Home Tutorials How to Make Simple Mid-Century Illustrations

How to Make Simple Mid-Century Illustrations

Master Mid-Century Illustration

Have you been wanting to do more Mid-Century style illustration work but you're not sure where to start? This tutorial from Brad Woodard of Brave the Woods will show you how to make a simple Mid-Century camp illustration using Procreate in a few simple steps.

Can't Watch the Video Right Now? Here's What's Covered

Step 1: Solid Shapes

After sketching out your design, filling in solid shapes helps give you a feel of whether you need to alter your composition. Use a minimal color palette (two or three colors should do) and focus on emphasizing line and texture.

Step 2: Line Work

Once your solid shapes are filled in, add detail to your work with line art. Try choosing a brush with texture to add visual interest.

TIP 💡 : When adding your lines, stick with one brush for the majority of the piece. Competing textures can overwhelm your eye and over complicate the simplicity of a Mid-Century design.

Step 3: Texture

Many artists during the Mid-Century were limited in the amount of colors they could print with as the more colors a print contained the more expensive it was. To keep things cheap, artists made smart use of textures. You can use textures in your work to make shapes more interesting and to imply depth when elements of a design art stacked.

TIP 💡 : You can use clipping masks for adding texture to your shapes if you would like to work non-destructively (e.g. make changes that do not permanently alter your design.)

RetroSupply Co. The Complete Mid-Century Procreate Brush Bundle

Mid-Century Mastery

Capture the look of mid-century illustrations with The Complete Mid-Century Procreate Brush Bundle. It includes the core brushes used in this classic style as well as dry brushes, liner brushes, texture brushes, and more.

Grab it today

Did you enjoy this tutorial? Here are some others you may like:

Comments will be approved before showing up.

Also in Tutorials

How to Create a Retro T-Shirt Illustration: Featuring Travis Price

Learn the process of creating a retro t-shirt illustration, from initial sketches all the way through to preparing the final artwork files for screen printing from illustrator Travis Price.

7 Procreate Tips & Tricks You May Not Know About

Whether you’re already familiar with Procreate or opening it for the first time, we’ll be looking at our top 7 features and gestures to help you move around the Procreate interface like a pro!

Setting the Right Tone

The history of halftone printing in design, illustration, and art. This article covers the earliest uses of halftones in wood engraving and metal engraving and finally to etched metal photo plates used in commercial printing in the 19th and 20th centuries.