Procreate. Digital Sketching

Procreate. Digital illustration app

Choose from a range of drawing tools

Customise your drawing tools

Control your colour palette and layers

Digital Sketching with Procreate

Have full control over your design shape

Easily edit and adjust colour effects

Adjust and vary shadow/highlight effects

Using a digital illustration app like Procreate allows you to create visual interpretations of your designs.

The great thing is that once you have created your main design, you can quickly build and add layers. These layers can be turned on and off and can all differ in what ever way you want. This allows you to create different colour skins or paint effects much quicker than you could if you had to redraw and start from scratch to render version 2 or 3.

You can also add layers or adjust layers to develop a design idea without having to start from scratch.

Duplicating base layers, colour skins or using saved brush tools speed up your design work.

Create shadows around your edges

Add highlights to show surface reflection

Under shadow or ground shadows may be added

Choose a suitable paint effect

Procreate Design Ideas and Examples

Design 1. Darker shadows appear on the lower right hand side of the design while the brighter highlights appear on the top left side.

Design 2. The paint layer uses multiple colours but only one paint tool - a selected spray can with a fine spray for light dusting to create this effect.

The blue pencil sketch lines can still be seen in these screenshots but as they are a separate layer, they can be turned on or off at any time.

By using the same designs and only adjusting the paint layer, you can quickly and easily change the appearance of your design - it's a 2 minute job!

Additional notes have been added to some of the design ideas to help explain and clarify parts of the designs.

By using the same designs and only adjusting the paint layer, you can quickly and easily change the appearance of your design - it's a 2 minute job!

Adding paint details can be done in a number of ways but its important to use Procreate to test different paint effects and designs

Masking off areas and creating shapes within the main shape can create areas of detail. Using colours that match and compliment are best.

Procreate Layers. Add new layers for each stage

Ensuring you have selected the correct layers when working is crucial to your design process. Using the correct layers will allow you to edit different parts without affecting other areas. This might mean altering a corner, part of a shape or changing the colour without having to start again.

Step 1. Blue Pencil Sketching Layer

Blue pencil sketching is just like sketching ghost lines.

Step 2. Inking Layer - Fine Lining

Adjust the stability of the pen tool in the Procreate settings so that the line draws smoother.

Step 3. Paint Layers - Colour effects

Build up colour effects with multiple layers or colour. Be patient with layering the colours.

Step 4. Shadow Layer

Remember that the bottom right has darker shadows but all edges should have at least some shadow.

Step 5. Highlight Layer

Highlights should be added to the top left corner of the design.

Step 6. Text

Adding text is optional but should be something you consider to enhance and improve your work. Adding written descriptions can help explain an idea or make a comparison.

How to Tutorials

Layer Masks: This allows you to select specific shapes or parts and apply colours or brush effects within only that shape. You will not be able to paint or add colour outside the line or outside the mask zone. This means that your edges will always be perfectly neat and you will not need to use the eraser to tidy up the edges.

Select the inking layer. This is the outline layer for you to select parts or shapes.

Select and turn on the masking tool on the top menu bar.

Select the shapes that you want to work on.

Open your layers menu and choose the layer you want to apply the paint effect.

Video Tutorial: Layer Masks

Quality Control (QC) when using Procreate.

The biggest issues that arise when students use Procreate is drawing the wrong thing on the wrong layer. You must make sure that you are on the correct layer for the job you are doing. For example, if you are adding colour, you are on the 'colour layer'. However, if you go back to fix a mistake on the 'fineline layer', you must remember to go back to the 'colour layer' before adding any more colour.

Whenever you are working on Procreate, you should always be considering the following success criteria with regards to the layers that you should be using.

Clipping Masks to Copy and Paste:

Video Tutorial: Clipping Masks

Procreate Design Development

Photograph your design test model and scan in your development sketches to Procreate. Your scanned image is now your template for starting your digital development. Add layers on top of your scanned image. Your layers should be the same as above in Procreate Design Ideas.