How to color in Procreate App

You got an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, and you want to learn how to color in the Procreate app. If you are not familiar with any other software before Procreate, this software isn’t too hard to learn. Even my wife can pick up this easy to use application and create art! Let’s start drawing!

In this tutorial, I want to go over some advanced features in the Procreate app and how to use them to color your art! I’ve also will provide my favorite brushes to use. After each step, I will let you know which brush I used.

Step 1: Sketch Out your Character

The first step is to sketch out your character. I like sketching in blue color for my underdrawing.

Use the Sketch Brush.

Step 2: Solid Flats

Take your sketch and place this on the top of all your layers. Set this image to “Multiply” and drop the opacity too. 10% to 15% is a good opacity number. The highlighted area on the image below is where you can find this feature. Once you have this, you can then block out your solid flat colors.

Follow your sketch drawing and fill in your shapes with a solid color. To fill an area, click and drag the swatch color over the desired area. All shape drawings must connect!

Create multiple solid flat color layers to break up detail. This concept comes in handing when adding detail like shading. I like to keep the body, head, and hair separate.

Use the Ink Brush.

Step 3: Line art detail

Once all are shapes are filled, you can then add all your line art detail in the Procreate app. Draw in detail in the eyes, nose, and overlapping shapes like the chin and neck.

Use the Ink Brush.

step 4: Masks in Procreate App

Shadow and light will bring life to your art! Using masks will help you keep inside your flat colors in the Procreate app. A combination of clipping masks, masks, and selections will help.

Clipping Masks

To use the clipping mask feature, make a layer above the flat color you want to stay inbound. Layers with arrows pointing down are clipping masks. Check out the diagram below.

Use Large Shader Brush.

Selection

Another color masking feature is the selection function. Select the shape you want to use. Diagonal lines appear when shapes are selected. When this happens, you can draw on the same layer or create a second layer above. Make sure to deactivate your selection when done.

Use Ink Brush.

Masks

A helpful technique to add detail is a combination of selections and masks. While the shape is selected, block in detail such as hair. View the examples above and below. How to mask your work, select the layer you want to activate. A white area signifies the masking area.

Make sure the white area layer is selected. Paint with black to remove any unwanted detail. Use white to add detail back. This is great for fine-tuning solid colors.

Use Ink Brush for solid color and Small Shader Brush to remove the detail masking area.

Conclusion

I hope these techniques help you color your artwork in the Procreate app! Don’t be afraid to experiment! If you liked this tutorial and would like to see more. Please show your support by following me on social media. You can also show your support with a small donation to my Ko-Fi page. For questions or comments, use my contact page. Until next time! Let’s draw!