Getting to Know the App
Procreate is a digital illustration app built for iPad, designed to feel close to traditional drawing while packing in studio grade power. It’s fast, portable, and uncluttered making it the go to choice for professionals and beginners alike. Whether you’re sketching thumbnails, painting rich character art, or designing slick logos, Procreate delivers without weighing you down with distractions.
The tools you’ll use most include the Brush Library (massive and customizable), Layers (like Photoshop, but smoother), and the Color Panel. Expect to spend time with brushes like ‘Studio Pen’ for lines, ‘Soft Brush’ for shading, and dozens more made for every art style. The pressure sensitive Apple Pencil integration adds nuance, especially with brush opacity and line weight. You also get quick access to essential features like the Eraser, Smudge, and Selection tools, all mapped to intuitive tap and drag gestures.
Navigating the workspace is surprisingly simple. The screen isn’t packed with panels just a clean canvas, slim toolbar, and a few expandable menus. Procreate is built so you can focus on your art, not fumble through settings. Use two finger taps to undo, three fingers to redo, and quick gestures like pinching to zoom or rotating the canvas to attack your drawing from any angle. It all adds up to an interface that stays out of your way and helps you stay in the zone.
Customizing Your Workflow
Before you dive into drawing, spend a little time getting your workspace in order. Setting up your canvas and brushes the right way saves time and frustration later on. Start with resolution and size: if you’re aiming for print, go no lower than 300 DPI. For web or practice sketches, 150 DPI with fewer layers may be more than enough. Create canvas presets for the formats you use most so you don’t have to recalibrate every time.
Brushes can be a rabbit hole, but they don’t have to be. Instead of hoarding megapacks, build a few small brush sets tailored to your personal workflow think one for sketching, one for ink/line work, and one for texture or color. Label them clearly so you’re not wasting time hunting around. If you find yourself using five favorite brushes 90% of the time, put them all in one quick access set.
Don’t skip gesture shortcuts. These are muscle memory gold. Swiping with two fingers to undo, pressing and holding to color drop, pinching with four fingers to clear the layer it’s all designed to keep your hands on your screen and your flow uninterrupted. Spend a few minutes learning gestures up front, and you’ll feel the speed boost every time you draw.
Drawing Fundamentals inside Procreate
Layer management in Procreate can make or break your workflow. Beginners often stack layers chaotically and then wonder why nothing makes sense. Smart layer management means naming your layers, grouping related ones, and understanding the hierarchy that affects how things show up on the canvas. Keep it tight and intentional. If your layers panel looks like a laundry pile, you’re doing it wrong.
Now, onto the real power tools: masks, alpha lock, and clipping masks. Alpha lock is your go to for staying inside the lines once you activate it on a layer, anything you paint only affects already existing pixels. Good for shading without messing up your outlines. Clipping masks tie a new layer to one below it, like a filter that follows contours. Great for texture work or details without altering the base layer. Layer masks are more flexible they hide or reveal parts of a layer without deleting anything. Pro move: use them before erasing, so you don’t lose work you might want back.
Finally, color tools. Start with the ColorDrop tool for flat fills drag and release from the color circle. Understand the power of the Color Harmony menu it shows complementary and analogous color suggestions so you don’t need a design degree. Use the eyedropper constantly by holding a finger to the canvas to sample colors and stay consistent. Three core things here: pick, apply, adjust.
Once you get the hang of these tools, your digital art will feel less like guesswork and more like intentional design.
Pro Tips That Save You Hours
Let’s be honest clean shapes by hand take forever. Procreate’s QuickShape tool fixes that with basically zero effort. Draw any rough shape circle, square, triangle and hold it for a second. Procreate snaps it into a perfect shape instantly. Even better, touch the screen with another finger while holding to lock it into exact proportions (hello, perfect circles).
Reference images are another underrated time saver. Turn them on through the Actions menu under Canvas > Reference. You’ll get a floating window that lets you trace visuals or match colors without bouncing between tabs or devices. And symmetry? It’s your best friend for balance. Go to Actions > Drawing Guide > Edit Drawing Guide, then turn on Symmetry. You can sketch one half of a face or a mandala and the app auto mirrors it clean and fast.
Mess up a line? Don’t panic. Two finger tap to undo. Three finger tap to redo. But if you’re deep in a project and want to backtrack further, open the canvas history through Actions > Canvas > History. You can scroll back through dozens of moves no need to smash undo a hundred times.
These tools don’t just save you minutes they save your momentum. Learn one, use it daily, and watch how much faster your process gets.
(Explore more in depth strategies with our Procreate beginner tips)
Exporting and Sharing Like a Pro
When you’re ready to take your art out of Procreate, file format matters. For high quality prints, export as a TIFF or high res PNG to preserve clarity and color especially if you’re sending your work to a professional printer. Web? Stick to PNG or JPEG for easy uploads and smaller file sizes. Just keep an eye on resolution. Anything below 300 DPI won’t cut it for print.
If you’re working with team members or plan to keep editing later, export a layered PSD. It keeps everything intact layers, masks, adjustments all ready in Photoshop or similar software. Procreate also makes exporting time lapses pretty seamless. Just go to “Actions > Video > Export Time lapse” and choose full length or a 30 second clip.
And don’t sleep on file organization. Create a labeling system that actually helps: name your canvases clearly (date, version, client or piece name). Keep related projects grouped in stacks. Trust me, three months from now your future self will thank you.
Pro level work doesn’t just look good it’s also easy to hand off, revisit, or publish anywhere without a headache.
Next Steps to Keep Growing
Once you’re comfortable with the basics, don’t just repeat the same sketch every day. Push into new territory. Try prompts like “draw the same object in three moods,” or “redesign a famous logo in your style.” These challenges aren’t just about skill they teach you how to think visually and make decisions fast.
Set mini projects with a clear focus. For example: create a set of four food illustrations for a fictional café menu, or design characters for a short webcomic scene. These exercises teach you how to follow through, make stylistic choices, and deal with small creative constraints just like real commissions do.
As you level up, your style won’t magically appear it’ll reveal itself through repetition and tweaks. Use Procreate’s tools to speed up the process: build your own brush set based on what feels natural, duplicate successful layer setups, and keep a ‘best of’ folder to study your own progress.
More importantly, compare your work only to your own yesterday not someone else’s portfolio. If you need structure or new techniques, check out this in depth guide on Procreate beginner tips.
