How to Master Digital Art on Your iPad - Procreate Tutorial

You can draw this too .

I've never been more excited about a video in this video .

I will show you exactly how you can approach creating an artwork like this one .

So it's not a step by step , but you don't want to skip this video because it's packed with super valuable information .

It's a complete breakdown of my painting process and I made a summary of the most important steps so you can start creating your own masterpiece .

And if you are hungry for more after watching the video , then come and join me at Patreon .

I have more than 100 procreate tutorials there .

Let's get started .

I started this artwork with a sketch and to create the sketch , I used a reference image which I have links in the description .

It's a way to get your idea down on paper or all your digital canvas without committing too much to the final results .

Yet .

Now when you follow a tutorial , everything is broken down into easy steps .

Now when you sketch yourself , you need to do that it for yourself , you need to break things down into easy digestible steps and you can do that by figuring out the basic shapes of your subject .

Now , you can find basic shapes like on the inside of a subject .

For instance , an apple has a circle inside or when you draw a house , you'll see a block and you'll see triangles , you can build your subject up from the inside to the outside that way .

But you can also work from the outside to the inside at finding negative shapes .

And it's kind of like trapping your subject inside of a shape .

And by combining these two things , you have a really powerful tool .

And while you do that , while you use those basic shapes from the inside to the outside , outside to the inside , always make sure to compare sizes and angles .

I'm constantly trying to compare the size of in this case , the head compared to the full body for I try to compare angles for the jacket is one angle a bit different than the other angle .

And how long is one part of the jacket compared to another part of the jacket for instance .

And the great thing about sketching digitally is that you can layer your sketches .

So you can start with a really rough sketch , just trying to find those , those big shapes , those basic shapes and those angles .

And then making a new layer on top of it , you lower the opacity of the first sketch .

And then on a new layer , you can start refining your sketch .

You can take an even closer look at those angles , compare sizes and use those first lines that you have put on your cameras , use those as a guide as a rough guide to refine your sketch .

And I often like tune this multiple times .

Actually , when I sketch a complicated subject , I usually make about three sketches .

First one is really rough just so that I have something down on my canvas and I'll make a second one on top , which is a bit more refined and then I'll make a third one and I try to make that one as refined as possible because if you try to get your sketch , if you try to get that right in that early stage , it'll save you a lot of pain later in the process in the early stages of sketching , it's still easy to make adjustments .

For instance , you can easily use the move and transform tool appropriate or use liquefy to move parts of your sketch around .

Well , if you do that later in the process , once you have made a lot of details , things will look more distorted when you do that .

So try to really take your time to get a proper sketch before you move on to adding the colors to your painting .

Now , if you feel like you struggle a lot with sketching , then try to start with simple objects .

First , you can just sketch everyday objects around your house to improve your sketching skills .

And even if you just have 10 minutes a day to sketch every minute you sketch , you will be improving your skills .

Now , once I have my fully refined sketch , I like making a new layer underneath my sketch layer .

And the next process is a little bit like sketching in this stage .

I like to explore what colors I would like to use and I roughly lay them down .

So there's really no need to get the exact color that you would like to have in your final piece .

What I like to do is just get a color that is relatively close .

So if I want an area to be blue , for instance , I'll just grab a blue and it doesn't have to be the exact blue , but it'll be like a starting point for me .

And then at a later stage , I can paint over with different colors .

I just like adding a bunch of colors using Gaussian blur in between to get a vague blurry background .

And when adding those base colors to a painting , it's really important to have like a logical order of layers .

I try to think of what areas or what parts of the painting are like a bit challenging where I don't want to paint to blend with each other .

Like for instance , around the hair , I don't want to have to be very precise around that area .

I want to be able to just lay that down without worrying about the background for instance , same goes for the face and for the ear and for the jaw area , I want to be able to paint over there with without worrying about going over the hair .

So for these different areas , I make separate layers .

So I make a separate layer for the face and for the hand , because that way when I have it on a separate layer , I can later use alpha lock or a layer with clipping mask and just paint on those areas with bigger softer brushes without going over other areas .

So for instance , now over here on this layer , I have alpha lock turned on and I can easily add different colors .

I'm adding blue for the shadow area , for instance , without having to worry about going over the hair area , not that there really is a hair area yet , but still try to plan your layers this way .

Now while I'm still in that phase of laying down the base colors , I already try to lay down some of the shadow areas and some of the lighter areas , but I'm not worrying too much about the color shed just like what the base goes for the background .

I am trying to add some variety like adding some warm tones like these pinks and some blue tones for the shadows , but it's all still very rough .

And when you want to create big areas of color , like for instance , the jacket and the skirt , it can be handy to use the selection tool for instance , also because I want the outline of the jacket to be nice and crisp and the selection tool does that for me .

So I'll just trace the entire outline of the jacket and then I'll just use color fill .

So I'll have the base color of the jacket and the skirt right away .

Now , for a jacket and a skirt , I'm working on one single layer , you could make a separate layer for like the blouse that's underneath the jacket .

But I'm trying to use as few layers as possible to keep things simple .

And also these areas aren't too complicated .

It's mostly with areas like hair that I like to work with separate layers .

This hair has like a hairy edge and it's just more difficult to keep an area like that clean and with hair .

I just want the freedom to paint wherever I want paint as much hair as I like without worrying about edges .

So once we have all the layers with all the base colors for the background , the umbrella , the clothing , the face , hand and hair , that's why we can start refining everything .

I always like using my overlay brush for my basic brush pack .

For instance , with this pink , I'll add some warm glow to the face without messing with any of the brush strokes that I already have in there and using this much tool .

I just soften these transitions blend the colors together a bit and I'll slowly start tweaking the features , adding brighter highlights .

For instance , light is hitting the nose , it's hitting the cheek in this area .

There's also some light hitting here right at the top of the lip and a little edge around the jaw .

Now , while we are still in this relatively early stage , it's important to fix mistakes when you spot them .

Everything on the face still looks pretty rough .

It's not super defined yet .

So I'm using liquefy at this point to play around with the proportions a bit and to just tweak little things , I have liquefy set to push to just push and pull some parts of the face .

And then once you have done that , once you're happy , you can start tweaking again and build that detail on top of the painting .

Now , what's important when painting highlights and shadow especially on skin is to not grab that , that mid tone of the skin , that base color that you have put down and simply grab a darker or lighter shade of that base color .

Your painting will look a lot better if you vary the colors in the shadows and in the highlights .

So try adding warmer tones and cooler tones instead .

So don't be afraid to use bold colors .

I have also added some pretty bright pinks on the face and some pretty cool blues , but it'll definitely make the result look more lively if you would just use the base color and and use a darker or lighter shade , your result will look very muddy and dull .

Now , while I work on detailing a face like this , for instance , or like the painting in general , I like to work from big to small and from very messy to more detailed .

So as I work , my brush will get smaller and smaller , just try to not go too small , too fast because like I said earlier , it's easier to fix mistakes in the early phase when you're still using a big brush .

And once you have added a lot of detail , it just gets more painful to make adjustments or to remove parts or to paint over parts and also don't add stuff and details when it isn't necessary for this painting .

The focal point is definitely the face of the girl .

So I try to add more detail there and less detail in the other areas .

For instance , the background is very blurry .

We don't need super crisp detail there and you don't need to worry about the exact angles or the exact shapes there .

We just don't want to distract from the girl .

Now , at this stage , I'm super happy that I have the hair on a separate layer .

I don't have to worry about anything .

I can just use a hairbrush and add these nice little details around the hair , adding stray hairs , wispy hairs around here and when I want to work on the background again , no worries because that's on a separate layer .

Imagine having this on one layer and needing to on that background area .

Again , that will be a disaster .

Now , I want to add some final tweaks to that background .

I'll use a brush for my basic set , the lights and brush and I want those pinks to , to get a little bit brighter .

So I'll just use that brush to go over there and add a few little touches Also lighten up this area .

I want to give it a bit of like a glowy effect because it's raining obviously .

So everything is wet and the lighting , those reflections on the street , they will be a bit glowy .

And for some more tweaks on the background , I would like to go to Curves and I will set it to pencil here at the top and use soft brush under airbrushing .

And now while using that brush , I can lighten up some of the parts of the background and this enhances that glowing effect of that wet street .

It also emphasizes the face of the girl because everything around her face is pretty light .

So it'll help guide the attention of the viewer to her face .

Now , using the multiply brush also for my basic brush pack , I'll just go over there and add a little , a little bit more of that shadow , more darkness .

Now , while I was working on the painting , I noticed that the hand of the girl was a little bit too big .

I just made a selection of the hand by using the free hand selection tool .

And then I went to the move and transform tool .

I made it a little bit smaller and I changed the hand a little bit , but I did need to fill the gaps over here for the umbrella .

I needed to fill these gaps for the clothing as well .

And then once you have fixed any mistakes , once you have added all the detail that you wanted to add , it's time for final tweaks .

What I like to do for my paintings at the end is had a little bit of noise really subtle , but it gives a bit more of a detailed effect , more photo like .

So I wouldn't do this for instance , when I would be making very clean stylized line art for instance , but for a painting like this with like a realistic scene , that little bit of noise can really add to it .

And the bloom option appropriate is also my friend .

I thought it added this really nice extra glow to this painting .

So my advice would definitely be to just check out these options under the magic wand and procreate and just play around with them a little bit , just make sure you duplicate your layers before you do this .

So if you don't like the effect , you can always go back and that's my painting process in a nutshell .

But don't worry if you still struggle creating your own art pieces .

You can always go back to following tutorials or very things up just so you can stay motivated and have fun during the creative process .

Now , for your info , the brushes I have used during this painting process are available in my store and also through Patreon .

So I will leave links in the description .

I would like to thank you for watching .

Let me know what you thought of this video in the comments section .

I would really appreciate it and I will see you next time .