: Comparing your work to professionals can undermine confidence. Remember that even experts started with shaky lines. Use early drawings as benchmarks to measure growth, not as measures of worth.

Time & Money ROI

• Time: At roughly 10 weeks with 2–3 hours per week, the course demands minimal time. The investment is low, but the return—developing a creative habit—can have lifelong benefits for mental well-being and self-expression.
• Cost-to-value: As a paid specialization, it’s pricier than free tutorials. However, the structured path and psychological support justify the cost for those who struggle with self-directed learning or creative self-doubt.
• Certificate: The credential holds no formal industry weight but can be included in portfolios to show initiative. Its real value is symbolic—proof of commitment to personal creative growth rather than professional qualification.
• Alternative: Free YouTube tutorials may cover similar Procreate basics, but they lack the guided progression and motivational structure of this course. For self-motivated learners, they’re sufficient; for others, this course is worth the premium.

Editorial Verdict

Kickstart Your Creativity with Procreate succeeds not by teaching mastery, but by removing fear. It’s a psychological gateway as much as a technical tutorial, designed for those who’ve long believed they 'can’t draw.' Lisa Bardot’s nurturing approach, combined with themed, bite-sized projects, transforms creativity from an abstract ideal into a tangible daily practice. The course wisely avoids overwhelming learners with advanced concepts, instead focusing on building confidence through completion and consistency. For its target audience—absolute beginners with an iPad and a dream—this is a near-ideal starting point.

That said, it’s important to set expectations: this is not a professional pipeline. It won’t prepare you for a career in illustration or animation. The skills taught are foundational, and the lack of feedback loops limits growth potential. Still, as a first step, it’s highly effective. If your goal is to finally start drawing, to make your first digital sketch, or to silence the inner critic that says 'you’re not creative,' this course delivers. We recommend it for hobbyists, journalers, and aspiring artists who need permission to begin. For everyone else, look to more advanced follow-ups after completing this one.