Design Ideas (Procreate)

Digital sketching is becoming more common amongst designers and design teams as the technology has developed considerably in the last few years, particularly through the iPad and the excellent Procreate app. Some of the best features of digital sketching are that it allows for integrated design i.e. using photographs to manipulate and develop design work; using textures and real materials; colour ideation; quick modifications; the ability to undo and redo etc. etc.

design ideas

This video animation demonstrates the creation of 6 design ideas for the resin poured mosquito coil holder project using Procreate. Layers have been added and used over the 2D template that will be shared with you. The use of Masks, Shadows and Highlights helps to make the work look much better. Images of Wood grain and Resins have been taken from an internet search on the iPad and added to Photos. These have then been inserted into the Procreate file. These material textures will be shared with you.

Finished rendered sheet

Click here to see some Student examples (Procreate)

Equipment you will need:

To complete the digital sketching and communication task you will need an iPad, an Apple Pencil and the Procreate App. D&T has a trolley of iPad Pro's and Pencil 2 you may use. Please ensure that when you have used an iPad Pro that the Pencil is carefully placed on the side of the case (magnetic) and that you put it back in the correctly numbered rack and plug it in.

If you have your own iPad then please ask for the Textures pack and the DesignandTechnologySupport Brushes pack to be shared with you.

Task

Sketch out 6 design ideas on the shared digital template in Procreate. You can create new design ideas if you wish (i.e. you do not have to do the same ideas you completed on marker paper).

NB if you are using your own iPad then please ask your teacher to 'airdrop' the template to you.

Your teacher will explain the template sheet to you including using named layers to sketch and render, which is incredibly important.

step one

From the Brush Library select the Design and Technology Support brushes and the Blue Pencil;. Change the line thickness to anything from around 14% (Thin) to 28% (Thick) and the opacity to approx. 85% - 100%. Choose a Blue colour for your initial sketching from the top right corner of the screen and then Add a new Layer - this is the most important aspect in Procreate. At this point you can use the camera on your device and take a photograph of your design ideas marker sheet. This can then be resized in Procreate allowing you to 'trace' over your design. Your teacher will demonstrate this step.

Then Sketch, in blue pencil, your design ideas. Do each idea on a new and relevant layer from the layer menu.

step two

Select the Technical Pen 1 tool from the brush library - We would recommend a Pen Thickness of approx. 20 - 24% for Thick outlines and a Pen Thickness of 5% for the Thin lines. Select Black as the colour you will use.

Refine your Blue initial sketch lines through using the black fine line technical pen. Try to keep your lines 'sketched' like the examples to the left.

Remember that lines on the inside of your work tend to be Thin and lines on the outside of your work are Thick. You will then need to add a thick line to the edge of the resin layers.

Do this for each of the six design ideas to prepare them ready to be rendered.

NB Ensure that your sketched black lines form an enclosed shape otherwise you will not be able to mask properly. If you switch off the template underneath your design should have an enclosed shape.

Masking

The next step below is to create a Mask (you will see below that there are three different ways this can be done) to use to add both the wood grain and the resin to your design work. Firstly, watch the videos on how to create the masks and then watch how these are used with a photograph of a texture to render the sketch in a timber and a resin effect.

step three - masking line

There are a number of options to create a mask in Procreate and your teacher can demonstrate some of these to you.

A Masking line uses the fineline pen, ideally in a Red or Lime Green colour, to create a mask that you speicify by sketching it. You can also watch the video here to see how to do this.

step three - masking tool

This variation uses the Mask tool to select areas of your fineline sketch work to create an automatic mask area. It is much faster than a line mask but not as accurate. The only negative of this method is that it usually leaves a thin white line between your fine line work and your rendering. You can watch the video to see how to do this.

You could also use the Freehand masking tool.

step three - rendering with a mask

This video demonstrates how to add a wood texture using an automatic Mask. It then continues to demonstrate how to use a Mask to add a resin texture.

Once you understand how to add Masks and rendered materials, add your own masks and materials to all of your design work.

Remember to Render on a different layer than your design work otherwise this may cause you issues!

Step three

This example shows the design work with the textures added. The next step is to add Shadows, and then Highlights. The mosquito coil texture has been added by selecting a Brush that has a textued pattern and then a suitable colour.

step four - shadows

You can really make your design work stand out and look more professional by adding shadows to the Timber and to the Resin sections. It is really helpful to use a Layer mask when doing this.

We would recommend the Soft Dirty Air brush from the Sketch-a-day Mega II pack. You should change the opacity to around 40% and the brush size between 12 - 40% depending on what you are adding shadow to.

Professional example sketch of a mountain bike suspension, showing the differences shadows and highlights make to the communication.

flat marker

This sketch has marker pen added using a flat method.

shadows

The sketch now has shadows added to give the sketch more depth.

shadows and highlights

Highlights have now been added which makes the materials look reflective.

Step five

One of the finishing touches to your work is adding highlights. A highlight is where light 'catches' your work and reflects. This is most commonly done with a white airbrush. It is also used to show reflective materials.

We would recommend the Soft Clean Air brush from the Sketch-a-day Mega II pack. You should change the opacity to around 50% and the brush size between 4 - 14% depending on where you are adding highlights.

Step six

You could now add a page or ground shadow to your design work. You will need to create a layer low down in your layer list and using the airbrush, a mask and a low opacity you can add a light shadow behind each of your designs to make them stand out off the page.

Step by step process of Design Ideas