Intro to Procreate: Illustrating on the iPad
Brooke Glaser · Illustrator
A working artist's real Procreate workflow, taught tool by tool, gesture by gesture.
What you will learn
- Setting canvas DPI, colour profile, and layer limits correctly for print vs screen work
- Using split screen and private photo layers to trace references without exposing it in a timelapse
- Building, resizing, and saving custom colour palettes including camera and photo-based palettes
- Tuning brush pressure, tilt, stabilization, and motion filtering for cleaner strokes
- Using colour dynamics (hue, saturation, brightness shifts by pressure or stroke) for shading and variety
Standout ideas
- Insert a private photo instead of a regular photo so a traced reference never shows up in an exported timelapse
- Set a brush's opacity to erase with the same brush texture it was drawn with, so eraser marks blend naturally instead of leaving a flat gap
- Create a custom reset point on a duplicated brush so temporary setting changes (like color dynamics) can be reverted without redoing the whole brush
Best for: Beginner iPad artists who already own Procreate and want a thorough, feature-by-feature tour of its interface before starting their own illustrations.
This class is a dense, hands-on walkthrough of Procreate's interface from a working illustrator, covering canvas setup, references, colour, brushes, and layers with specific settings rather than surface-level tips. It is thorough to the point of being reference material more than a narrative lesson, so it rewards pausing and following along on an iPad rather than passive watching. Best suited to someone who already has the app open and wants to build real fluency, not someone looking for a quick conceptual overview.