ARTISTS’ HANDBOOK VERSION 3

Welcome to Procreate
 The most advanced painting app ever
designed for a mobile device.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Welcome to Procreate: What is Procreate? 2

 We were honoured to win an Apple Design Award for Procreate, recognising the technical,
aesthetic, and creative excellence of the product. We’re pretty proud of this award. It's a reflection
of the heart and brain that's gone - and continues to go - into every aspect of Procreate.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Welcome to Procreate: What is Procreate? 3

 The first thing you’ll notice is Procreate paints fast. Really fast.

Procreate is the fastest 64-bit creative application available today. This speed and accuracy comes from
Procreate’s remarkable painting engine - Silica - and when combined with the iPad's impressive graphics
processing unit, you have an app that is so powerful, it makes most desktop software blush.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Welcome to Procreate: What is Procreate? 4

 Adjustments Freehand Selection Smudge Erase
Actions Transform Paint Layers

Return to gallery Color

Brush size

Brush opacity

Undo and Redo

Procreate Artists' Handbook Welcome to Procreate: What is Procreate? 5

Precise control
Accurate, easy to use sliders provide
pinpoint control over brush size and
opacity.

You can position the sliders in the location that

works best for you. Simply tap and hold in between
the two sliders. The sidebar will then pop up, and
you can move it around until you’ve found the
perfect placement for your workflow.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Welcome to Procreate: What is Procreate? 6

 Fullscreen indicator

Fullscreen mode
To cater for those moments when you
only need one brush and zero
distractions, enter fullscreen mode.

To initiate Fullscreen Mode, tap 4 fingers on the

screen. You’ll notice the UI slide away to give a
completely clean view of your canvas.

To bring the UI back, tap 4 fingers again or tap the

Toolbars icon in the top corner.

To use the undo/redo and clear layer functions

while in fullscreen mode, use the multitouch
gestures. (see page 31)

Procreate Artists' Handbook Welcome to Procreate: What is Procreate? 7

In this guide you will find a basic walkthrough of the Procreate application for iPad. You’ll quickly pick up how to:

• Create a new canvas and organize your Gallery with Groups.

• Tweak the brushes to your liking.
• Control brush results with the precision sliders.
• Create your own brush from your own textures.
• Use the smudge tool to blend colors effortlessly.
• Erase mistakes and use the undo/redo system.
• Layer artwork, isolate and merge elements.
• Manipulate colors via layer blend modes.
• Create custom effects with Adjustments.
• Use Transform to easily create accurate 3D environments and move, scale and rotate layers.
• Work with Perspective Guides and Quickline to easily create straight lines where you want them.
• Export JPEG, PNG & PSD files to your camera roll, iTunes, AirDrop, social networks or any connected cloud service.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Welcome to Procreate: What is Procreate? 8

Gallery
Section 1

Create a new canvas

Learn how Procreate stores your artwork, how to import existing
artwork, and how to create your very own custom canvas.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Create a new canvas 10

 .procreate artwork format
Every artwork you make in Procreate is
stored as a unique .procreate file format
on your iPad.

Having a native file format brings many benefits to

you, the artist:

• Your artwork takes up less space on your iPad

• Loading times significantly reduced
• Layered artwork files
• Super-easy to share
• Painless backing up and restoring

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Create a new canvas 11

 Create new canvas
Preset canvas sizes
Procreate has a few standard sized
canvases to make creating a new
artwork quick and easy.

Retina
This size canvas is the same proportion as your iPad to
exactly fit the screen.

Square
The square canvas is perfect for creating your own
custom brushes.

4K
This ratio—familiar to storyboard artists—is capable of
capturing incredible detail due to the generous size.

1080p
The standard 16:9 ratio seen in modern day movies.

A4
The ISO standard size of 297mm by 210mm at 300dpi,
which is perfect for printing.

Layers scale with the size of the canvas. The smaller the
canvas the more layers you will be offered.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Create a new canvas 12

 Custom size
When preset sizes don’t suit the job,
create your own!

To edit the canvas size tap either the canvas width

or height readouts. Enter your size and tap Create.

Custom canvases can be anywhere between 1 x

1px and a whopping 16K in one direction,
depending on your iPad model. Keep in mind that
the larger the canvas size, the fewer layers you will
have to play with.

Pro tip:
Experiment with different shapes to create
dramatic effects such as an extreme panorama,
tall-skinny, or square.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Create a new canvas 13

 Import
Create a new canvas by importing an
existing artwork or image straight to
your Procreate Gallery.

Image
Tapping the Image option will allow you to import
a .procreate, JPG or PNG file from iTunes, Photos
app or any connected cloud service.

Clipboard
Create a new canvas based on an image from your
iPad’s clipboard. Procreate supports TIFF, JPEG,
GIF and PNG file formats for importing. This option
will be greyed out if there is no compatible data.

Note: Images larger than your iPad’s maximum

canvas size will be scaled, to stay within the iPad’s
capabilities.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Create a new canvas 14

Section 2

Organizing artwork
Create order from the chaos with Procreate’s simple yet powerful
artwork gallery. Use the Gallery Groups to keep your artwork tidy and
improve your workflow.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Organizing artwork 15

Single action
Swipe a thumbnail to the left to reveal
actions.

The single action gesture allows you to rapidly

share, duplicate or delete an artwork.

See page 26 to learn more about artwork sharing.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Organizing artwork 16

 Bulk actions

Blue highlight indicates

selected artwork

Multiple actions
Swipe thumbnails to the right
to select multiple artworks.

Bulk actions save you time when you need to

edit more than one canvas simultaneously.

To carry out bulk actions, simply swipe a

thumbnail to the right. Successfully selected
thumbnails will appear blue. Once multiple
items have been selected, the bulk action
icons will automatically appear in the
navigation bar. These actions allow you to
delete or share multiple artworks at once.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Organizing artwork 17

 Rearranging artwork
Keep your Gallery layout exactly
how you like it.

Moving artwork around is a snap. Just tap and

hold on a thumbnail to lift it out of the grid, then
simply move the thumbnail to your desired
location and drop it.

Pro tip:
You can also move multiple items into a group
or change the order of the gallery by holding
down on one of the selected thumbnails.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Organizing artwork 18

 Orientation
It’s easy to change a canvas’
orientation after you’ve created it.

If your artwork is sitting on its side or upside

down, simply hold two fingers on the thumbnail
and rotate until your artwork is the right way up.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Organizing artwork 19

 Tap title to edit

Renaming artwork
Capture the subject of your artwork
with the perfect name.

Tap the title in the artwork’s thumbnail to bring

up the keyboard. Until you edit an artwork’s title
it will be called “Untitled Artwork”.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Organizing artwork 20

Section 3

Gallery Groups
Grouping artwork is another great feature of Procreate’s Gallery. Stay
on top of your gallery by learning how to make and name groups.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Gallery Groups 21

 Gallery Group

Gallery Groups
Keeping artwork arranged in
groups can be very handy for
creatives on the move.

Groups can be easily identified by a set of

small thumbnails, similar to groups in the
iOS springboard. See page 26 for a
detailed description on creating and
arranging groups.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Gallery Groups 22

 Creating a Group
Groups are a great way to combine
artworks and stay organized.

To create a Group, drop a thumbnail on top of

another. From here, you can name the Group just
like any other thumbnail by tapping the title.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Gallery Groups 23

Moving artwork out of a Group
A Group doesn’t have to be permanent.
It’s just as easy to move art out of a
Group as it is to move it in.

To move artwork out of a Group, drag one or more

thumbnails to the title bar and let go.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Gallery Groups 24

 Tap Group title to edit

Renaming a Group
For those big projects, naming a
Group is essential.

Rename the gallery Group exactly the same way as

you would rename your singular artwork: tap the
title to invoke the keyboard.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Gallery Groups 25

Section 4

Sharing artwork
Procreate provides several ways to share your masterpieces
with clients and colleagues.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Sharing artwork 26

 Procreate features several file formats with varying
features suiting different purposes.

Procreate Photoshop JPEG PNG

The native format used for A standard PSD that will A “lossy” format that will PNG will flatten your artwork
storing all artwork data export layers, layer names, flatten your artwork into a and retain full quality (we call
inside the app. If using opacity, visibility and blend single layer. JPEG format is this “lossless”). While slightly
the .procreate format, all modes exactly as per your great for quickly sharing an larger in file size, PNG will
layer information will be Procreate doc. image as the file size is also save any transparency
kept intact. smaller than other formats. you have in your artwork.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Sharing artwork 27

 Procreate uses the iOS 8 Sharing system so you can share directly to AirDrop,
AirPrint, and any app or service that provides a document extension.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Sharing artwork 28

 Open more locations

The ’Send to’ button provides access

to any connected cloud services.

This interface defaults to iCloud Drive. Tap the

Locations button to switch to a different cloud
service, and tap ‘More’ to enable other services. If
you don’t see the cloud service you want, make
sure you have the latest version of that app
installed.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Sharing artwork 29

iTunes Choose the Apps tab

Exporting to iTunes is great for

speedy transfers and backups to
your Mac or PC.

Supported filetypes
PNG, JPG, Procreate and PSD.

After you’ve shared your artwork to iTunes,

head over to your computer.

• Plug your device in using your cable and

open iTunes. Once your device is detected
select it on the left pane.

• With your device selected, choose the Apps

heading along the top and scroll down.

• You should see a list of apps inside a box.

Select Procreate and drag the artwork out of
iTunes or use the buttons to save the
artwork to your computer.
You can import a canvas back to Procreate by
dropping it back into this folder and using the
Create > Import > iTunes feature.
Select Procreate View exported files

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gallery: Sharing artwork 30

Gestures
Section 1

The following gestures are commonly used throughout

Procreate and are important to get you started.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 32

Tap or drag your finger on the canvas
to apply paint, erase or smudge your
art. Try varying the speed of your
finger, as many brushes are affected
by how fast you paint.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 33

Procreate comes with 250 undo
states to make painting a little less
stressful. Just two-finger tap
anywhere on the canvas to go back
one step at a time.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 34

If you Undo too many times, just
three-finger tap anywhere on the
canvas to redo.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 35

When drawing a stroke, hold your
finger or stylus still at the end. The
stroke will then straighten. Keep
dragging to move the endpoint.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 36

Instantly clear your layer by
‘scrubbing out’ the layer using 3
fingers in a back-and-forth motion
anywhere on the canvas. This is very
handy when you’re speed painting or
sketching concepts.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 37

Pinching the screen allows you to
zoom in and out of the canvas. The
Procreate zoom feature is based
largely on speed, so try alternating
your speed to suit your style.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 38

By simply rotating your fingers while
pinching the screen, you can change
the orientation of your canvas. This is
great for getting the perfect angle on
those difficult strokes.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 39

To instantly fit the canvas to
screen, quickly pinch inwards. For
best results, try lifting your fingers
off the screen as your pinch
finishes.

To return to the exact place you

were before you quick-pinched,
simply reverse your quick-pinch.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 40

Swipe 3 fingers downwards to reveal
options for cut, copy and paste.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 41

Tap with 4 fingers to take your
artwork fullscreen, hiding the
toolbars. A second 4-finger tap will
show the interface again.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: General use 42

Section 2

Lean how to use powerful gestures to save time.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: Layer Gestures 43

 Simply pinch two layers together to
merge those layers and any layer
in-between.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: Layer Gestures 44

 Pinch apart 2 layers to insert a
new layer between.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: Layer Gestures 45

 Tap a layer thumbnail with two fingers
to instantly engage the opacity
controls for that layer.

See page 147 for more info on layer opacity.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: Layer Gestures 46

 Swipe a layer from left to right to
quickly toggle Alpha Lock.

See page 143 for more info on Alpha Lock.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: Layer Gestures 47

 Swipe a layer from left to right with
two fingers to define your ColorDrop
Reference Layer.

See page 114 for more info on ColorDrop.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Gestures: Layer Gestures 48

Brushes
Section 1

The following section will teach you about Procreate’s next

generation brush system. Learn how to navigate between brush
sets, share and import brushes, and how to customize your library.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 50

You’ll notice the brushes feel
Shape
different in Procreate. That’s
because they are different.

For the last 30 years, brushes in digital Grain

painting have been done the same way.
Procreate takes a step forward, putting
serious power into its brush system. We do
this by splitting our brushes into 2 core
elements; Shape and Grain.

The following section will teach you about

Result
Procreate’s next generation brush system.
Learn how to navigate between brush sets,
share and import brushes, and how to
customize your library.

For more info on shapes & grains see later in

this chapter.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 51

 Tap twice to open popover

Tapping the paintbrush icon will switch

to paint mode. This is where you will
spend most of your time.

Your selected tool will appear blue to indicate it is

active. Tap it again to show the brush library.

Your brush library is a collection of brushes shared

between all of your tools. This means quick and easy
access to an incredible arsenal for painting, smudging
or erasing.

At the top of the popover you’ll notice the Brush Sets.

These keep your brushes neatly organized. You can
swipe the Brush Sets panel left and right to navigate.

Once you’ve selected a brush, tap outside the popover

to close it and begin painting.

Each tool will remember your last settings, so

frequently switching between brushes isn’t a hassle.

Pro tip:
Tap and hold an unselected Paint, Smudge, or Erase
icon to transfer the active brush settings over from the
selected icon. This method can be great for painting and
erasing with exactly the same brush.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 52

 Swipe left and right

Enjoy the many brushes Procreate has

to offer through neat, organized Brush
Sets.

Multiple Sets
Procreate comes with many exciting brushes
organized into convenient themes.

To navigate the different pages, swipe left and right

over your Brush Set icons.

To the far right you’ll find an option to create your

own Brush Set.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 53

 Drag and drop amongst brush sets

Drag and drop Brushes and Brush

Sets to improve your workflow.

Procreate’s shared brush library can be rearranged

to your liking by dragging and dropping. They can
even be moved in and out of different sets if you
require.

Moving brushes
Tap and hold the brush you wish to move. Drag it
to the new position and let go to drop it in place. If
you hover over a brush set you can drop it into a
new set.

If the brush you drag is a default brush (that was

there when you bought Procreate) it will duplicate it
so you don’t misplace the original.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 54

 Swipe a Brush from right to left to
reveal context-sensitive actions.

Share
If you have a brush you’re finding useful, share it
with friends. See next page for more info.

Duplicate
If you want to further experiment with a
brush while retaining the original, use the
duplicate option.

Delete
Delete a custom brush. Be careful, this is final.

Reset
Default Procreate brushes cannot be deleted,
only reset to their original settings.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 55

 Share your best brushes with the
world, or import from the thousands
shared by other artists.

It couldn’t be easier to share your brushes: just

swipe the Brush thumbnail and select the Share
option. Procreate will package your brush into
a .brush file and you can choose how to share it
from there.

Importing
Search the internet or the Procreate Forums for
new brushes to download. See the next page for
more info on importing brushes.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 56

 Tap to import Brushes

Bring other useful brushes into

your own Procreate app via two
methods:

In-app Import
The other half of sharing is receiving! You can
import other brushes straight to your app. Tap
the New Brush icon then locate the Import
button in the top right to import a brush from
iTunes or a connected cloud service.

File Association
If you have a .brush file online or in an email,
tap it to be prompted to import the new brush
to Procreate. Your newly acquired brush will be
placed in a specially created folder called
Imported. Swipe to the last Brush Set panel to
find it.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 57

 New Set icon

Organize your Custom Brushes into

your own Brush Set.

Creating a new Brush Set

If you keep swiping from right to left inside the
Brush Sets panel, you’ll find the icon to create a
new Brush Set.

Tap the icon to name your group and once

confirmed you can drop and drag the new group
wherever you like.

You can create up to ten additional sets!

Renaming or deleting
To change the name of the Brush Set down the
track, double tap the icon and choose rename.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 58

 Although Procreate is all about digital
painting, it also has the ability to
mimic real-life painting behaviour -
Thinner paint
without the mess.
Amount of paint

Dilution
Increasing the dilution value will simulate a thinner
paint with lots of water. It will apply paint, and
smudge at the same time. This gives a very fluid
result.

Charge
Just like when using a real brush, you can set how
much paint your brush will apply before it runs out.

Charge cannot be used with Glaze turned on or when

Dilution is zero.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 59

 To paint in a purely digital manner,
enable the Glaze setting.

Glaze
When you turn Glaze on your brush will behave in a
Glaze purely digital manner much like Adobe®
Photoshop®. It will not build up on itself until you
release your finger and paint again.
Flow

Flow
This option only works when Glaze is active. Flow
will determine the amount of paint applied to an
area every time the brush moves.

Glaze and Dilution cannot both be on at the same time.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: The Procreate brush system 60

Section 2

Tap a selected brush to see the 25+ settings that control your
brush. The following pages will describe how each setting will
affect your brush.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Advanced brush settings 61

 When you move your finger or stylus across the
screen, Procreate is plotting your stroke using
many points - much like a curve on a graph.

Spacing Start stroke taper

Spacing is the amount of space added between This will apply a taper to the start of your
each plot point in your stroke. Increasing the stroke. The higher the value the greater
space will create more gaps in your brush. the taper.

End stroke taper

This will apply a taper to the end of your
stroke. The higher the value the greater
Jitter the taper.
Jitter refers to the amount of distance by which
Opacity stroke taper
your shape will be offset from the stroke plot.
Opacity stroke taper allows you to adjust
Smaller values will look more like a solid line,
the amount of opacity applied to a taper.
while higher values will spread the shape out
and hide the visible line you draw.
Size stroke taper
Size stroke taper allows you to adjust the
size of the taper.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Advanced brush settings 62

 A shape is just like a stamp. The image you
select as the Shape will be repeatedly 'stamped'
over the course of a stroke. You could also think
of the Shape as a container for the grain.

Scatter
Randomized
Changing scatter will change the orientation of your
brush as your stroke progresses. Higher values will When OFF—Initial shape direction is based on
give a messy, rough feeling while low values will be the stroke’s beginning. When ON—direction is
like a streaky brush. Scatter is not affected by brush different for the beginning of every stroke.
direction. This can give each stroke a unique behaviour
and a more organic feel.

Rotation
Azimuth
The rotation slider affects how your brush reacts to
directional change. A range of unique effects can be Azimuth is used for brushes where the
achieved from a flat calligraphy brush to ribbon direction of the brush shape on the canvas
effects. The rotation slider has three main points: should be the same as the direction of the
Apple Pencil, just like a calligraphy pen nib.
‘100% Inverse’ makes the shape rotate inversely to
stroke direction. Turning Azimuth ON will make the shape
follow the perpendicular angle of Apple
'Static' locks shape direction to remain static. Pencil.

'Follow stroke' causes the shape to follow your

painting direction.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Advanced brush settings 63

 As you’ve already learned, Procreate brushes are created using dual
images. While the shape acts as a container for the grain, the grain
itself acts like a paint roller. When you paint a stroke, the grain is
‘rolled’ inside the shape and on to the canvas.

Movement
When set to 'Stamp' the grain texture will
not roll at all. Instead it will smear the grain.
When set to 'Rolling' the grain will apply its
texture just like a repeating paint roller.

Scale
Rotation
Grain scale adjusts the size of the grain
Grain rotation is very similar to Grain movement.
texture inside the shape.
This setting will smear and slur the grain image–
Zoom based on directional stroke changes. The rotation
When set to 'Follow size' the grain will scale slider has three main points along the slider:
with your brush shape. When set to ‘100% Inverse’ makes the grain rotate inversely to
'Cropped' the grain is locked and the brush stroke direction.
shape will scale independently, from the
grain. A great way to understand how zoom 'Static' locks grain direction to remain static.
works is to use the precision slider preview.
'Follow stroke' causes the grain to follow your
stroke direction.

Filtered
ON applies Antialiasing to your grain texture. OFF
can cause the grain to become jagged and coarse.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Advanced brush settings 64

 These settings are applied on-the-fly when you draw
and paint. Dynamic settings allow you to create
incredibly unique brushes.

Falloff
Affects the overall length of the stroke. All effects will be
applied within this setting.

Dilution
Dilution is directly related to the Paint characteristic. Accumulative
Varying values of dilution will create different levels of This option only works when Glaze is active.
‘water’ in your paint. When a high amount of dilution is When ON the shape will ’build up’ as the
applied to your brush, the brush will mix and pull more stroke is made.
paint as you drag it around.
Flow
Charge
This option only works when Glaze is active.
Charge refers to the amount of virtual paint applied to a Flow will determine the amount of paint
brush. For instance, when set to ’0′ the virtual paint will applied to an area every time the brush moves.
‘run out’ almost instantly. The Charge setting is great for
traditional artists! Opacity Speed
Opacity will vary depending on the speed of
Glazed
your stroke.
When ON, your brush will paint in a uniform transparent
manner and will no longer 'build up' over time. Because Opacity Jitter
of this, the Glaze effect behaves exactly the same as The stroke will vary in opacity as it is stamped
default Photoshop® brushes. across the canvas.

Size Speed
Size will vary depending on the speed of
your stroke.

Size Jitter
The stroke will vary in size as it is stamped
across the canvas.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Advanced brush settings 65

 Tailor Apple Pencil exactly to your needs. If you are using a
supported stylus, pressure and size will also adjust your
stylus. Tilt is only available with Apple Pencil.

Pressure Opacity
When set to 0% the brush will not react to
pressure changes. When set to Max, more
pressure will make the stroke opacity stronger.
When set to 100% inverse, more pressure will
make the stroke transparency increase.

Pressure Size
When set to 0% the brush will not react to
pressure changes. When set to Max, more
pressure will make the stroke size bigger. When
set to 100% inverse, more pressure will make Tilt Opacity
the stroke size smaller.
When size is set to None the brush will not react
to Apple Pencil tilt changes. When set to Max
tilting Apple Pencil will aggressively make the
Pressure Softening brush size bigger.
When set to 0%, any changes in pressure will
be immediately acted upon. Larger values will
smooth out the pressure response, which is Tilt Size
excellent for getting gradual changes with When opacity is set to None the brush will not
glazed brushes. Lower values give brushes a react to Apple Pencil tilt changes. When set to
quicker response to changes in pressure. Max tilting Apple Pencil will aggressively make
the brush fade off vertically.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Advanced brush settings 66

 Here you will find general brush characteristics
which apply to the brush overall.

Orient to iPad Screen

When ON, oriented will cause the brush to
orientate itself according to the iPad
screen orientation.

Use stamp preview

When ON, stamp view will cause your
brush preview to display only the brush
shape file. Stamp view can be very useful
when the grain is not a significant part of
the brush. Min size
Minimum size is responsible for determining the
Max size
minimum radius the brush can be lowered to.
Maximum size is responsible for
determining the maximum radius that the Max opacity
brush can reach. By default, all brushes Maximum opacity is responsible for determining
can reach 100% radius. However, if a the maximum amount of opacity the brush can
brush has a spacing value greater than reach.
12%, the brush can reach an incredible
400% radius. Essentially, more spacing Min opacity
allows bigger sized brushes. Minimum opacity is responsible for determining
the minimum amount of opacity the brush can be
lowered to.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Advanced brush settings 67

 This tab contains the source images that create the foundation of a
Procreate brush. One image for the shape of the brush, and one image
for the grain of the brush. You are free to modify or alter any brush
source file you please.

Tap to import a Shape image Tap to import a Grain image

Tapping the Shape Source thumbnail will Tapping the Grain Source thumbnail will
allow you to import you own source images allow you to import you own source images
into your brush, or use an image from the into your brush, or use an image from the
Pro Library. Pro Library.

Procreate will accept almost all image Procreate will accept almost all image
formats, including JPEG, PNG, TIFF and GIF. formats, including JPEG, PNG, TIFF and GIF.

Pro tip:
Note that white areas of the image
will cause the brush to apply paint
and black areas will be transparent.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Advanced brush settings 68

Section 3

Now that you’ve learnt about navigating your brush

library and the many characteristics behind each
brush, you’ll be ready to make your very own brushes
in Procreate!

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Making custom brushes 69

 Tap to create a
custom brush

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Making custom brushes 70

 Grain
Source

Shape Experimenting with new brushes can be

Source
a lot of fun, with great results!

Tapping the + icon will take you to the brush creation

screen, where you can import images for the
foundations of a Procreate brush; Shape and Grain.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Making custom brushes 71

Shape
The brush shape is a container that houses the Shape
grain. Whatever your grain is, it will fit inside the
shape just like a stencil.

Grain Grain
Think of the grain as a paint roller. When you paint
a stroke, the grain is ‘rolled’ onto the canvas.

You can load an image from the Pro Library,

Dropbox, iTunes or your own Photos camera roll.
The images found in the Pro Library are those used
by the Procreate default brushes.
Result
Once you have entered both Shape and Grain, the
icons for brush settings will appear along the
bottom of the pane, allowing you to start editing
your brush’s behaviour. You must enter both Shape
and Grain to save your brush.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Making custom brushes 72

 Use 100% black for pure transparency

The most amazing brushes can come

from experimenting. A couple of things
to remember so you keep making the
best possible brushes:

Pure black will be 100% transparent, while 100%

white will be solid. Anywhere in between will be
semi-transparent.

Grains work better when they are seamless. There

are some great tutorials online on how to make
seamless textures.

The key to discovering great brushes is to

experiment. Put a random photo into the grain or
shape, tweak a few sliders, and see what happens!

You can test out your brush immediately by painting

in the Brush Preview.

Use 100% white for pure opaqueness

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Making custom brushes 73

 Within the Source tab of the
Advanced Brush Settings popover you
can invert your source image.

Tap the thumbnail of the source image with two

fingers to invert it. This will make blacks white and
vice versa. This will greatly impact the way it paints
your canvas and can be great for reversing the
effect of a grain.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Making custom brushes 74

 Rotating source images
Within the Source tab of the Advanced
Brush Settings popover you can rotate
your source image.

Pinch and rotate the thumbnail of the source image

to rotate it in 90-degree increments. This is
particularly handy for when you have a specialty
brush that needs to follow an exact path or direction.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Making custom brushes 75

 Sharing custom brushes
Swipe the thumbnail of the brush in the Brushes popover to reveal the Share option. Tap Share to package your
custom brush into a .brush file to send to friends via email, iTunes, or any connected cloud services.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Making custom brushes 76

Section 4

Just hold the end of a stroke and watch it snap into a

straight line. There's no changing tools or diving through
menus. Learn how to take full advantage of this simple but
effective tool.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Quickline 77

Using any brush, draw a line as best
you can and then hold.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Quickline 78

Once the Quickline has been made,
keep holding to move and position
the Quickline.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Quickline 79

After making a Quickline, tap Transform to move the endpoints. Tap and drag on or near them to move them.
Tap Transform again to commit your changes.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Quickline 80

 Make a Quickline with the Erase tool to clean up straight edges.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Quickline 81

 Create gradients, local blur effects and more with Quickline and the Smudge tool.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Quickline 82

Set the Quickline delay to suit your
Set Quickline delay
painting style. To turn Quickline off
altogether, drag the slider all the way
to the left.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Brushes: Quickline 83

Smudge
Section 1

Find out how to get the most responsive color-blending on a

mobile platform. Procreate uses 64-bits per pixel to smudge and
once you’ve tried it you won’t go back to anything less.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Smudge: Smudging colors 85

 Smudge tool

Smudge tool
Select the smudge icon and tap it again to bring up
the smudge popover. Once you have selected your
smudging brush, tap outside the popover.

Remember that Smudge shares the same library as

Paint, so try experimenting with different brushes
for unexpected smudging results.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Smudge: Smudging colors 86

Different strengths,
different effects.
The Smudge tool gives varying effects
depending on the value of the opacity
slider.

Higher strengths Full

strength
By using Smudge at full pressure, color will really
be pushed around, like wet paint. It will mess up
colors very quickly and quite often give harsh drag
lines as you smear the paint.

Lower strengths
At lower strengths smudge will be smoother and
softer. This is particularly useful for creating very
smooth gradients or smudging pencil drawings.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Smudge: Smudging colors 87

Erase
Section 1

Learn to ‘paint’ with the eraser tool or fix mistakes.

You’ll also learn how to match your eraser to your
artwork.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Erase: The Eraser tool 89

 Eraser tool

Paint with the eraser

The eraser is just as powerful as the
paint brush. Use the eraser to ‘carve
out’ or soften areas of your artwork.

Eraser tool
The eraser tool is controlled just like the paint and
smudge tools. Tap the icon once to select it, or twice
to choose any brush in your library.

Pro tip:
Slip-ups happen to the best of us. Luckily, Procreate
has the same great brush control when using an
eraser. Use the eraser to quickly fix unwanted areas of
your canvas.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Erase: The Eraser tool 90

 Match your eraser with the
style of the art
By matching your eraser with your
painting brush, you’ll create a
seamless style.

Using the example to the left, we might choose

something with a lot of texture to match the paint
strokes on the canvas.

Or, if you’re sketching, pick an eraser that has a

similar texture to the pencil. That way, if you happen
to go over any lines you won’t get an obvious,
harsh line like you would with a flat eraser.

You can also use this technique to fade off or

lighten areas where the pencil is too dark.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Erase: The Eraser tool 91

Section 2

Read about how to quickly manage your mistakes using undo/

redo and clearing a layer.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Erase: Fix mistakes 92

Undo and redo
Procreate comes with up to 250 undo
and redo states. That’s a lot.

Tap the undo/redo arrow to find where you went

wrong, and try again. When cycling through your
undo/redo states a notification will let you know
which action was last affected by the undo/redo.

Alternatively, you can use the gestures. See page

30 for more information on gestures.

Once Procreate has been exited from multi-tasking or

you return to the Gallery, all undo and redo states will
be cleared.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Erase: Fix mistakes 93

Procreate comes with 250 undo
states to make painting a little less
stressful. Just two-finger tap
anywhere on the canvas to go back
one step at a time. Three-finger tap
anywhere to redo.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Erase: Fix mistakes 94

 Clear the selected layer

Clearing a layer
There are two ways to quickly clear an
entire layer and be sure there are no
traces remaining.

Open the Layers popover and select the layer you

wish to clear. Tap it again to reveal the Clear option.

For an even quicker solution, you can also use the

Clear Layer gesture.

See page 31 for more information on gestures.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Erase: Fix mistakes 95

Colors
Section 1

Press the color swatch in the top right of the toolbar to access
the Procreate color popover.

From here you can play with color or use a favourite color that
you’ve saved as a swatch.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Selecting colors 97

Tap to Reveal numerical input Previous color New color Color selection

Current Hue
Current color reticle
Procreate comes with a color picker
that encourages you to play and
experiment.

Color Ring
Tap to reveal
Tap on the color icon in the top right, to open the
more palettes. color popover. By default you will see the Color
Ring.

The previously selected color will be displayed on

the left split of the preview to compare with the
new color. You can return to the previous color by
tapping in this area.

Once you’re happy with the color, tap off the

pane to close it or see the next section on how to
save your color as a favourite.

Palette name

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Selecting colors 98

 Selected color

Selected Hue

Saturation disc Hue ring

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Selecting colors 99

 When you’ve found the perfect hue, use the zoomable
saturation disc to get even more colors to choose from.

Zoomable saturation disc

Pinch the saturation disc to expand it out to full size. Once expanded, the saturation
disc will work just the same as the smaller size but you’ll have much more control over
fine adjustments. Procreate will remember if you prefer to work in this mode which can
be great for complex shading using similar values.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Selecting colors 100

 Procreate also comes with a classic
color picker that’ll be familiar to
veterans of digital art.

Classic color picker

To enable this color picker, head to
Hue
Actions > Prefs > Classic color picker.
Saturation
Tap on the color icon in the top right to open the
Brightness
color pane. Choose your color using the HSB
sliders.

The previously selected color will be displayed on

the left split of the preview to compare with the
new color.

Once you’re happy with the color, tap off the pane

to close it or see the next section on how to save
your color as a favourite.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Selecting colors 101

 Eyedropper

Rapidly select a new color from

anywhere on your canvas.

Eyedropper
Tap and hold anywhere on the canvas to invoke
the Eyedropper. If you find the gesture too quick,
head to the Actions popover > Prefs tab to
change the delay.

Your new color is displayed on the top half of the

loupe and the current color on the bottom half. As
soon as you let go, your new color is selected.

See page 194 for more info on the Actions popover.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Selecting colors 102

Section 2

Finding the perfect color can be a difficult task. Swatches make

things easier by allowing you to save an exact color to a Swatch
Palette for later use.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Saving colors 103

 When it’s important to keep a
particular color, save it as a swatch
for quick access later.

Save a color
Saved swatches
Below the color picker you’ll notice a grid. This is a
Empty swatches swatch palette. To save the currently selected color
tap an empty swatch in the swatch palette.

Selecting a saved color

Tapping a saved swatch will load that color, ready
for use.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Saving colors 104

 To create an idea of how colors might
work together you may prefer to
change the order of how the
swatches sit within the palette.

Move your swatch

Tap and hold a saved swatch to pick it up and drop
it in the new location.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Saving colors 105

 When you’re done with a particular
swatch, remove it from your palette.

Delete your swatch

Tap and hold on the unwanted swatch, drag it outside
the Color popover and let go. The swatch will fall off-
screen and be permanently deleted.

Alternatively, double tap a swatch to be greeted with the

pop up menu to delete.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Saving colors 106

Section 3

Procreate’s palette library allows you to save multiple color

schemes for quick, app-wide access in every artwork.

You can even share your own or import another artist’s favorite
swatch palette.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Loading more colors 107

 Quickly load and unload swatch
palettes through Procreate’s simple
Tap to reveal Palette Library.
more palettes.

Swipe to quickly Open the Palette Library

reveal more palettes
With the Color popover open, swipe from right to
left over the currently loaded swatch palette to
reveal the Palette Library. Alternatively, tap the
arrow on the title of the currently loaded palette.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Loading more colors 108

 Swap Palettes in and out as you need.

Loading the Palette

Tap the header of the swatch palette (where the
title sits) to select that palette. You’ll see a tick
appear on the right to say that it has been loaded.

To exit the Palette Library, swipe anywhere in the

popover from left to right. You’ll notice that your
selected palette has now replaced the old one.

Pro tip:
You can directly select a swatch in this view without
selecting the whole palette by tapping on it. This
can be very handy to work between several palettes
without having to constantly switch them out.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Loading more colors 109

 As your collection of swatch palettes
grows, keep them organized in a few
easy steps.

Renaming your swatch palettes

Tap the title of a selected palette to invoke the
keyboard and rename it.

Arranging your palettes

Tap and hold a palette to pull it out of the stack.
Drag and drop it to the desired location.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Loading more colors 110

 Procreate allows artists to share and
import their favorite swatches.

Share a swatch palette

Swipe from right to left over the palette you want
to share. This will expose the Share option.

From here you can share to iTunes, Mail, or any

connected cloud service. Your swatch palette will
take the title of the palette and add a .swatches
file extension.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Loading more colors 111

 Use the Import Swatches function to
expand your library of color schemes.

Import a swatch palette

Swipe from top to bottom in the swatch palette
popover to reveal the Import Swatches button. Tap
the button to be greeted with the options to import
from iTunes or a connected cloud service.

Alternatively, while using your iPad you can just tap

the file in your email client or internet browser to
import it directly. Procreate will recognize the file
and automatically place it in your Palette Library.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Loading more colors 112

 When you no longer need or use a
color scheme, delete a whole palette
in one action.

Delete a swatch palette

Swipe from right to left over the palette you want
to delete. This will expose the Delete option.

Tap Delete and then confirm that you still want to

delete the palette. Be careful, because once you
delete a swatch palette there is no way of getting
it back.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Loading more colors 113

Section 4

ColorDrop is Procreate’s answer to the well known paint bucket.

It’s been fine tuned to give amazing fills when you quickly need
to block out color. Read on to see how to fill your shapes,
adjust the threshold, and keep your ink and color separate.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Fill with color 114

 ColorDrop
A great timesaver for artists who work with large blocks of flat color. ColorDrop lets you quickly fill
in shapes and build your artwork.

Drag the Color icon out onto the canvas and let go. You’ll see the color drop onto the canvas and fill out until it finds a boundary.

Drag from here

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Fill with color 115

 ColorDrop Threshold
Tweak the way ColorDrop detects edges to get the best results.

ColorDrop and then pause over the desired fill area. ColorDrop Threshold will activate and, before you lift your finger, slide left and right
to adjust how aggressively it attacks edges. Lifting your finger will commit the ColorDrop and from then on ColorDrop will remember the
threshold setting until you change it again.

Threshold readout

Threshold amount

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Fill with color 116

 Reference Layer
An advanced feature designed for
cartoonists and concept artists that
keeps color fills and ink separate.

Reference Layer works exclusively with ColorDrop to

reference the active ref layer (indicated by a purple
layer preview) and fill to the normal selected layer.

Swipe a layer with two fingers to activate it as the

Reference. Select another layer, and ColorDrop can
fill into the selected layer, based on the Reference.

Use the same gesture to turn the Reference Layer

off.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Colors: Fill with color 117

Layers
Section 1

Layers are an extremely versatile benefit unique to digital painting. Tap

the second icon from the right in the toolbar to access the Layers
popover. This section will cover the basics of working with layers.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Building up layered artwork 119

 Create new layer

Creating a layer
Create new layers with the + icon.
A new layer will be inserted above the
current layer.

You can also create a new layer between two layers

by pinching them apart. See page 45 for a guide to
this gesture.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Building up layered artwork 120

 Moving layers
Rearrange layers with a tap and hold.

To change the order of the layers, hold the layer

and drag up or down. Release to set the new order.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Building up layered artwork 121

 Visibility OFF

Layer visibility
Turn a layer’s visibility on or off by
tapping the left-aligned circle.

If a layer is hidden it cannot be drawn on. If you try

to draw on a layer that is hidden you’ll be notified
via a simple dialogue.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Building up layered artwork 122

 Blending layers
Artists familiar with desktop painting
will be at home with Procreate’s many
blend modes.

Blend modes are based on old photographic and

new digital techniques to add interesting effects to
an image.

To change the blend mode, tap the small letter in

the circle on the right of each layer. See section 3
of this chapter for a more detailed explanation of
Blend modes.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Building up layered artwork 123

 Merging Layers
Merging is a great way to free up
layers in your artwork.

To merge, pinch together the top layer you want

to merge and the bottom layer. Every layer in
between will be merged into one.

Merging layers will apply any blending mode to

the pixels below and will also disregard any
alpha lock.

If you reach your layer limit, look through your

layers for any you are happy with to merge
together. It’s best to merge only once you’re
happy with what you’ve drawn.

Pro tip:
You can also merge a layer from the Layer
Options menu. See page 120 for more details.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Building up layered artwork 124

 Background layer
Procreate gives you a free layer to
place a solid color of your choosing
underneath your canvas.

To change the color, tap on the Background layer

at the bottom of the layers panel. You can choose
any color you like and access any favorites you
have saved along the way.

In some cases, you may want to turn the layer off

to export a PNG with transparency. To do this, tap
the Layer Visibility icon as per turning off a normal
layer. You will then see the grid background, which
indicates transparency.

Tap the Background layer

to change the color

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Building up layered artwork 125

Section 2

Once you have the Layers popover open, select a layer by tapping on
it and tap it again to access the layer options.
Read on for explanations of each feature you can tweak per layer.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Extra layer options 126

Rename layer

Naming layers can make working in

complex artwork even quicker.

Your layers will be given sequentially numbered

titles until you choose to change them. If you have
3 layers already and create a 4th then that layer will
be called ‘Layer 4’.

Selecting the Rename option will invoke the iPad

keyboard. When you are finished editing, tap the
return or dismiss keyboard key.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Extra layer options 127

 Clear and Fill

Quickly clear a layer’s contents or fill

it with the currently selected color.

Clear layer
Just like it suggests, it will clear the entire layer. It
will not, however, reset the blending mode, or
opacity levels you have set for that layer.

Fill layer
Tapping Fill layer will use the currently selected
color to fill the whole layer evenly. Any artwork on
this layer will be overwritten with a flat color.

Pro tip:
Using Fill with Alpha Lock on will only fill the used
pixels on that layer.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Extra layer options 128

 Merge layer down

Layers in Procreate allow you to work

on one area of an artwork without
destroying other areas. Sometimes,
however, you may want to combine
or merge different layers together.

Merge Down
Tapping this will combine the active layer with the
layer directly below. The two layers will become
one single layer and they will no longer be editable
as separate objects.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Extra layer options 129

Masked area Select Layer Contents

Quickly choose the area of paint on

the canvas for greater control over
further actions.

By tapping Select layer contents, you will enter

Selections mode and immediately see an applied
selection. From here you can transform your
selection, copy it, paint inside it, etc.

When you are finished with the selection, just tap

the Selections icon to finalize it.

Non-masked area

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Extra layer options 130

 Perspective Assist

Constrain any stroke to the vanishing

points in the Perspective Guide.

With Perspective Assist active on a layer, every

stroke you make will automatically straighten along
a line from the vanishing point you’re heading
towards or away from. In 2 point perspective, this
includes lines perpendicular to the horizon, and in 1
point it includes lines perpendicular and parallel to
the horizon.

Pro tip:
Quickline can also be invoked in this mode at any
time, allowing straight lines that are unbound.
See page 234 for more about the Perspective Guide.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Extra layer options 131

Section 3

This section will give a brief description on the blend modes available
in Procreate. You can change the blend modes by tapping the letter
representing the blend mode running down the right side of the Layers
popover.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Blending modes 132

 Darken blend modes
Multiply
The best mode for darkening. Great for creating
shadows and removing whites and other light colors.

Linear Burn
Darker than Multiply but less saturated than
Color Burn.

Color Burn
Darker than Multiply with more saturated
mid-tones and slightly reduced highlights.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Blending modes 133

 Lighten
Lighten
If the pixels of the selected layer are lighter than the
ones on the layers below, they are kept in the image.

Screen
Lightens the layer where it blends with the
pixels beneath. Screen is the exact opposite to
Multiply mode and visually will make dark pixels
appear transparent.

Add
Similarly to Screen, Add lightens the layers
underneath. However, it has a much greater effect,
causing awesome effects like blooming lights or
image burn.

Color Dodge
Brighter than the Screen blend mode. Typically
results in saturated mid-tones and blown highlights.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Blending modes 134

 Contrast
Overlay
Uses a combination of the Screen blend mode on
the lighter pixels, and the Multiply blend mode on
the darker pixels.

Hard Light
Works similar to Overlay, but uses the selected
layer’s intensity.

Soft Light
A half-strength application of the Overlay mode
resulting in a softer, more organic effect.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Blending modes 135

 Difference
Exclusion
Produces an effect like a photographic negative,
but with less contrast to the Difference blend
mode. Mid range colors tend to go grey and
‘washed out’.

Difference
Produces a negative or inverted effect relative to
the difference between the layers. Black pixels
denote no difference between layers.

Subtract
Subtracts the selected layer’s color from the
underlying colors. If the selected color is black the
result color is the underlying color.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Blending modes 136

 Color
Hue
Takes the luminosity and saturation of the
underlying colors and the hue of the blend color.
Try overlaying an artwork with a Hue layer to
change the mood.

Saturation
Result color has the luminosity and hue of the layers
below and the saturation of the selected layer.

Color
Color uses the luminosity of the layers underneath
and the hue and saturation of the selected layer.
Grey levels are maintained which is very useful for
coloring monochrome images.

Luminosity
Luminosity uses the hue and saturation of the
layers underneath and sets the luminosity of the
selected layer.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Blending modes 137

Section 4

Swipe a layer to the left to access 4 options:

Select, Copy, Duplicate, or Delete.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Quick layer actions 138

 Quick actions
Swipe any layer to the left to
reveal quick actions.

Select
Tap the select button to rapidly select the
contents of the layer.

Copy
After swiping the layer tap Copy to add
the image data to your iPad’s clipboard.
You can use that data to paste into
another Procreate canvas, email it, or use
it in another app.

See page 177 for more information about

how to use selection tools.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Quick layer actions 139

 Duplicate
Duplicating a layer can be great for
trialling changes without affecting the
original.
Duplicated layer
will be placed To duplicate your layer, swipe the layer thumbnail in
above original
the Layers popover to see the Duplicate option.

Tap the Duplicate icon and your layer will be copied

and pasted as a new layer.

If you have reached the maximum number of layers

you will need to merge layers to make room for the
duplicate layer.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Quick layer actions 140

 Delete a layer
Swipe the layer to the left to access
the layer delete option.

You can undo this action, but once you have run out
of undos, or if you leave or background the app, you
will no longer be able to restore the layer.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Quick layer actions 141

Section 5

This section explains how to use two advanced features

via gestures: Alpha Lock and Reference Layer.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Advanced layer features 142

 Alpha Lock
Procreate comes with the ability to
lock a layer’s transparency (or alpha).
Alpha Lock
indicator Once your edges are correct you will
never have to do them again.

Lock a layer’s transparency

Once you have blocked out your shape, swipe left
to right on the selected layer to lock the alpha.
From here on, you will only be able to paint or
smudge inside the area that already has paint on it.

If you want to touch up an edge, or add to it,

simply turn the Alpha Lock off, tidy it up and flick it
back on to preserve the alpha once again.

Pro tip:
If you lock a layer’s alpha, you can use the Layer Fill
option to fill all the used pixels on that layer with a
solid color.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Advanced layer features 143

 Reference Layer
An advanced feature designed for
cartoonists and concept artists that
keeps color fills and ink separate.

Reference Layer works exclusively with ColorDrop

to reference the active ref layer (indicated by a
purple layer) and fill to the normal selected layer.

Swipe a layer with two fingers to activate it as the

Reference. Select another layer and ColorDrop can
fill into the selected layer based on the Reference.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Layers: Advanced layer features 144

Adjustments
Section 1

Transform your artwork with professional image effects.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Applying an effect 146

 The opacity percentage determines the
amount the layer obscures or shows the
layer beneath it. Layer opacity is an
invaluable effect for compositing.

Adjust layer opacity

Making sure you have the correct layer selected,
choose Opacity from the Adjustments menu.
To make the layer more transparent, slide from right to
left across the screen.

Unlike other adjustments, Opacity is non-destructive.

This means you can adjust the transparency of a layer
whenever you like, however many times you like.

Pro tip:
You can also adjust the opacity level of a layer by
tapping that layer with two fingers in the Layers Menu.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Applying an effect 147

 Gaussian blur can be used for smoothing,
creating depth-of-field effects, making
shadows, and much more.

Blur a layer
Tap the desired layer, and then select Gaussian blur from
the Adjustments menu. To increase the strength of the
Gaussian blur, slide across the screen from left to right.

Pro tip:
For precision effects, slide your finger across the screen
slowly. Slower speeds will be more accurate while higher
speeds will rapidly increase the strength of effects.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Applying an effect 148

 Motion blur adds an effect similar to a
traditional film camera with a low
shutter speed being panned quickly.
Use it to add a feeling of velocity to
your artwork.

Add Motion Blur

Making sure you have the correct layer selected,
choose Motion Blur from the Adjustments menu.
To increase the strength of the Motion Blur, slide
across the screen from left to right.

Use a two-finger twisting gesture to control the

direction of the blur.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Applying an effect 149

 Perspective Blur produces a blur that
emanates from a single point and
radiates outwards. It can mimic the
rapid zooming of a low shutter speed
camera, and other speed-based effects.

Pro tip:
Apple Pencil can control the vanishing point, direction
and focus of the blur by tilting and rotating while
dragging the disc.
Pro tip:
Drag the disc outside the bounds of the canvas for
even more extreme blurs.

Vanishing point disc

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Applying an effect 150

 Perspective Blur
You can control the amount of the blur by dragging from left
to right. Move the vanishing point by dragging the disc.

Move disc to move

vanishing point

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Applying an effect 151

 Directional perspective blur
Drag the Direction disc arrow to target the blur, and drag
outwards to focus the blur more tightly.

Directional disc

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Applying an effect 152

 Sharpening a layer will create sharp
transitions between light and dark
areas. Use Sharpen to make things
feel in focus.

Sharpen a layer
Make sure you’re on the correct layer and then
select Sharpen from the Adjustments menu. To
increase the Sharpen strength, slide across the
screen from left to right.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Applying an effect 153

 Noise randomizes the brightness and color
information of pixels.

Add Noise to a layer

With the correct layer selected, tap Noise from the
Adjustments menu. To increase the strength of Noise, slide
across the screen from left to right.

Pro tip:
Experiment with blend modes to enhance images. Try
increasing image contrast by using a combination of Noise
and blend modes, or have some fun recreating analogue film
grain effects.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Applying an effect 154

Section 2

This section will help unlock the power of advanced image

adjustments such as HSB, Color Balance, and Curves.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Image adjustments 155

 Hue, Saturation, Brightness
HSB allows you to adjust the hue, color strength, and
brightness of any given layer.

Hue

Saturation

Brightness

Toggle visibility

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Image adjustments 156

 Color Balance
Color Balance can be used to correct or stylize images.
Colors in digital form are made from three primaries: red, green, and blue. This is very different from traditional media, because you’re
dealing with light as opposed to pigments. The right extremity of the bars show red, green, and blue. The left extremity shows the
opposite color for each of these primaries. Sliding in one direction will make the overall layer shift toward that color value.

Cyan Red

Magenta Green

Yellow Blue

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Image adjustments 157

 Fine tune color
Finely adjust the tonal values of your artwork by using
Color Balance modifiers.

Highlights Midtones Shadows

Highlights will adjust the lighter Adjusting the middle tones of a Tapping Shadows will allow you
levels in the layer. layer is the best way to achieve a to adjust the colors of the
fairly even adjustment. By default, darker areas in a layer.
Midtones are ON.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Image adjustments 158

 Curves
The tonal curve is probably the most powerful adjustment.
The layer tonal values are represented as a straight line on the grid. Moving a node in the top area of the grid will
adjust the highlights of your layer. Moving a node in the centre of the line will adjust the midtones and moving a
node in the bottom section will adjust darker areas of your layer.

White point

Highlights

Midtones

Shadows

Black point

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Image adjustments 159

 Tap to add nodes

Manipulating points
Tapping anywhere inside the grid will
create a node which will bend the
curve.

Dragging a node up will affect the lightness of

your layer. Dragging a node down will affect the
darkness of the layer.

Likewise, dragging a node left or right will

decrease or increase contrast. You can create up
to 11 nodes, so try experimenting by bending a
few curves and watch what happens to the layer!

Pro tip:
You can easily delete a node by dragging it outside
of the grid bounds.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Image adjustments 160

 RGB channels
Unlock the power of curves by isolating the RGB channels of your layer.

With Procreate, you’re not limited to adjusting the overall gamma. You can also adjust layers by editing the Curves on the red, green, and blue
channels independently. Making a Curve adjustment to each color channel allows practically limitless varieties of color corrections and effects.

Overall Gamma

Red channel

Green channel

Blue channel

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Image adjustments 161

 Recolor
Quickly and conveniently change areas of color with a live preview.

Recolor is a great way for graphic artists to tweak specific areas of color without the hassle of erasing and re-
cutting into existing shapes. Recolor works best on flat colors.

Recolor hue

Recolor crosshair

Threshold

Procreate Artists' Handbook Adjustments : Image adjustments 162

Transform
Section 1

Learn the basics for Procreate’s Transform tool with a rundown

of each UI element and how your layer contents can be
manipulated.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Basic manipulation 164

 Transform allows you to easily move and manipulate the layer contents.

Once you tap the Transform icon your layer will be bound by a moving dashed line. This dashed line will encompass every pixel on that particular
layer. On each corner and in the middle of each face, you will see a node. These are the control points that you use to transform your layer.

Transform mode ON

Layer contents

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Basic manipulation 165

 Magnetics
Magnetics are intelligent guides to help you keep your transforms aligned and ratios correct.

To turn on Magnetics, tap the icon of the magnet so it turns blue. To turn it off, tap it again so it returns to silver. While Magnetics are on you will see blue
guides pop up on the screen while you’re dragging a blue node around. This shows you a particular alignment that might be helpful.

Magnetics readout

Blue Magnetics guide

Toggle Magnetics

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Basic manipulation 166

 Repositioning your work
After activating Transform just tap and drag one finger to move the layer. Pinch and rotate inside the bounds of the layer to freely
scale and rotate the layer contents. Alternatively, use the shortcuts at the bottom of the screen to snap-transform the object.

Flip horizontally Reset

Flip vertically Fit to screen

Rotate 45°
clockwise

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Basic manipulation 167

 Uniform transform
Evenly scaling the size of a layer can be
done two ways.

Quick scale
Pinching inside the object bounds will uniformly scale the
layer with the anchor being in the middle.

Using Magnetics
Drag any corner node to adjust to the new size. Your
transform will anchor from the opposite node to the one
you are dragging.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Basic manipulation 168

 Non-uniform transform
Procreate allows you to stretch an
object however you see fit.

To stretch your layer and disregard its original ratio,

drag any of the blue nodes in any direction (while
Magnetics is off). This will pivot your transform
from the opposite corner/side.

Grabbing a corner node will give the quickest result

as it will transform on both x and y axes, while
grabbing a side node will only stretch the layer
along that axis.

For example, in this image you might wish to make

the triangle a little longer. To do so you would pull
the top middle node upwards.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Basic manipulation 169

 The Fit tool
Quickly fit your imported image or layer to the canvas.

Fit to screen

With Magnetics Without Magnetics

Fit the layer contents to uniformly fit the canvas with Fit the layer contents uniformly to the canvas
maximum coverage. This will result in the image boundaries. No part of the image will be cropped.
overflowing the canvas boundaries which will crop
the artwork once committed.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Basic manipulation 170

 Reverting mistakes
Transforming can get pretty hectic sometimes. Here are a few features to save you time.

Reset Undo Redo

Reset Undo and redo Pro tip:

Tapping the reset icon, will disregard all If you’re in the middle of a complex Once you leave Transform mode Procreate
changes you have made while in transform and you only want to go back will compact all of those Transform actions
into one step, making them into one undo.
Transform mode and revert the layer back one step, simply tap the undo button! All
You can change this behaviour in Settings
to its original state. of your steps are saved separately while in
by switching ‘Simplified Undos’ to OFF. This
Transform to make life easier. will cause Procreate to remember every
Transform action you take.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Basic manipulation 171

Section 2

This section will explain the power of the distort and shear tools.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Advanced manipulation 172

 Distort
Procreate’s impressive distort feature makes three-dimensional scenes a piece of cake.

Engage Distort by tapping and holding your finger over any corner transform node. A notification will let you know that Distort has been
activated and you can begin to distort the object.The artwork here is a great example of using distort to create a perfect three dimensional
scene. Paint your textures as if you were looking at them from front on or top down and once you’re finished painting, distort it into place to
get a perfect perspective in a fraction of the time it would take to paint it manually.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Advanced manipulation 173

 Shear
Shearing is like tilting or tipping an object. It can be handy for creating depth or slight angles.

In the image to the left, we might wish to shear the café benches a little more. To shear an object while in Transform mode, tap and hold a middle
Blue Node until the notification appears. To restrict the Shear’s movement to a single axis, turn Magnetics on.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Advanced manipulation 174

 Nudge
Nudge your object slightly in any
direction by tapping outside the
bounding box.

Tap outside your object to move your object left,

right, up or down in tiny increments.

The nudge distance will be affected by zoom level,

so the closer you are to your painting, the smaller
the nudge will be.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Advanced manipulation 175

 Zoom/pan shortcut
While transforming it is possible to move your view around without committing your changes.

Hold the Transform button and zoom/pinch to adjust your view. Let go of the Transform button to go back to transforming your object.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Transform: Advanced manipulation 176

Freehand selection
Section 1

Use Procreate’s powerful freehand selection tool to isolate elements of

your artwork for further refinements.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Making a basic selection 178

Selections mode ON

Enabling Selection mode

As soon as you tap the Selections
icon Selection mode becomes active
and the icon glows blue.

When you touch the canvas you won't be painting

any more, you'll be outlining your selection.

You’ll notice the sidebar has several disabled

selection modifiers. These become available as you
start to draw your selection.

When you're finished using your selection, tap the

Selection icon and you'll notice it turn grey to
indicate the selection is now off. You can now paint
on the canvas as normal.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Making a basic selection 179

 A major step forward
Procreate's remarkable selection tool allows you to create fluid freehand selections and polygon
selections at the same time. All while still being able to zoom, pan and rotate your canvas.

Freehand Polygon
Drag your finger around on the canvas Tap your finger on the canvas where you
just like you were drawing. Don’t be would like to place a corner node. As
afraid to lift your finger off, you can you tap around, you will see the dashed lines
continue by placing it down again. complete a straight line from your last point.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Making a basic selection 180

Drawing a selection
Procreate allows you to make
selections while still being able Selection
starting
to zoom, pan, and rotate your point
canvas.

The Selection tool is specifically built for

multitouch. Simply draw or tap around the
area you wish to select. You can use
Procreate’s navigation gestures at any
time to zoom in for greater precision or to
pan to select areas that are currently
offscreen.

Pro tip:
You can combine the use of freehand and
polygon style to create unique shapes.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Making a basic selection 181

Masked area Painting area

Closing a selection
There are several ways to close your
selection to give you various amounts
of control, which depend on what
your next step might be.

When you apply your selection you will see it turn

into a mask, indicated by moving diagonal lines.

To apply your selection do one of the following:

Tap the starting point

Draws a straight line from your last point to the
blue node. Now you can select Paint, or modify
your selection further.

Tap the Paint icon

Apply the selection and choose brush you were
using last—all in one quick step.

Tap the Plus/Minus icon

Apply the selection and keep Selection mode
active for further modifications (see next section for
more details).

Tap Transform tool

Isolate and transform the contents of the selection.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Making a basic selection 182

 Masked area

About masks
If you’re unfamiliar with masks and
how they work, here’s a basic
explanation to quickly get you on
your way.

Procreate masks work just the same way as you

would mask your house if you were painting the
walls. You put masking tape over the parts you
don’t want to get paint on and then paint the
parts that aren’t covered by the mask.

In Procreate, the “masking tape” is shown by the

diagonal lines across your painting. These are the
safe areas that won’t be affected.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Making a basic selection 183

 Painting with a mask
With an active mask you can protect the important parts of your artwork.

When you have made your selection and are ready to get back to your artwork, tap the Paint, Smudge or Erase tools. You’ll now
notice that both the Selections icon and the Paint/Smudge/Erase icon is highlighted. This lets you know that you’re ready to paint
inside your new mask.

Selections mode ON Paint ON

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Making a basic selection 184

Section 2

Once you're familiar with the basics of Procreate's freehand

Selection tool, check out this section to give you even more control
over your artwork.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Advanced selections 185

 Add to your selection
You can add extra shapes to your selection by using the Add icon on the side toolbar.

Each time you tap Add, the area inside the dashed line will be added to the current selection. The results of the Add Selection action are
indicated in the example above.

New selection Newly added painting area

Tap to add to selection

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Advanced selections 186

 Subtract from your selection
You can cut away shapes from your selection by using the Subtract icon on the side toolbar.

Each time you tap Subtract the area inside dashed line will subtract from the current selection. If they are overlapping it will appear to cut a
chunk out of your selection. In the example above, you can see the result of the Subtract Selection action indicated by the blue line (for
example purposes only).

No blue line indicating the diff

New selection Newly subtracted masked area

Tap to Subtract from selection

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Advanced selections 187

 Clear

Clear a selection
While in Selection mode, tap the × icon on the bottom toolbar to clear your current selection.

If you have a mask (diagonal lines on canvas) beneath a non-committed selection (dashed outline), tapping Clear will remove
the non-committed selection first. Tapping Clear again will clear the mask leaving you with no selection.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Advanced selections 188

 Undo

Undo a mistake
You can also use the Undo and Redo buttons to go back many steps
to fix up a selection if necessary.

When using the Selection tool in a polygon fashion each undo will go back one tap.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Advanced selections 189

 Invert

Invert
At any time you can invert a selection by tapping the invert icon on the side toolbar.

You will notice that the diagonal lines displaying your masked area will swap from inside to outside, or vice versa,
to indicate which area is now protected.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Advanced selections 190

 Reloading a mask
You can reload your last used selection with a tap and hold on the Selection icon.

Reloading your last used selection will also activate Selection mode. From here you can add or subtract from your selection if you wish.

Hold to reload mask Notification

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Advanced selections 191

 Tap to select only painted pixels

Use any existing layer’s pixel data to

make a selection.

By using the Select Layer Contents feature from

the Layer Details menu, you will select any painted
pixels from that layer. Procreate then activates
Selection mode giving you the same options as any
other selection.

Using Select Layer Contents will reference

transparency on the current layer, which can be
great for feathering effects.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Advanced selections 192

Tucked away in Actions >
Prefs, you will find a setting
to adjust the Selection
mask visibility.

Adjusting the slider will change the Customize

Selection mask
strength of the Selection mask
pattern so you can get it just the way
you like it. For the best results, adjust
it while the Selection mask is active.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Freehand selection: Advanced selections 193

Actions
Section 1

Learn how to import artwork or images into Procreate.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Importing images 195

Import image
Import an image from your
Photos app, iTunes, or a Place an image on
your canvas
connected cloud service.

Pro tip:
You can use an image to trace, or just
as a reference. You can also try saving
assets you always use to Photos and
reusing them to save you drawing
them all the time!
Pro tip:
If you have an iPad Air 2 or iPad Pro,
you can use iOS 9 multitasking to
show a reference image from another
app in split view, without the need to
use up a layer.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Importing images 196

Import from iTunes Import from a
To access a file from your cloud service
Procreate iTunes folder, you’ll Procreate can pull an image
need to add them manually from any connected cloud
through the iTunes interface. service. If you don’t see your
cloud service here, check that
you have the latest version of
their app installed. If you’re still
having difficulties contact
support for that service.

Import from Photos

The first time you use this option your iPad will ask for access to your Photos
library. Once you allow it you’ll see a feed from your camera roll.

Once you select the image you can move and scale it however you like.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Importing images 197

External source

Take a photo
Take a photo and drop it straight onto your canvas.
Not always
available
Paste from Clipboard
Paste an image from your iPad’s clipboard. This
can be a layer from any Procreate artwork or even
another app! If this is option is disabled, or not
pasting the up-to-date content, the requested
clipboard data is not supported by Procreate.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Importing images 198

Section 2

Flip your canvas for proportion checking, copy

merged artwork, and check canvas metadata.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Canvas actions 199

 Early Access

Create 1, 2, or 3 point
perspective grids that are unique
for each document you create
them on.

Read more about the Perspective Guide on

page 234.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Canvas actions 200

 Flip orientations
Many artists love to reverse their
artwork to check their
proportions. It’s a great way to
get a different perspective on
your art!

To flip your canvas select the Flip

horizontally or Flip vertically options. Your
canvas will flip instantly.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Canvas actions 201

A handy feature that will grab your
whole canvas and take a snapshot
to the clipboard.

Copying your canvas to the clipboard will capture Copy entire canvas
to clipboard
all layers just as you see them. If a layer is turned
off it will not be captured.

Once the canvas is copied you can paste it into

the current artwork, another one in the gallery, or
even another app that accepts images.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Canvas actions 202

Replays your process of creating
your artwork right on the canvas
itself.

While the video is playing, you can scrub

backwards and forwards by dragging your finger
Re-watch your
across the canvas. creative process

You can pinch zoom and move the canvas as

normal, while the video is playing, allowing you to
change your viewpoint at any time.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Canvas actions 203

You can turn video recording on or
off at any time, on a per-document
basis, by flipping the Video
Enabled switch.

While video is disabled, no video will be recorded

to disk. You’ll be asked if you wish to purge
existing video. If you choose purge all existing
video will be deleted.
Recording
preference
Pro tip:
If you’d just like to “pause” recording while you
make a few touch-ups, don’t choose to purge.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Canvas actions 204

View the dimensions, file size, and
video size of your artwork.

Canvas dimensions
This can be handy for finding out the size of an
imported artwork after you made it, or when you
import a picture as a new canvas. All canvas
dimensions are in pixels.

File size
The canvas file size will increase with larger
dimensions and more layers. This information can be
helpful should you need to clear space on your iPad.

Recorded video
Artwork Detail
This is an estimate of the video size of you creating
your artwork in Procreate. For any artwork done
prior to version 1.9 there will be no video data.

Tracked Time
This shows how much time you’ve spent working
on this canvas.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Canvas actions 205

Section 3

Share directly to AirDrop, AirPrint, and any app or service that

provides a document extension.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Sharing artwork 206

 Procreate features several file formats with varying
features suiting different purposes.

Procreate Photoshop JPEG PNG

The native format used for A standard PSD that will A “lossy” format that will PNG will flatten your artwork
storing all artwork data export layers, layer names, flatten your artwork into a and retain full quality (we call
inside the app. If using opacity, visibility and blend single layer. JPEG format is this “lossless”). While slightly
the .procreate format, all modes exactly as per your great for quickly sharing an larger in file size, PNG will
layer information will be Procreate doc. image as the file size is also save any transparency
kept intact. smaller than other formats. you have in your artwork.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Sharing artwork 207

 Procreate uses the iOS Sharing system so you can share directly to AirDrop, AirPrint,
and any app or service that provides a document extension.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Sharing artwork 208

 Open more locations

The ’Send to’ button provides access

to any connected cloud services.

This interface defaults to iCloud Drive. Tap the

Locations button to switch to a different cloud
service, and tap ‘More’ to turn other services on. If
you don’t see the cloud service you want, make
sure you have the latest version of that app
installed.

iCloud Drive

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Sharing artwork 209

iTunes Choose the Apps tab

Exporting to iTunes is great for

speedy transfers and backups to
your Mac or PC.

Supported filetypes
PNG, JPG, Procreate and PSD.

After you’ve shared your artwork to iTunes,

head over to your computer.

• Plug your device in using your cable and

open iTunes. Once your device is detected
select it on the left pane.

• With your device selected, choose the Apps

heading along the top and scroll down.

• You should see a list of apps inside a box.

Select Procreate and drag the artwork out of
iTunes or use the buttons to save the
artwork to your computer.
You can import a canvas back to Procreate by
dropping it back into this folder and using the
Create > Import > iTunes feature.
Select Procreate View exported files

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Sharing artwork 210

 Export your video recording
While you create your artwork Procreate is always recording in glorious, 1080p high definition!*

Seeing how someone creates a masterpiece can be just as interesting as the finished product. It’s great for learning new
techniques, too! Procreate can export your video to Photos, Mail, iTunes or any connected cloud service. The video will be
automatically sped up too, to keep it interesting. By exporting to Photos you can use the built-in sharing features of iOS, making
it even easier to share with friends!

Pro tip:
Why not add some music to your video before you share it? There are some great video editing
apps for iPad that can help you edit, re-time and add music to your video.
* Canvas resolution must be a minimum of 1080 pixels high.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Sharing artwork 211

Section 4

Find information on how to sync and work with smart stylii

supported by Procreate.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Connecting devices 212

Choose your stylus
If you have no stylus selected
you’ll see a list of the
supported device families.

Selecting your stylus will enable the SDK Select stylus

(Software Development Kit) that makes
your stylus work with Procreate.

Procreate will scan for your device and if

you’ve turned it on, once found, the panel
will update to reveal a host of options.

At any time you can turn off the SDK and

return to finger painting by tapping the
name of your stylus.

Pro tip:
Apple Pencil on iPad Pro doesn’t need to
be connected, so there’s no need to use the
Devices panel!

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Connecting devices 213

Stylus information
When you connect your smart stylus
you will see a new panel listing
several options and readouts.

Customize your buttons

Choose a function to assign to your button(s) for
quick and easy access. Think about what features
you use the most and see if they are there!

Stylus readouts
The stylus can send Procreate a small amount of
information. Once your stylus is connected, this will
update with the relevant information.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Connecting devices 214

How Procreate works with smart
stylus pressure
When you have a smart stylus
connected, Procreate will dynamically
alter the opacity and/or thickness of a
Stylus behaviour
brush to simulate real life.

For instance, changing the Opacity Pressure slider to

Max will strongly affect the opacity strength as you
apply pressure.

Likewise with Size Pressure, setting it to Max will

strongly affect how large the brush gets according to
the pressure you apply.

Softness Pressure controls the attack of the pressure

input; larger values mean a more gradual application
of pressure.

Pro tip:
If you wish to have your 3rd-party stylus operate like
a ‘dumb’ stylus (i.e. turn off pressure sensitivity), all
you have to do is go to Actions > Devices > None.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Connecting devices 215

How Procreate works with
Apple Pencil tilt
With Apple Pencil, you can let the tilt
control your opacity and size.

The Opacity Tilt increases the opacity of the stroke

when the Apple Pencil is perpendicular to the screen.
The bigger the value, the more opaque the stroke will
be when Apple Pencil is upright.

Size Tilt changes the size in a similar way.

Stylus behaviour
Pro tip:
Tilt is only available on the Apple Pencil.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Connecting devices 216

Section 5

This is where you will find ways to customize the

interface to better suit your workflow. You can change
the toolbars from right to left, make them autohide, and
play with the delay of the Eyedropper.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Preferences 217

 Toggle Light or Charcoal interfaces (more on page X)

Quick pinch fits the canvas inside the interface

Canvas remembers your manual canvas rotation

Show an outline of your brush while painting

Locate the sidebar on the left or right

Use the square color picker with HSB sliders

Interface hides at set duration

Eyedropper activates at set duration

Adjust how obvious the selection mask is

Adjust the overall application pressure response (page 219)

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Preferences 218

Pressure curve
How your stylus should respond to
pressure input can be a very personal
thing. The customisable Pressure
curve allows you to set the feel to
your precise preference.

Tap to create points

Make up to 11 points, and drag them around the
screen to change the curve. Drag points out of the
box to remove them.

Reset
You can go back to the default flat input curve at
any time by tapping the Reset button.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Preferences 219

 Pressure curve explained
Customize exactly how your stylus will react to pressure

The huge dynamic range of Apple Pencil means that you need to press quite hard to reach maximum opacity. While you can
configure pressure behaviour per brush, Pressure Curve allows you to modify the overall sensitivity to suit your drawing style.

Maximum value

Liner ramp

Minimum value

Light pressure Strong pressure

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Preferences 220

 Pressure curve examples
There are many different approaches to pressure input. Try a few to find your preferred fit. Here
are just a few of the more common examples.

Linear Aggressive Subtle

This is the default setting. Procreate Quickly ramp up the pressure towards Pressure adds much more slowly, but
will read your pressure exactly as it’s maximum as you press. Great for folks ramps up as you press really hard.
delivered by Apple Pencil. who have a delicate touch. Suited to people who like to press hard
on the screen.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Preferences 221

 The unobtrusive charcoal interface keeps the focus on your artwork while the
Light interface is great for higher contrast in bright environments.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Preferences 222

Section 6

Adjust advanced Procreate settings in your iPad’s

Settings app; including Palm Support, video quality,
and rotation lock.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Application settings 223

 Toggle the services Procreate has permission to access, such as your Photos
app or Microphone

Toggle the ability to rotate your canvas or selection with the pinch gesture

Select your Palm Support level. Palm Support is Disabled by default

When you have an Apple Pencil, you can set the default behaviours of both the Pencil
and your finger

Determines the distance a stroke must travel before Speed is reported as 100%. If you
find that brushes with speed-based settings are too sudden or too sluggish for you, try
changing this setting.

Enable or disable video recording on new canvases

Restore the default artworks from this version of Procreate

Toggle simplified undos for advanced modes

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Application settings 224

 Apple Pencil Preferences
When using Apple Pencil, you can configure what tool is used for both Pencil
and your finger.

Apple Pencil Mode Finger Mode

Selected Tool Gestures Only

Apple Pencil uses the currently selected tool: Paint, Your fingers never paint, smudge or erase, but can
Smudge or Erase. invoke any gesture, like pinch navigation,
eyedropper, etc.

Paint Only
Apple Pencil always uses the Paint tool. Selected Tool
Your finger uses the currently selected tool, as well
as being able to operate all gestures as normal.
Smudge Only
Apple Pencil always uses the Smudge tool.
Paint Only
Your finger always uses the Paint tool, as well as
Erase Only
being able to operate all gestures as normal.
Apple Pencil always uses the Erase tool.

Smudge Only
Your finger always uses the Smudge tool, as well
as being able to operate all gestures as normal.

Erase Only
Your finger always uses the Erase tool, as well as
being able to operate all gestures as normal.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Application settings 225

 Palm support levels
Simply rest your palm on the canvas while you paint. Palm Support works with
your finger, any regular capacitive stylus, and some compatible smart styli.

Standard Fine Off

This mode is designed to work well This mode is designed for people with No solution works for all people all
for most people. It detects a larger smaller hands. The size at which the time. If you find you’re having
size as a palm, ensuring users with Procreate starts detecting a palm is trouble with Palm Support, or the
larger hands can use gestures smaller, ensuring smaller hands still feature isn’t useful to you, simply
without interruption. work well. switch it off.

If you’re having trouble performing If Procreate isn’t fully rejecting your Palm Support is off by default. To
gestures with Palm Support, switch palm, switch to this mode. turn it on, switch to either of the
to this mode. other two modes.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Application settings 226

 Recording quality
Procreate records every stroke, without interruption. Choose the correct
quality setting for the work you do.

Normal High Studio

This setting produces the smallest file This setting produces a balanced quality This produces the highest-quality
size. Use this if you’re concerned and file size, and is the best choice if video and the largest file size. Use this
about file size or storage space but you want to share video frequently. setting for professional video
still want to use the video option. distribution or making video tutorials.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Application settings 227

Section 7

A few useful links that you might find handy down the track.
Revisit What’s New in the current version of Procreate, visit
our forum community, or get some help from the Procreate
Support page.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Finding help 228

 Follow this link

What’s new?
Revisit the new features from the last
major version.

With each major version we’ll release a little

introduction to the new features. If you forget what
we added, or chose to skip it when you first
launched, you can revisit it here.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Finding help 229

Procreate Handbook
Should you ever need to re-download
this Handbook, tap the Customer
support button to go to the download
Follow this link
link.

For those countries for which we are unable to

offer the Handbook through the iBooks Store, we
have offered a download link from our own site
(including a flattened PDF).

The only downside to these external links is they

will not automatically receive updates.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Finding help 230

Community
Procreate has an amazing community
that is growing at an incredible rate.
Jump in and say hi!

Whether you need help, want a tutorial, or like to

post your artwork, the Procreate Forums
Community boards are the place to go.

Gallery
Once you have an artwork you’re proud of why not
post it to the Gallery for everyone to see? You can
also check out what everyone else is doing.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Finding help 231

Support
Communication is vital to us making Procreate a better product and we love
hearing from you.

Tapping Support will launch your web browser and take you to the Support page. Here you can access the
FAQ, artist tutorials, or visit the Procreate forum boards. The forums are the best place to report bugs or
request features.

Search is your friend

Before submitting a new bug report or idea, check whether someone has already reported it. It may even
already be answered, in which case you save everyone some time!

Thanks
Conversely, let us know if you’re enjoying using Procreate. We have a Thanks board where you can leave us a
quick thanks and let us know what you’re loving about Procreate.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Finding help 232

Tutorials
You can never learn too much about
something! The Procreate
community is home to a growing
number of tutorials and tips—from
the Savage team and pro artists—to
help you discover new techniques.

You will find the Tutorials Board in the

Community section of the Procreate Forums.
Tapping the Artist Tutorials button on the Support
Page will take you straight here.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Actions: Finding help 233

Perspective guides
Section 1

Procreate offers exciting tools to add perfect perspective to your

art. Once unlocked you can quickly and accurately sketch
remarkable lifelike scenes or technical drawings. Grab them now
for a once off In-App Purchase, or wait until they're free in the
next major Procreate release.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Early Access 235

 Tap to open the Early Access description

Unlocking
The Canvas panel contains
the Perspective Guide Early
Access button. Tap the blue
“Early Access” text to get
more information about
Early Access, and to unlock
the feature.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Early Access 236

 Early Access
When you tap the Early Access button, you’ll learn how it works, what it provides and the
cost in your local currency. You can exit from this screen at any time by tapping the Close
button in the top lefthand corner, or tap Learn More to continue.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Early Access 237

 Perspective Guide
Perspective guides are the first tool available under the new Early Access feature.
You can buy Early Access to the Perspective Guide by tapping the Access button. If you’ve previously purchased
Early Access for Procreate 3, you can restore that purchase on a new or wiped iPad by tapping the Restore
Purchases button. Tap Close at any time to exit.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Early Access 238

Section 2

Learn how to enable the guide, enter editing mode, and add
perspective vanishing points.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Perspective guide basics 239

 Toggle perspective guide visibility

Tap to edit

Create some perspective

Enable Perspective guide on your
artwork by flipping the
Perspective Guide toggle switch.

Edit the guide by tapping Edit

perspective guide.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Perspective guide basics 240

 Editing mode
Perspective Guide mode will zoom out to give you an overview of your canvas.
Adjust the guideline width and opacity with the bottom sliders. Use Done and Cancel to keep or discard changes.
Both return you to the same zoom and rotation that you were in before you entered the mode.

Return to editing
Commit edits
the canvas

Grid line width Grid Opacity level

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Perspective guide basics 241

 Creating vanishing points
Simply tap anywhere to add a new vanishing point. Drag it around to position it, at any time.
The horizon line is drawn either parallel to your canvas orientation (for 1 point perspective), or intersecting the first
two points you create.

Vanishing point

Horizon line

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Perspective guide basics 242

Section 3

Create a Perspective Guide by adding vanishing points and

Procreate will figure out the maths for you. Add guides to any layer
so you can flip effortlessly between guided and freehand painting.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: 1, 2, or 3 point perspective 243

 Single point perspective
One Point Perspective, also called Parallel Perspective, is the simplest form of perspective because all objects
are parallel to you, the artist. Vertical lines are parallel and horizontal lines are parallel to the horizon line.

Horizon line

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: 1, 2, or 3 point perspective 244

 Two point perspective
Two point perspective uses two points placed on the horizon line. Sometimes referred as Angular Perspective, a
two point perspective is used when shapes are being viewed diagonally, or turned at an angle.

Vanishing point two

Vanishing point one

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: 1, 2, or 3 point perspective 245

 Three point perspective
A three-point perspective can create a very convincing three-dimensional drawing. Two vanishing points are
along the horizon, just like two-point, but the third vanishing point is located above or below the horizon.

Vanishing point
indicator

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: 1, 2, or 3 point perspective 246

 Removing vanishing points
Tap on a point again to show the Delete menu. Tap Delete to remove the point.

Tap to delete

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: 1, 2, or 3 point perspective 247

Section 4

Create technically accurate drawings while Procreate does the

heavy lifting. Activate Perspective Guide Assist to have strokes line
up with your guide like magic. Now anyone can sketch like a pro.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Perspective Assisted drawing 248

 Perspective assist
You can toggle Perspective Assist on or off on any layer from the options menu.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Perspective Assisted drawing 249

 Draw like a pro
Every time you draw a stroke with any of the tools on a Perspective Assisted layer, the stroke will automatically
head towards (or away from) the appropriate vanishing point.

Pro tip: You’re not constrained to the guidelines! They’re just there to help you out. You can draw using assist whether
you’re near a line or not.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Perspective Assisted drawing 250

 Break out your work
Any layer that doesn’t have Perspective Assist enabled works like an ordinary layer.
Try making shape outlines with a Perspective Assist layer, and then doing your
shading work in another layer entirely.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Perspective guides: Perspective Assisted drawing 251

Reference
Section 1

Artists all over the world are creating astonishing artwork using
Procreate. This section is a quick reference to credit artists’
work which appears in this handbook.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Reference: Artwork credits 253

Artwork credits
The following Procreate art has been used in this User Guide.
Our thanks goes to these talented artists for their work:

Elemental Armour Rainbow Feather

by Stephane Bourez by Goro Fujita
http://iconosquare.com/zebra_penthouse http://chapter-56.blogspot.com.au

Rain Down Landscape

by Nikolai Lockertsen by Andrey Malikh
http://www.lockertsen.net https://www.behance.net/barindoma

Storage Elemental Armour

by Nikolai Lockertsen by Stephane Bourez
http://www.lockertsen.net http://iconosquare.com/zebra_penthouse

Procreate Artists' Handbook Reference: Artwork credits 254

Artwork credits (continued)

Untitled Artwork Good vs Evil

by Nancy Wood by Patipat Asavasena (aka Asuka111)
https://www.behance.net/nancywoodart http://www.asuka111art.com

Rainbow Hair Gas Giant

by Patipat Asavasena (aka Asuka111) by Stephane Bourez
http://www.asuka111art.com http://iconosquare.com/zebra_penthouse

Expecting...Halloween
Polybird
by Laurent Canniccioni
by James Cuda
http://www.jakolanterne.com

Procreate Artists' Handbook Reference: Artwork credits 255

Artwork credits (continued)

Self Portrait Factory

by Roz Hall by Nikolai Lockertsen
http://www.rozhall.com http://www.lockertsen.net

Office fruit Morning Commute

by James Cuda by Goro Fujita
http://chapter-56.blogspot.com.au

Diner Wrong Turn

by Nikolai Lockertsen by Jonathan Gesinski
http://www.lockertsen.net http://doodles.co

Procreate Artists' Handbook Reference: Artwork credits 256

Section 2

A quick section shining some light on us, Savage Interactive,

our Community Forums, and the obligatory legal mumbo
jumbo we need to disclose just in case.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Reference: Light reading 257

 Savage Interactive, or Si for short (Si as in Sci-Fi) is a
team of 7 developers based in Hobart, Australia,
dedicated to creating high performance creative tools
for creative people.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Reference: Light reading 258

Procreate Community
Even we’re learning cool tricks from
Procreate artists, so make sure you
jump on the Procreate Forums!

We’re really lucky to have a great community of

talented and passionate artists and even luckier
that they dedicate their time to helping others.

The Procreate Forums are all about sharing

knowledge, ideas and helping others take their
artwork to the next level.

Perhaps you have some of the following you could

share with others:

• Brushes
• Reusable artwork resources
• Tips and tricks
• Advice or critique
The forums aren’t just limited to talk about
Procreate either—talk about whatever you like!
We’d love to see you in there.

Procreate Artists' Handbook Reference: Light reading 259

Blend mode description referenced from http://photoblogstop.com/photoshop/photoshop-blend-modes-explained. iPad is a registered trade mark
of Apple Inc, registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple, Inc. Adobe and Photoshop are registered
trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Procreate is a trademark of
Savage Interactive Pty Ltd. I’m Ron Burgundy?

Procreate Artists' Handbook Reference: Light reading 260