The procreate app is a boon to all budding artists. When you purchase this $10 app, it gives you the supreme power to use all those tools used by professionals. With a superior inbuilt software than the rest of the drawing and sketching apps like Photoshop, Fresco, Illustrator, Adobe Draw, Sketchbook, Clip Studio, Procreate endows you with state-of-the-art tools and features. This makes it easy to diversify your art.
As explained in our beginner’s special Procreate guide, there is no limit to the designs, and drawings you can produce. Therefore, to help you start in this world of endless possibilities, here are some easy yet awe-inspiring things to draw on Procreate.
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Things to Draw on Procreate
All you folks with the useful Procreate app ought to know about all those things it is capable of. Consider it as a source of infinite goodness, extractable only when you know where to find it. To simplify this process for you, here is a demonstration of all that you can do with the Procreate for iPad.
Since everything is dependent on your creativity with drawing, design and illustration, here is a list of the most common, must-know things to draw on Procreate:
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Digital drawing
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Textured images
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Digital Calligraphy / Lettering / Typography
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Inked linework
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Abstract design
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Digital watercolour painting
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Ink-and-watercolour drawing
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Illustrating
Illustration by: Emily Stagg
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Animation
Things you will need:
- Apple Ipad
- Apple Pencil or a stylus
- Installed the latest version of Procreate- 4.2.1
1. Digital Calligraphy / Lettering / Typography
Hand lettering, an age-old creative visual art, is gaining currency today due to its appeal and meditative execution. While there are elaborate steps and exercises to do while learning modern or traditional calligraphy, Procreate drastically simplifies the process digitally. It has become so popular that there is a thing called “iPad Lettering” to define all digital lettering or typography. To join the revolution, begin here:
Method:
- On opening the Procreate app, you will land on its gallery. This is where it stores all the canvases of your previous artwork. It is always brilliant to Stack up and organise all your artwork in Procreate to make it organised and easily accessible.
- To create a fresh canvas, tap on the “+” sign on the extreme upper right corner and choose from various pre-made sizes. If you are not sure which size canvas to pick, go with the one named Screen Size. Tap on it to activate.
- The canvas is to the centre of the screen, and the menu is on the top. The Brush Library to the upper right corner is where you will find various Procreate brushes to choose from. Among these brush sets, pick Calligraphy.
- From here on, Ipad lettering depends on your knowledge of calligraphy strokes. Familiarise yourself with these basic strokes:
- Downstroke
- Upstroke
- Under turn stroke
- Overturn stroke
- Compound stroke
- Ascending loop
- Descending loop
- Oval stroke
- To begin with, the basics of hand lettering is all about creating thin upstrokes and thick downstrokes. A good technique to do this is by putting weight on your pencil to create a thick downstroke and for upstrokes put less to no pressure at all. You must gain a grip over your pencil, as it will be useful when you draw other things on Procreate.
Pro tip: Before actually writing letters, it is worthwhile to practice all the strokes with calligraphy exercises. Then proceed with different calligraphy brushes you find or import on Procreate. This is helpful as it acquaints you with the interface and the type of technique to use with each.
To maximise efficiency, all these strokes can be combined and layered with different letter groups.
While learning hand-lettering it is important to understand Procreate. For this, make sure to keep everything consistent- the individual letter spacing, size and shape. This can be done by turning on the Drawing Guide (a beneficial grid feature of Procreate for beginners).
2. Animation
Animation is the coolest thing to draw on Procreate. The Procreate 5 comes with a full-fledged Animation Assistant feature to help you. Using Procreate to make animation is a fun experience because the app itself is super intuitive. It works on the fundamental elements of frame-by-frame animation. Here is how you get started with animation on Procreate:
Method:
- Choose a blank canvas (preferably Square as it comes with 124 frames).
- On the top menu bar, select the Actions options that looks like a wrench. Go to the Canvas tab and toggle on Animation Assist. This will instantly bring an animation timeline at the bottom. On this animation timeline, you will find the Settings option. Tap it to adjust the frames per second (fps). The more the frames, the more you will have to draw. Moreover, this timeline can be used to reorder frames directly.
- This animation bar will give you other fundamental animation options like Onion skin frames, their opacity.
- Now all you will have to do is paint in each frame.
3. Inked Linework
Procreate makes it very convenient to create ink linework that looks vector-like. The specially curated brushes it has in store for you makes it easy to create ink linework just like you see in comics. Dive right into the Procreate app and follow these steps:
Method:
- Procreate has the stunning feature of working on Layers. It is superb for inked linework as you can use a foundation layer to serve as a stencil or underdrawing. Keep its opacity to the minimum.
- Choose a brush like Studio Pen or Fat pencil. Let your underdrawing guide you as you move your Pencil on top of it.
- Since ink linework is different from sketching, it is more about sharp, smooth and confident lines. A major contributive practice here is your knowledge of brush weight. This was highly useful in Procreate hand lettering too.
4. Abstract Design
You can use Procreate to paint abstract designs equivalent to the ones made using the pouring technique in acrylic painting. Moreover, it is one of the most fun things to draw on Procreate. This designing and drawing app has all the right tools and features to help you achieve that exact texture to bedazzle your abstract design.
Method:
- Go on the Procreate app and choose a blank canvas.
- Choose a background colour that will serve as a base for the entire abstract design.
- Select a brush similar to an oil brush. Then pick a colour to paint on the canvas from dark to light.
- To begin painting on Procreate, you can use a pre-existing abstract design as a reference. This is helpful to know the direction of flow for different colours. All you need to do is roughly replicate the style of the colours.
- When done playing around with the colours, it is time for magic.
- Go to the menu bar on the top and select the Adjustments option next to Actions. Under this, tap Liquify.
- Now, as you move your brush around the parts you painted, it will start to give everything a more liquid-like texture.
- The Liquify option will open a range of features to the bottom of the canvas. Select the Edge tool to modify and smoothen the edges as per your liking.
- This way, you can create a marble effect with Procreate too.
That was a mix of comfortable and trendy things you can draw on Procreate for iPad. Just go crazy exploring the app with all its features, and tools to unravel fresh dimensions to your creativity. While you practice drawing these how about you share your progress with a buzzing community of learners and professionals? The inflow of inspiration, fresh ideas and suggestions will prove useful for future concept building.
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