Procreate Gestures Cheatsheet — Brooke Glaser

Procreate Gesture Cheat sheet: 16 Handy Tips

Quick note: This cheat sheet was made to accompany my popular Intro to Procreate class. Discover ALL the hidden tools and gestures Procreate has to offer, with this fun, comprehensive class!

Tip 1: Rapid Undo and Redo

You probably already know you can undo with a two finger tap. But did you know, if you hold those two fingers down, it will continue to undo moves until you lift your fingers up? Same with three fingers for redo.

Bonus Tip: You can customize how you need to hold your fingers down before rapid undo and redo starts. Go to the Wrench Icon > Preferences > Rapid Undo Delay.

Tip 2: Full Screen Quick Pinch

Wanna see your art full screen, real quick? Pinch two fingers together to make the canvas fit the whole screen! Even better, when you snap two fingers outward, it’ll return you to exact the same zoom and rotation you were at before.

Tip 3: Go Full Screen with a Four Finger Tap

Want to hide that pesky interface? Tap four fingers and it’s gone. Tap four fingers again and it’s back!

Tip 4: Clear a Layer with a Three Finger Wiggle

It’s a pain to tap undo everything. With a simple wiggle of three fingers you can clear an entire layer!

This saves a lot of steps from opening the layer panel, tapping to open the menu and finding the clear button.

Tip 5: Open the Cut, Copy, Paste menu with a Three Finger Swipe Down

I don’t think there’s even another way to access this menu. And it gives you those awesome Copy All, Cut & Paste, and Copy & Paste options that you can’t find anywhere else. What useful tools… man I love Procreate!

Tip 6: Adjust Shapes in Quick Shape by Holding an Extra Finger

If you draw a shape, then hold the pencil (without picking it up), your shape with snap to a quick shape. FURTHERMORE, if you take another finger and tap hold it on the screen, it will snap to a ‘perfect’ shape.

Go from an ellipse to a perfect circle, triangles will snap to equilateral triangles, and straight lines will snap perfectly vertical/horizontal to the canvas.

Tip 7: Swap Brush Settings between the Brush and Erase

Want to match the same brush you’ve been using for your painting brush to your eraser? After you leave the paintbrush, tap and hold the eraser button.

You can this to swap any brush, eraser, or smudger!

Tip 8: Precise Slider Controls

Need to get an exact size brush? You can make the sliders move more slowly by grabbing the slider, then pulling your pencil away from it. Now moving up and down will allow you to be more precise.

Tip 9: Pinch Layers to Merge

This is great for quickly merging a bunch of layers in one swift move!

Tip 10: Swipe to Select Multiple Layers

Swipe to the right and select (or deselect) as many layers as you need!

Tip 11: Adjust Layer Opacity with a Two Finger Tap

Tap two fingers on a layer and a blue bar will appear at the top of the screen. Sliding your finger to the left or right will adjust the opacity of that layer!

Tip 12: Select a Layers Contents with a Two Finger Hold

Tap and hold two fingers on a layer to select it’s contents.

Bonus Tip: You can adjust visibility of the selection mask by going to the Wrench Icon > Prefs > Selection Mask Visibility

Tip 13: Turn on Alpha Lock with Two Finger Swipe

Swipe two fingers to the right on a layer to engage alpha lock. Alpha lock will prevent you from drawing ‘outside the lines’.

Tip 14: Grab a Color by Holding One Finger

Tap and hold a finger on the canvas to eye drop a color. You can move your finger across the canvas to grab a different color. The lower half of the eyedrop circle will compare your current select color with the colors you are about to ‘pick up’.

Tip 15: Expand the Color Circle

Snap two fingers outwards on the color circle to make it expand to a larger size. Pinch two fingers inward to return it to it’s original size.

Tip 16: Grab Pure Colors with a Double Tap

Double tap with your finger around the circle to grab a pure white, black, grey, and mid-tones.

Want to Learn More? Check out my Intro to Procreate course.

Over 117k+ happy students have learned Procreate from my Intro to Procreate class. You’ll be up and running in no time with the fun, concise yet thorough lessons. By the time class is over, creating digital illustrations will feel intuitive and natural as drawing with pencil and paper.
As a professional illustrator, Procreate has changed the way I work. It’s my favorite tool for creating art. I can draw anywhere: in the car, on the couch, or even in a museum. And you can’t take messy paints into a museum! I’m passionate about the app and I love sharing how to use it with others. Hope to see you in class!