Procreate User Guide
Procreate User Guide
This chapter introduces you to Procreate and the key features that make it the only choice for serious artists.
Welcome to Procreate
Welcome to Procreate
Size
Opacity
Pull-away feature
Try holding the slider and pulling away horizontally. The further you are away from the graphic of the slider, the smaller the increments will change. Allowing minuscule changes to brush attributes. This pull-away feature works in all sliders in Procreate. Pro tip In the settings (via Canvas view) you can swap which side the precision sliders and undo/redo appear on. Great for lefties!
Welcome to Procreate
Overview of Procreate
Version 1.6 brings over 60 new powerful features tailored for professional artists all packed into a beautiful interface; everything you need to create your next masterpiece. Transform your iPad into the ultimate mobile illustration studio. What youll learn
In this guide you will nd a basic walkthrough of the Procreate application for iPad. Youll quickly pick up how to: Create, duplicate email and export a canvas. Paint and customise every facet of your brush. Create your very own brush from any image you want. Simulate real paint with the loading and wetness settings. Use the smudge tool to blend colours effortlessly. Control brush results with the precision sliders. Manipulate the way colour is displayed via layer blends. Erase mistakes and make use of the undo/redo system. Layer artwork, isolate and merge elements. Use other handy tools such as flip canvas, transform and import from Photos. Export PSD & PNG files.
Welcome to Procreate
Inside this chapter you learn about creating, moving and editing artwork. Also, learn how to create gallery stacks to group your artwork and stay organised.
Gallery
Renaming
Artwork
Tap title
Tap the title inside the artworks thumbnail to bring up the keyboard. Hit Done or dismiss the keyboard to save the title. Until you edit an artworks title it will be called Untitled Artwork.
Stacks
When you create a stack it will be automatically be called Untitled Stack. You can edit the name of the stack by tapping on the text in the thumbnail (just like editing the title of a singular artwork). To read more on stacks, see page 11.
Gallery
Share
Duplicate
Delete
Edit mode
Tap the Edit button to access several more advanced options. Selecting any thumbnail will put a blue outline around it and enable the following options: Share
Show your masterpieces to friends or export it to your desktop to keep on working! See page 50 for more details on sharing.
Duplicate
When you get serious with a piece of work you may want to save a version in case something goes wrong. Select your artwork and hit the duplicate button to clone your art.
Delete
When youre nished with a canvas, throw it away by selecting it and tapping the trash can. Be careful, deleting artwork is permanent.
Gallery
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Moving artwork
Keep your art your way with easy drag and dropping of artwork. Single items
You can drag and drop one item at a time at any point in the Gallery view. Just tap and hold until the thumbnail lifts out of the Gallery. Just let go to drop it where you want.
Multiple items
Head into Edit mode and select multiple items by tapping them. A blue border will surround the items to indicate they are selected. Drag and drop these items to the desired location to complete the move. You can also make a stack out of multiple items by dropping on top of another thumbnail. See next page for more info.
Gallery
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Gallery stacks
The world of an artist can be pretty messy. To help keep things organised, Procreate lets you group your artwork in stacks. Creating a stack
A stack can be recognised by several thumbnails on top of each other. To create a stack drop a thumbnail on top of another. When the lower thumbnail enlarges, its ready to make the stack. From here, you can name the stack just like any other thumbnail by tapping the title.
Stack
Gallery
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Shortcuts are a important part of every artists repertoire. Learn how Procreate uses iPads multi-touch display to keep maximum productivity.
Gestures
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Undo an action
Procreate comes with 100 undo states, to make painting a little less stressful. Just swipe with 3 fingers from right to left to go back one step at a time.
Gestures
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Redo an action
To go forward a step when you have perhaps undone too many steps, swipe from left to right with 3 fingers.
Gestures
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Clear layer
Instantly clear your layer by using a Zmotion anywhere on the canvas. This can be very handy when youre speed painting or sketching concepts.
Gestures
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Zoom in/out
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.
Gestures
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Rotate Canvas
By simply rotating your fingers whilst you pinch the screen you can change the angle of your canvas. This is great for getting the perfect angle on those difficult strokes.
Gestures
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Fit to screen
To instantly fit the canvas to screen, quickly pinch inwards. For best results, try lifting your fingers off the screen as your pinch finishes.
Gestures
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Gestures
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Straighten canvas
This gesture will only disregard the canvas rotation, returning it to its initial orientation. i.e. aligned with the iPad.
Gestures
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Procreates revolutionary brush system introduces the most creative brushes available on a mobile device. Learn the ins-and-outs to get the most out of the Pro Tools and begin creating your own.
Brush shape
Game-changing brushes
Youll notice that the brushes just feel different in Procreate. Thats because weve made them different.
We decided it was time to move forward from the 1980s and really put some power into our brushes system. We do this by splitting our brushes into 2 core elements; Shape and Grain. By treating them separately youll nd you can achieve some incredible results. Anything from realistic brushes, to imaginative, out-there textures are all possible with the advanced brush behaviours in Procreate. For more info on shapes and grains see page 31, later in this chapter. We have also made a detailed explanation on brushes in our Tutorials section of our website.
Brush grain
Resulting stroke
Brushes
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Brush sets
Brushes
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Complete control
Procreate features a groundbreaking drawing engine called Silica, This allows unparalleled control over every one of your brushes. Tweaking your brush
While viewing the brush library, double tap (or single tap if its already selected) to enter the Advanced Brush settings dialogue. You will notice six selectors that contain the characteristics of your brush. Use the sliders in each tab to change the behaviour of your selected brush. Once you are happy with your brush, tap outside the popover to start drawing. To save you the time of having to create a brush multiple times, Procreate uses one library between the paint, smudge and eraser tools. This means a brush that is created in paint, will also be available in smudge and erase (and vice versa). Pro tip In the Advanced Brush Settings popover there is an info button. Tapping this will explain how each slider will affect your brush. Some settings are best understood by playing with them! For more info, see the Pro Guide: How Brushes Work on the Si website.
Brushes
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Wetness
Adding wetness to your Procreate brush gives the same effect as in real-life. It will make the paint appear to be watered down and paint will shift around as your brush drags across it. Think of it as a on-the-y smudge tool. Keep in mind, wetness will not work if you have 100% loading as the paint needs to run out to give the watery effect.
Brushes
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Brushes
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Brushes
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Swipe-to-action
If you swipe across a brush you will be presented with 2 options, depending on what kind of brush you have selected. Pro Tools (i.e. that are built by Si) can either be reset to the default settings or duplicated. Pro Tools cannot be deleted. User-Created Tools can either be duplicated or deleted. Pro tip
Swipe to reveal
Duplicate an awesome brush and make changes to it. That way you have a good base to start from and you wont lose your original brush!
Brushes
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Only user-created brushes, or duplicated Pro Tools can be renamed. To edit the name of your custom brush, go to the General tab inside the Advanced Brush Settings popover and tap in the name field to bring up the keyboard.
Double tap to show options
Brush sets
If you tap on a brush group that is already selected you will get an option to rename it or delete it. If it is not already selected a double tap will bring up the options.
Brushes
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Custom brushes
As a first for digital painting on the iPad, you can now create your very own brushes. And its easy! Create your own brush
Tapping the + icon in the top right of the Brushes popover will flip over and highlight the Source selector in Advanced Brush settings. The two empty squares indicate the foundations of a Procreate brush; Shape and Grain. Shape The brush shape is a container that houses the grain. Whatever your grain is, it will t inside the shape just like a stencil. 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 or your own Photos camera roll. The images found in the Pro Library are those used by the Pro tools. Once you have entered both Shape and Grain youll notice the remaining selectors along the bottom will light up, allowing you to start editing your brushs behaviour. If you dont enter both Shape and Grain the incomplete brush will be automatically deleted.
Pro tips: Pure black will be 100% transparent, while 100% white will be solid. Anywhere in between will be semi-transparent. Remember, 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 any old photo into grain and shape, tweak a few sliders and see what happens! For more info, see the Pro Guide: How Brushes Work on the Si website.
Brushes
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The most delicious and fastest smudge tool in an illustration app. So good, it needs to be seen to be believed.
Smudge
Smudging Colours
Procreate uses 64-bits per pixel, giving you the smoothest, most accurate colour-blending on a mobile platform. Smudge tool
Select the smudge icon and tap it again to bring up the brush pane. Once you have selected your smudging brush, tap outside the pane to close it. Pro tip: Remember that Smudge uses the same library as Paint. Try using a scratchy, textured brush to smudge with a rougher effect.
Smudge
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Different strengths
While using the smudge tool try playing with varying levels of opacity as it works slightly different to paint. Higher strengths
By using smudge at full pressure, colour will really be pushed around, like wet paint. It will mess up colours very quickly and quite often give harsh drag lines as you smear the paint.
Lower strengths
If you use smudge at low pressure, it will behave like you are smudging a pencil with your nger; not all colour will be pulled away and the trails will be much more gentle. This is particularly useful for creating very smooth gradients. Pro tip: Use a combination of strengths for a polished result. Try smudging at higher strength to quickly get the blend started and use lower strengths to refine and smooth the effect.
Smudge
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For absolute control when cleaning up art, you can use the same brushes library for erase as painting and smudge. Repairing artwork has never been easier.
Eraser
Fixing mistakes
Slip-ups happen to the best of us. Luckily, Procreate has a few great features to help you correct errors. 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 your brush.
Undo
Redo
Erase
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Thanks to the Silica engine, Procreate allows a deep 48-bit colour range. This chapter explains the HSB sliders and how to save your favourite colours.
Eyedropper
Current Colour
New colour
Colour selection
Choosing colours
To keep things familiar to desktop users and give absolute control over colour selection, Procreate comes with an extra-large colour picker and Hue, Saturation & Brightness (HSB) colour sliders.
Colour picker
Tap on the colour box icon in the top right, to open the colour pane. Choose your colour using the HSB sliders. Once youre happy with the colour, tap off the pane to close it.
Hue
Pro tip The eyedropper has a shortcut! Simply hold your finger still on the canvas and a magnifying glass will appear. Lift your finger to select the colour last displayed. If you use the shortcut while erase or smudge is selected, it will automatically switch back to paint for you to save time!
Saturation
Brightness
Colours
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Colours
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Eyedropper shortcut
Stay focused on your canvas with the quick eyedropper shortcut.
You can quickly chose a colour from your canvas without going into the colour popover. Tap and hold anywhere on the canvas and let go to select the colour shown in the loupe. By default you need to hold for 0.40 seconds before the eyedropper activates. If you nd this too short, head to the Actions popover > Settings tab to change the delay. See page 52 for more info on the Actions popover.
Eyedropper loupe
Colours
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Layers are a necessary tool for professional artists. Learn about merging layers, blend modes, modifiers and the powerful alpha lock.
Delete Layer
New layer
Building up artwork
Procreate allows you to use up to 16 layers at any one time which eliminates merging before youre ready. Overview of layers
Selected layer
Layers are a very handy to isolate elements of your artwork or try something new without destroying whats underneath.
Moving layers
To change the order of the layers, hold the layer handle and drag up of down. Release to set the new order.
Layer visibility
Alpha lock (page 44)
Turn a layers visibility on or off by tapping the eye icon. If a layer is hidden, the thumbnail will go semi-transparent and it cannot be drawn on. Pro tip: Try sketching a concept and turn the opacity of that layer down. Then, refine it on a new layer above.
Layer visibility
Layer opacity
Layers
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Blending layers
Users familiar with desktop painting will be at home with Procreates blend modes. Layer blend modes
There are several blend modes available in Procreate: Normal Like drawing on plain paper with no effects. Multiply Makes dark pixels darker and lighter pixels transparent. Screen The opposite to multiply mode, it will make dark pixels more transparent. Add Creates awesome effects that look like blooming lights or image burn. Lighten Very close to screen mode except with Lighten, the threshold will be stronger. Exclusion Can produce different lter-like effects depending on the colour used. Try making your top layer navy blue, set to exclusion and lower the opacity.
Current mode
Layers
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Alpha lock
Procreate comes with the ability to lock a layers transparency (or alpha). This feature means once your edges are right, you will never have to do them again.
Pro tip:
If you lock a layers alpha you can fill it with a solid colour by tapping Fill in the layer modifiers.
Layers
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Merging Layers
Tap and hold a selected layers thumbnail to merge a layer up or down. Keep in mind that the top layer will only be presented with merge down, while the bottom layer will only be able to merge up. Merging layers will apply any blending mode to the pixels below and will also disregard any alpha lock.
Merge options
When you reach 16 layers, you will need to start merging if you wish to create another layer. Pro tip: When trying different ideas on your precious art, use a separate layer until youre sure youre happy with the result. Then, merge the layers and keep painting!
Layers
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Layer modiers
When you tap on a selected layers thumbnail, youll be presented with several options that will affect that layer only. Youll be able to: Transform Scale, rotate & move layer. (see next page for more) Duplicate Duplicates the current layer. Clear Erase all art on current layer leaving an empty layer. Fill Cover current layer with your currently selected colour. Fill will cover all art on the current layer. Pro tip: Use duplicate as a way of making changes to a layer while having a backup. You can even erase parts of a layer and chose a blending mode to accentuate areas or give extra contrast.
Layer modiers
Layers
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ip horizontally
Transforming layers
By tapping a selected layers thumbnail you will be greeted with 4 options. Choose transform to close the layers popover and go back to a modied canvas view. While in transform mode, you can not paint. To get back to paint mode, accept or cancel the transform. The following gestures work while in transform mode:
ip vertically
rotate 45 clockwise
One finger drag to move layer around. Two finger pinch to increase or decrease layer. Two finger turn to rotate layer. Along with these gestures you have some handy shortcut icons on the side. These include ip horizontally and vertically, and rotate by 45 increments for precision transforming.
rotate 45 anti-clockwise
Layers
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Inside the actions popover youll find several options that affect your canvas. You can insert photos, share artwork, tweak your interface and read more on Procreate.
Canvas actions
Insert photo
Import an image from your Camera Roll. You might want to use it to trace, or just as a reference. Once you select the image you can transform it to whatever size you like.
Take photo
If your iPad is equipped with a camera, you will be able to take a photo and put it straight onto the canvas!
Actions
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Send to iTunes
iTunes you can receive a attened JPEG or PNG with alpha. Or when youre serious about your art, you can send a layered PSD (native Adobe Photoshop le), To make use of the les, head to iTunes and select your device in the left pane. Choose the Apps tab up the top, and scroll down to File Sharing, with a list of apps. Select Procreate and you should see your les.
Send to Photos
Send a attened JPEG or PNG with alpha to your camera roll. If your image looks strange it might be because you forgot to turn your background layer on before exporting!
Actions
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More info
Gestures Guide
It is a great idea to learn these gestures, as it can make your Procreate experience even faster. Tapping this button will launch Safari and go to The Gestures tutorial on the Si website.
User Guide
A quick link to the guide you are reading now, should you ever delete it from your iBooks app. Tapping this button will take you to the download link.
Actions
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Eyedropper delay
Use the slider to set the delay before the eyedropper shortcut activates. Sliding all the way to the left will turn the shortcut OFF. By default, this setting is 0.40 seconds.
Right-aligned sliders
Change which side the precision sliders are placed. By default this setting is ON. Turning it OFF will place the sliders on the left.
Actions
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This section credits the awesome artists whose work we used in this guide. It also has a few resource links, a Si biography and the obligatory legal jargon.
Artwork credits
The following Procreate fan art has been used in this User Guide:
Reference
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Reference
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More info
Tutorials and Resources
To help you realise the full potential of Procreate, we have prepared a few gems of wisdom. Besides Googling Procreate, visit savage.si/resources-and-guides page for more. The internet is a wealth of resources! The artistic community is huge and fortunately, love to share and help each other. Besides the fore-mentioned resources we have, try searching Procreate iPad in a search engine or YouTube. We also have a Flickr group that you can submit your artwork to. While youre there, why not get some inspiration! Go to: ickr.com/groups/procreate
Reference
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About Si
Savage Interactive (aka Si) is based in Hobart, Australia. All four of us set our bar pretty high when it comes to our work and appreciate the same attention to detail in other peoples work. Outside of software development, we indulge in the dark arts of video games.
Reference
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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. Procreate 1.6 User Guide Reference 59