10 Easy Procreate Tips to Speed Up Your Art

Procreate is a tool that has made a name for itself among artists as potent drawing software for the iPad. This program packs a vast array of tools, settings, and filters that you can use to make high-quality artwork that rivals even heavy hitters like Adobe.

In this tutorial, we're talking all about Procreate, including:

• How to draw perfect lines and shapes.
• How to utilize gesture controls and other useful tools.
• How to use filters and drawing guides.
• So much more!

By the end of this tutorial, you'll have all the tips to start Procreate for the first time or to build on your existing skills. Of course, we recommend reading the official Procreate handbook for detailed software guidance. We know it's not the most exciting part of using a new program, but you should at least know how to access it.

So with that out of the way, let's get into it!

Watch Our Procreate tips tutorial Video

This week, our exploration of Procreate will be using the following RetroSupply Co. products:

• DupliTone halftone brushes for authentic vintage shading.
• ColorLab Comic Color Kit for classic comic-style coloring effects.
• Inferno Ink Brush Pack for gritty vintage inking.
• The Complete Mid-Century Collection for one-stop vintage paint effects.

You don't have to use these brushes to follow along. All you need is an iPad with Procreate installed. However, having premium tools for recreating a particular style of artwork is recommended.

Along with this tutorial we have a host of other Procreate articles to help you get the most out of Procreate. Our comprehensive Ultimate Procreate Brush Guide will answer all your burning brush questions.

The examples we're using in the guide include a paper texture. It won't be the end of the world if you don't have a paper texture too, but it will help your work look more authentic. If you've never used paper textures before you can get a leg up with our guide to adding realistic paper textures in Procreate.

01. Draw perfect shapes with Quickshape

Use smart shapes to create perfect circles, triangles, rectangles, and lines.

Nothing is more humbling to an artist than drawing a circle. Procreate has a unique tool to make perfect circles, squares, triangles, and lines—introducing the Shape Tool!

Using this feature couldn't be easier. Simply draw your shape and keep your Apple Pencil on the screen. After a second, the shape snaps into a mathematically perfect version of itself.

Holding a finger to the screen while your Pencil tip is still touching will turn rectangles into squares, ovals into circles, and triangles into equilateral triangles. This trick will also snap straight lines to 15º increments, making the technique perfect for buildings, vehicles, isometric drawings, and more.

02. Maximize the potential of layers

Clipping masks allow you to draw within shapes cleanly and non-destructively.

There are many ways to use layers within Procreate, and you might not take advantage of them as you should. Here are some powerful layer techniques to make better, cleaner artwork.

• Alpha Lock: Only the pixels already drawn on a layer are editable. Use this to change colors quickly using the Fill function (more on that later), to paint only within the boundaries of shape, to add texture, and more. However, this is a destructive method, meaning that all changes impact the layer itself. If you want to achieve this same effect non-destructively, you'll want the following process.
• Clipping Masks: Similar to Alpha Lock, Clipping Masks will only show what is already drawn on the layer to which it is clipped. The difference is that these effects are isolated on a separate layer, which means you can make as many changes as you want without impacting the reference. You can even layer Clipping Masks, separating each effect for further control.
• Layer Masks: Work similarly to physical masks in that they obscure or reveal parts of your layer. Use black to conceal or hide part of a layer and white to reveal or show part of a layer. You can even use shades of grey to achieve different levels of opacity.

There might be instances where you use all three together in one piece of art, so get familiar with them early. You'll be surprised by their usefulness and the millions of unique effects that can be achieved with each one.

03. Save time with Gesture Controls

Take advantage of Procreate's many gesture controls to improve your workflow.

Because Procreate is an iPad application, it comes equipped with a myriad of gesture-based controls you can use to improve your workflow. To familiarize yourself with the gesture controls and fine-tune them to your liking, go to the Prefs option within the Settings menu (indicated by a wrench), then Gesture Controls.

Although there are many gesture controls, here is a short list of the ones we use most often.

• Undo and Redo: Procreate remembers every action you take, so if you mess up or want to try something different, you can scrub backward and forward through your process. Just remember that if you undo and then make a new mark or action, it will overwrite everything, so always make a backup if you're playing around with an idea.
• Copy and Paste: Like in similar software, you can quickly cut, copy, and paste anything into your canvas.
• Quick Menu: A handy tool that saves up to six actions at a time. You can keep your most used actions in one place without having to menu dive or set them up like Photoshop Actions to achieve a specific effect. We like to keep all the brushes we used in a project on Quick Menus so they never get lost or forgotten.

As we mentioned, this is a very short list of everything you can do in Procreate with gestures. Take time to learn them, and you'll fly through your work quickly.

04. A secret copy machine: the clone tool

The Clone Tool quickly copies elements of your design to save you time.

Nestled within Procreate's filters (located in the top menu and represented as a magic wand) is a little-used feature that can save you lots of time: the Clone Tool.

As the name suggests, the Clone Tool will allow you to copy elements of your artwork elsewhere. Cloning saves enormous amounts of time if you need lots of a particular object or are retouching something.

Zooming in and out of the canvas will lessen or increase the area to be copied, giving you lots of control over minute details.

05. Melt Reality with the Liquify Tool

The Liquify Tool is handy for manipulating parts of your desgin quickly.

Also located within the Filter menu, the Liquify Tool might not seem very useful at first glance, but it's capable of quite a lot.

Use the Liquify Tool to quickly manipulate areas of your artwork without having to redraw everything. It can be set to a high strength to make psychedelic patterns, or you can keep its strength low to push things into shape gently.

Perhaps the most helpful way to use the Liquify Tool is at the beginning of your illustration. During the sketch phase, use the Liquify Tool to push around your sketch to make characters more anatomically correct or to improve the overall composition.

06. Reference easily with the reference Tool

The Reference Tool is a handy way to refer to source images when drawing.

Drawing from references gets a bad rap for no reason. The greatest artists of all time often used references when creating their famous works. So don't be ashamed to use Procreate's Reference Tool as often as possible.

The Reference Window has three handy functions:

• Canvas: Reference your whole canvas so you can get zoomed in and have a bird's eye view simultaneously. Great for seeing how small changes affect the overall composition.
• Image: Pull up any photo from your Photos app to reference while drawing. Great for nailing the anatomy or structure of things you don't draw often.
• Face: You will probably use this setting the least, but it helps get facial expressions right. Use it as a mirror to mimic how you want your characters to look, just like the famous animators used to do.

Clever use of the Reference Tool is paramount in making the best work possible.

07. Color Drop: The Right Way to Fill

Quickly fill areas with color with Color Drop Fills.

Save your hand from coloring in every little detail by using Procreate's Color Drop Fill tools. As the name suggests, this feature lets you quickly drop color onto your canvas. You can even adjust your fill's threshold to ensure you get every nook and cranny.

When using Color Drop Fills, you must ensure that a shape is fully closed. Sometimes, certain brushes will cause trouble even if you're sure you closed the shape correctly. Adjust the fill threshold, and you'll be just fine.

08. Cheat at drawing with Drawing Guides

Drawing guides such as the Symmetry Tool allow you to whip up desgins quickly.

Inside the Settings menu, you'll find a series of Drawing Guides that you can enable to access a few helpful tools.

• 2D Grid: Just as it sounds, this tool places a grid across your canvas. Helpful for drawing flat shapes or organizing a composition.
• Isometric: Similar to a 2D Grid, the Isometric drawing guide places a grid along your canvas using an isometric perspective.
• Perspective: You can create 1-point, 2-point, and 3-point perspective grids for simple or complex perspective drawing.
• Symmetry: Allows you to create mirror images of whatever you draw. The Symmetry Tool provides options for vertical, horizontal, quadrant, and radial symmetry.

You'll unlikely use all of them in one illustration, but get familiar with them to know how to use them when needed.

09. Show Off with Timelapse Replay

Share your progress by exporting a time-lapse to share on social media.

As we mentioned earlier, Procreate keeps tabs on everything you do. If you have Time-lapse Replay enabled, then you can watch back every stroke and effect played out in a time-lapse.

Time-lapse replays are great to share on social media because they demonstrate your technique and boost engagement with your followers. Everyone loves to see how artists work, and now you can show them without any extra work!

10. Grab Colors From Photos

Borrow colors from photographs or other artwork quickly and easily.

We know that color can be challenging for even the most accomplished artists. That's why Procreate has a tool to help keep the headache out of coloring.

Import colors from photos or reference artwork by selecting New from Photos from Procreate's color palette menu. Once you've chosen an image, Procreate will automatically sample colors from within it, and you'll have a brand new palette in seconds!

This is just one way to access color, though, and eventually you're going to want to learn how to make palettes of your own. For help with that, we recommend this comprehensive guide to understanding color theory from the Interaction Design Foundation.

Final Thoughts

Learning a new program can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. Take your time reviewing each tip in this article until you become familiar with the tools and features. By the time you finish reading the article and watching the video, you'll be able to make something confidently.

Don't forget that this is not the full breadth of what Procreate offers, however. When you're ready to level up even more, check out our other article on Procreate tips.

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