Free Procreate Tutorials For Artists: The Complete Collection
For many illustrators and concept artists, Procreate is the go-to program to create mind-blowing art.
Procreate is actually a simple app you can get for your iPad and there’s even a version for the iPhone. Although you really need an iPad and Apple pencil to use it to its full potential.
Overall most digital artists find the program easy to use and relatively affordable compared to other painting programs.
Procreate stands out because it’s made to mimic the experience of drawing with analog materials, but with the added bonus of instant copy, cut, and paste functions, and also instant erasure so you can redo something fast (no pencil smudges here!)
As with any digital art program there’s a learning curve. But many artists find Procreate intuitive to use and easy to learn.
Whether you’re just getting started with Procreate or have been dabbling for a while, here are some of the best free tutorials we’ve found for becoming a Procreate expert.
Beginner Tutorials
These videos introduce some of Procreate’s basic features and simple techniques for using them.
Beginners, this is for you.
Intermediate and advanced Procreate artists, you might still pick up a new trick or two!
Procreate Tutorial for Beginners
If you’re brand new to Procreate and need a tour this simple ten minute video is the perfect place to start.
In just a few minutes’ time you’ll learn everything you need to know to create simple digital art.
You’ll get to know the navigation of Procreate, try out some of the basic tools and brushes, learn how to set up layers, select colors, and play with your line thickness.
You’ll also learn to manipulate line quality with selections in Procreate and applying pressure to the Apple pencil.
You’ll also find out how to adjust opacity, transparency, and value, which is super important when you start getting into inking, shading, and highlighting your drawings.
Procreate’s 10 Best Features
If you’re a Procreate newbie you’ve probably heard great things about the software already.
But you might not know exactly what you can do beyond the bare-bones basics.
This video walks you through some useful features of Procreate, some of which are pretty basic, but others might be less well-known.
You’ll learn how to speed up the coloring process with the paint bucket tool, how to create perfectly smooth gradients with brushes, how to easily draw straight lines, and how to set up a perspective grid.
Even experienced Procreate artists might learn some new shortcuts!
Sketching, Inking and Coloring
Here’s another great tutorial for getting started with Procreate including the best tools for learning to sketch, ink, and color.
This is awesome if you’re new to digital drawing in general because it shows how intuitive Procreate can be.
Your new digital tools don’t have to be an obstacle.
By learning a few simple techniques and trying out the basic functions you can expect a relatively painless transition to digital.
You’ll get the hang of it in no time and enjoy how fast you can work with technology on your side.
Making Art with Procreate
This is a great intro if you’re nervous to get started!
Watch step-by-step how to create a piece of art in Procreate from start to finish.
You’ll begin by setting up the canvas, or drawing file, and selecting different tools and brushes.
Simple stuff right?
Sometimes it helps to just watch someone work with a new tool while they explain what they’re doing. (Note: this is part one of a two part series)
Drawing With Masks
Here we get to use real life materials to explain what a layer mask is and how to get the same effect in Procreate.
You’ll use layers to create masks and experiment with them to add shadows, textures, and highlights.
Masks can save you a lot of time, especially as you get further into your piece towards the final details.
You won’t have to worry about coloring outside the lines or cleaning up any outside-the-lines coloring. And you’ll be able to make changes later without having to redo half your drawing.
Digitally Coloring Sketches
This is a deep dive into coloring your digital sketches so it’s a must-watch.
The artist starts with a pencil sketch made with an actual pencil, then photographs the sketch and adds color digitally.
It’s super easy to do this because when you’re using Procreate you can just photograph your sketch with the iPad. No scanning necessary!
Along the way the artist walks you through some time-saving tips to color very quickly, much faster than if you were using actual paint or colored pencils.
You’ll learn how to select your base colors, pick out brushes, change the brush size and quality, and how to adjust hues in your layers to play with different colors. You’ll also pick up some tips for making your drawings pop off the screen.
Creating a New Brush
Procreate has plenty of brushes but this video shows you how to create a brand new brush in case you can’t quite find what you need.
It’s cool that you can even do that, right?
Procreate actually encourages you to make your own brushes, so this is simple, easy, and fun to do. They also provide a lot of resources to help you along.
You can create a custom brush by pulling in other files from iTunes, photos, or Cloud storage, and then customize a grain quality and a shape of your brush.
You can even control how the brush is applied to the drawing canvas.
After you’ve made your own brush you’ll learn how to use it.
Once you start creating brushes you’ll probably spend a lot of time making them!
How To Import Swatches
One of the nice things about Procreate is that you can import different files for brushes and colors to streamline your creative process.
Instead of picking each new color individually, you can simply import color swatch files to work with a premade color scheme.
This is really handy if you want to use a color scheme inspired by an image you find online.
So this video walks you through the process from start to finish and opens you up to a whole new world of textures and colors in your drawings.
Create Clean Lineart
Dive in here to create a crisp, clean line drawing in Procreate.
Your base drawing is an important guide to help with proportions and forms in your piece, but most of the time, you don’t want those lines to show through.
When using pen and paper you’d normally just use an eraser to get rid of those lines. But that gets messy!
Drawing digitally eliminates that mess and allows you to still use a base drawing and create a crisp line drawing in the end.
You’ll start by creating a typical “messy” base sketch to set up guidelines and the underlying structure. Then you’ll adjust opacity and create a new layer to add lines on top before eliminating the original messy template.
Blending Colors
Here’s an in-depth guide to blending colors in Procreate.
By watching this artist draw and color a realistic pair of lips, you’ll learn to use layers so that you’re only blending the colors you want to blend instead of wrecking parts of your piece that need to stay crisp.
You’ve probably experienced this with actual paint. It’s a pain! Not waiting for paint to dry is one of the major benefits of digital painting.
You can use any brush you like to get all kinds of different textures when you’re blending. It’s actually pretty intuitive.
Gradients & Shadows
Gradients and shadows make your drawings feel much more lifelike.
Here’s how to create them in Procreate using just the right brushes.
The Procreate app already includes tons of different brushes and textures, and you can also upload your own.
It’s a lot of fun to use gradients underneath lettering, mandalas, and other simple line designs.
Lettering For Beginners
To switch gears a tad, this is a beginning tutorial for lettering in Procreate.
The app doesn’t actually have a text or type function, so it’s best to treat lettering like any other drawing by creating a basic underlying sketch and then cleaning it up later.
However there are some features that make lettering easier than just freehanding it.
You’ll start by selecting the appropriate brushes for your lettering style and playing with the settings to get the quality of line you’re looking for.
This demo will introduce you to tools that help you draw straight lines and precise angles if you’re going for very straight text.
You can also work with grids to keep your letters even.
Thankfully you can also duplicate letters if you want your font to be uniform.
If you aren’t afraid to experiment you can actually do a lot with text in Procreate. Give it a try sometime if you’re a calligraphy buff(or wannabee!)
Intermediate & Advanced Tuts
Isometric Drawing
Moving into more complex terrain this introduction to Procreate’s isometric grid feature is fantastic.
This simply lays an adjustable grid made up of triangles over your canvas.
It is a bit more intense than a typical grid made of squares because not only does it help you draw straight lines and perfect right angles, it helps you do that with perspective in mind.
These grids can be a huge help when you’re drawing a lot of geometric forms like cubes (think houses, buildings, cityscapes, etc.)
The artist shows how to set up the grid and use it to sketch cubic forms before adding shadows and highlights.
He also demonstrates tricks like duplicating elements, which is a huge timesaver you definitely don’t get with regular paper and pencil.
To sum up: if you have any interest in drawing buildings or city streets in Procreate then you want to learn about this isometric grid feature.
Advanced Comic Coloring
Once you’ve gotten the hang of basic drawing and coloring in Procreate you’re ready to move onto more complex coloring techniques.
You’ll start with your trusty paint bucket tool here, then add highlights, shadows, and textures with your brushes like you normally would.
But the heart of this tutorial is learning to do this without messing up your layers. This makes it so much easier to go back and change things down the road.
The artist also shows you some new tricks you can add to your arsenal for creating gradients and lighting that really jumps off the page.
Paint a Snowy Landscape
Most of these videos focus on painting a character, but here’s a great tutorial for landscape painting in Procreate.
After all, if you’re going to create concept art, your environment is just as important as your characters.
Much like painting with actual paint and brushes, you’ll paint this landscape Bob Ross style without a base sketch.
The artist demonstrates the use of different brushes to build up the background before adding trees in the foreground.
He then hones in on the details to create a stunning, lifelike snowscape.
This is great practice for selecting colors and brush sizes, and also a nice challenge if you’re used to drawing characters rather than environments.
Remember, a strong artist should have skills with almost every subject.
Alpha Lock To Paint Shadows
This video teaches a handy trick for speeding up the coloring process even more.
A lot of artists really like this technique because it allows for messy brushwork without going outside the boundaries of the shape, which means there’s no need to erase a bunch of stuff later.
Another great thing about alpha lock is that it makes it easy to paint a background behind your foreground. You can even do this in layers to create perfect shadows, stunning textures, and smooth gradients with ease.
How To Use Layer Masks
This tutorial shows you a different way to create layer masks in Procreate, similar to what you’d do in Adobe Photoshop.
The artist shares tips for doing this quickly, even with complicated and detailed shapes.
This is handy because it speeds up the coloring process and keeps the colors exactly where you want them. It also helps you keep layers organized which, you’ll learn down the road, is crucial if you decide to make changes at any point.
Setting up layer masks takes a little time upfront but making adjustments later on will be so much simpler.
Using the Symmetry Feature
One of the best parts of Procreate (and digital drawing in general) is that you can duplicate elements perfectly and paste them into another area of your drawing.
Sure this is great for lettering and drawing multiples of something, but you can also do this in real time as you’re drawing those forms.
The symmetry feature allows you to duplicate a piece of your sketch on another area of the canvas, either as a perfect copy or a mirrored image.
You can even play with the number of quadrants and types of symmetry such as vertical, horizontal, rotational, and even radial. This makes it super easy to create symmetrical designs like mandalas.
It’s one of the more obscure features but it’s definitely worth playing with.
Perspective Assist Guide
Perspective is one of the toughest drawing skills to master, but Procreate makes it easier.
This video teaches you how to use grids and the perspective guide to draw with perfect perspective, whether you’re going for one point, two point, or radial perspective.
One of the best (and often, most challenging) features of this guide is that when you draw a line with the guide on, the line automatically snaps into the grid so that the perspective is perfect.
Straight lines go right where they need to be.
This feature is incredibly helpful for setting up guidelines in your base sketch or for drawing geometric forms with straight lines.
It’s kind of a finicky feature but super handy when you learn to work with it.
Lava Texture
It’s time to put all your new skills to work!
This artist demonstrates how to paint a textured sphere, specifically a glowy lava ball. Because who doesn’t want to paint lava?
The most impressive part is that this texture is all hand-painted. The artist doesn’t “cheat” by applying a ready-made texture.
This project is great practice for coloring, shading, highlighting, and pencil skills. Basically the ultimate challenge for any skill level.
Painting a Galaxy Scene
Here’s another fun project to help apply your newfound Procreate skills.
For this galaxy scene you’ll practice selecting colors, using brushes, creating layers, applying textures, duplicating elements, and even freehanding some natural-looking stars and a swirling galaxy.
You won’t believe how simple it is to create a realistic, professional-looking render of a galaxy with these tools and techniques.
Flat Colors
A common color technique in digital painting(and actual painting, come to think of it) is to lay in flat colors before you start adding shading and highlights.
One of the fastest ways to do this in Procreate is to use the paint bucket tool.
This video demonstrates how to do that with a complex image. You’ll also learn some tricks for layering colors, adding background colors, and using colors efficiently without having to create a bunch of new shapes on top of your layers.
And all this while keeping your layers organized so you can easily make changes later.
The Hunter
This artist shows you the process of painting a highly detailed character from start to finish.
He starts with the base drawing before moving onto inking, adding flat colors, shading, and then drawing in tiny details and creating a background.
One of the best ways to learn new skills, concepts, and programs is to watch other artists at work. So enjoy this demo and take notes of things you might like to try on your own.
How To Paint Over Line Art
Most pieces start with a line drawing.
But sometimes when you’re creating a digital painting, you don’t want to apply colors to the top of a drawing and cover up your lines. At least not until you’re done.
You might also like the look of those hard outlines and sketchy marks on your piece, which is a cool illustrative style that many artists prefer.
Or maybe you’re coloring something with a lot of drawn texture that you don’t want to lose yet.
That’s the case in this video where the artist demonstrates a technique for coloring under a line drawing so he doesn’t lose track of the wrinkles on his creature.
The artist colors by starting with flat colors and adding shadows, highlights, and gradients, but he adds all of this underneath the line drawing.
It’s also interesting to note that he doesn’t use the paint bucket tool, but instead colors the creature using only brushes.
Whatever your reason for wanting to keep your lines this is a handy technique and a good exercise in managing layers.
Robot and Landscape Process
Here’s another brilliant step-by-step demo of a robot character and landscape illustration.
You’ll get to watch the entire process from the initial idea and development sketches to a fully rendered piece.
It also shows off another cool feature of Procreate: you can record your process and play it back as a video. Neat, huh?
10 Tricks You May Not Know About
In this video you’ll learn about some lesser-known Procreate tricks for drawing straight lines, dragging and dropping elements, streamlining your lines(super helpful for lettering), merging layers, and how to quickly copy and paste to add dimension to lines and lettering.
And that’s just a few of the tricks this demonstrates.
Better check it out to get a fuller sense of what’s covered!
5 Fast Procreate Hacks
So here are even tricks for creating faster stuff.
The video covers touch commands and shortcuts so you don’t have to open the menus every time you want to make a change. All it takes is a touch of your finger or the good ol’ Procreate three finger swipe.
Once these tricks become second nature you’ll be flying!
Drawing Comics (Start To Finish)
If you’re a comic book artist then don’t miss this!
Here the artist demonstrates the entire process of creating a comic strip in Procreate.
From setting up panels and base sketches, all the way to inking, coloring, shading, and lettering.
You’ll learn how to hand draw your lettering and use guidelines to keep everything even and you’ll also pick up lots of creative tips for drawing comics in general.
The artist has a fun style that includes using layer washes and marker-like textures to color his illustrations.
He also shows off some sneaky tips for drawing straight lines so the panels are nice and neat, and even how to move your lines so you can adjust your panels.
Some of this will be practice in things you already know, but this tutorial gets extra points for demonstrating a lot of neat Procreate tips that other tutorials miss.
Massive Portrait Tutorial
Finally enjoy this incredibly lengthy tutorial on drawing a realistic portrait in Procreate.
You’ll get to watch the entire process from the initial freehand sketch to the application of each color, shadow, and highlight.
The artist explains every tool and adjustment she uses along the way.
Buckle up and pack a lunch because this is a long one, but it’s worth a watch to see what Procreate is actually capable of.
You’ll learn so much about coloring skin and eyes, shading, texturing, and portraiture in general.
It’s really the ultimate test of digital portrait skills so when you feel confident in your Procreate workflow give this a try. You’ll be amazed how much you take away.
Author: McKella Sawyer
McKella is an artist and freelance writer from Salt Lake City, Utah. When she isn't painting or writing for clients she loves to write fiction, travel, and explore the mountains near her home either on foot, horseback, or a mountain bike. You can view her art on Etsy and her writing services at TheCafeWordsmith.com.
