Live Lessons: "Apple" with Procreate on iPad Pro

Painting with Procreate
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This lesson series features:
2 Hours of Instruction
2 Videos

Lessons

Lesson 1: (1:08:37) Lesson 2: (1:05:20)

About This Lesson Series...

Join us as we take a look at the drawing and painting app "Procreate" on the iPad Pro. Using the Apple Pencil, we develop a painting of an apple using one of the brushes available in the app along with the smudge tool.

Resources for this Lesson...

References

Photo Reference

Finished Result

Here's what you'll need...

  • iPad Pro
  • Apple Pencil
  • Procreate App

Lesson Discussion

    • I use procreate with an iPad Air 2 and Adonit pixel pencil (or my fingers) and although not as acurate as an ipad pro, I’m still able to create something. If you do use your finger instead of a pencil make sure you’re zoomed out enough to be able to do some finer detailing.

  2. Hi Andy,

    Thanks for your comment. One of the goals of the website is to share a variety of different art making mediums. Obviously, not all of the mediums that we cover or subjects will appeal to everyone. But this doesn’t mean that they should be ignored. Just because this lesson series is not for you, doesn’t mean that others will not benefit from it. There are materials required for every medium that we cover. Some of the materials are more expensive than others. Any art making endeavor requires some investment in materials and surfaces. If digital art is not something that you are not personally interested in or if the expense is too much for you, then that is understandable. However, others are interested and many have requested a series such as this.

    • Thanks for the this lesson!!
      I got an iPad and downloaded Procreate…..have been waiting for lessons like this. Please share more lessons with Procreate…..

    • Hi Jonathan,

      Thanks for your question. You can screen record iOS devices on an Apple computer by plugging them in and by running a “Movie Recording” using Quicktime. You may have to click on the small arrow next to record button to choose the iOS device plugged in. You also have to have iTunes open but minimized. You can record using Quicktime directly or you can use any broadcasting software to capture that specific window to broadcast.

      • Thank you for the personal reply Matt. My life time goal is to build a seriously financially significant art business. The description you’ve given above is to help share my creative process, not compete with your service. I am so glad I found your website via google search and will always refer people to you to learn the fundamentals of art. Thanks again!

        • I know this conversation was a while ago but for any new members reading, I just wanted to add in that Procreate has it’s own real time recording facility built into the app too. In earlier versions it auto recorded by default and you had to turn it off if not wanted. In later versions I think recording is off by default and you can turn it on. It saves as a separate video file for you to watch after finishing.

          • Thanks for this Sarah. Yes, the recording feature is very nice and a brilliant marketing feature.

  4. Thanks for doing ProCreate Tutorial. I do this as a hobby and take my iPad pro while travelling to keep me busy. I would love to see some portrait drawing on Procreate in future. When you use the smudge brush, it is the same smudge brush that you used for drawing ?

  6. I was quite excited for this Live Lesson topic. I look forward to the next part. Very interesting. Checked out Kyle Lambert as you suggested. Amazing!!

  8. Thank you so much for this class! I’ve been traditional paper and pencil artist for many years but wanted to learn digital as well. I got myself an iPad for Christmas, installed Procreate and tried to teach myself, but all those buttons and layers just intimidated me so much that I rarely opened it. You’ve made it so easy!

  9. Thanks so much for these lessons. I ordered iPad Pro last week and was hoping for Lessons on Procreate. Thanks so much again. I am so excited to have these live lessons to get me going when it gets here.

  11. I watched the Live lesson Pt. 1, but just viewed the re-do for the recording. I felt like I took a lot more in, and watched the entire piece. I like this outcome. I like the flow and interaction of the color.

  12. Matt, thank you for bringing this new medium into the light of day! I’ve had these basic tools for over a year and tried to apply them on my own with rather meager result. After viewing and attempting this’s first lesson you have rekindled my interest in this new medium. I would also like to see a lesson on digital portraiture. You have an amazing ability to teach and motivate a wide range of subject matter. Thank you for venturing into this medium.

    • I’m considering signing up for this course….to learn how to use it, the IPad and the Pencil all of which I received as a gift. I’m a portrait artist and my interest is in learning how to draw/paint portraits using ProCreate on the IPad with all the tools it offers. So PLEASE do a video on Portraiture (realistic or not)!! Offer that and I’m IN!!

  13. Much appreciated! Thanks for adding Procreate to your lessons, and I hope you can fit in more. I’m a returning pencil sketching fan, but I have an iPad in my bag every day. I’d also vote for portraits in Procreate in the future. Wonderful things you’re doing here, Matt.

  14. Hey Matt, to get a soft edge on the eraser, you can set the eraser in airbrush mode – turn down the opacity and it gives a lovely soft edge. You can choose any of the brushes to erase with, but over time, I have found choosing the airbrush for the eraser setting to be best. Hope that helps. I am pleased to see this type of lesson on here because both traditional and digital media can be used in unison by using procreate as your sketchbook. I draw and compositionally plan out some pieces in procreate, then I recreate them in traditional media – it’s an excellent combination, saves on paper, and means you have a digital version also. If you make a mistake that can’t be corrected traditionally, thempiece is no longer ruined because you can bring a photo of your piece into procreate and carry on working that way.
    Additionally, procreate is excellent if you are doing a traditional piece that hasn’t been pre planned, and you can’t decide on a background for example, simply importing an image of your traditional artwork into the app, you can then experiment with backgrounds without fear of ruining your traditional piece by making the wrong choice. Then you can traditionally apply the background you decide on.
    Another positive way procreate helps, is that good old “artist block” – I find simply playing around digitally – just scribbling etc, can help overcome the block, and gives ideas for a traditional piece.
    Finally, one fantastic way that procreate has helped me personally, is by getting me interested in art and drawing/painting in the first place. Rather than come from traditional to digital, for me it was the other way around.
    My whole family gifted me my first ipad 4 or 5 years ago now for christmas – before the pro and before apple pencil. I’m primarily bed bound and one day of frustration and pain, I decided to scribble around in a very basic drawing app I had downloaded. I only had a basic stylus but I enjoyed playing and I quickly found it helped take my mind off pain. I then became interested in learning to draw and bought a more pen type stylus and found procreate. I learned how to draw in procreate – I learned about shadows, highlights, and everything by just playing around.
    Two years later my friend in the USA sent me a full set of Prisma colour pencils to the UK try. I then found your site and signed up and since then I have never looked back and now use watercolour, charcoal, pencil, colour pencil and pastels to create traditional art – and use procreate to plan some pieces out and also to draw digitally at times when I am not well enough to use traditional media. I am also rendering images for a children’s book in procreate.
    So, without the ipad I doubt I would have become interested in art, or learned to draw, and definitely wouldn’t be using traditional media, and today I cannot imagine my life without art. It is my “salvation” so to speak, art is the only thing I am able to do – albeit slow due to physical limitations – but it gives me a sense of achievement and helps me deal with pain. Thank you Matt, for all you do. 🙂

  15. Just joined and was thrilled to find this live lesson in the archives. While pen and ink and watercolor are my primary media, I love using Procreate and find it both a complement and an d supplement to traditional media. Please do MORE!

    Thanks.

    sk

  17. Brilliant tutorial of Procreate. I have worked on Photoshop and will go back again now I have seen this vid. I would love an iPad Pro and pen but I shall have to save up for them. Really exciting!!! I am a traditional artist but have done some digital art before but mostly abstract. Thanks

  18. Really enjoyed this class. I’ve been using Procreate for a few things on my 12.9” iPad Pro, but you taught me several new quick tips I didn’t know about. Hoping for of these types of classes.

  20. Hi Matt, I really learned a lot watching this video on Procreate.
    I received an iPad and pen a year ago as a gift but wasn’t able to do much on it.
    Now I am motivated and fired up and would love to see more lessons on it. How about
    some cartoon lesson and using more layers?

  23. What a great lesson! Thanks for delving into digital art. I hope you will do more. For me personally, seeing an overhead shot of what you are actually doing with your had would be more helpful. I found myself trying to look back and forth and then just watching the little screen in the corner. But I may be in the minority on that. Thanks again for your GREAT content, Matt!

    • Hi Chris,

      Thanks for this! Yes, when we do more lessons on digital art in the future, I’ll keep this mind. Always wish I had more screen space to work with when making videos!

  24. This is fantastic! I hope you make more of these in the future. I have an iPad Pro and Procreate, and didn’t even know where to begin. Procreate can seem overwhelming at first, but this helped me become more comfortable and confident using it. Thank you.

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