In Part II of this guide, we’ll dive into the exciting ways you can use Procreate to bring your ideas to life. From designing invitations and planning home projects to drafting illustrations and practicing calligraphy, the Procreate app is packed with creative potential.
After reading Part I of this guide, you might wonder what you can use Procreate to make. It took me a long time to come around to the app for the simple reason that I’m not really “into” digital art. I couldn’t see myself creating calligraphy, for example, in the app because I want to create calligraphy on paper. But once I learned the basics, I realized that Procreate isn’t just about creating digital artwork for its own sake. It can actually be really useful! Today, I want to share the types of projects that I most like to use Procreate to make.
As I mentioned in the An Artistic Kitchen Remodel post, Procreate is awesome for making interior design sketches. You can start with a photo of a room that you want to change, then doodle over it until it matches your vision.
In addition to interior design, you can use the app to plan out exterior design. I used Procreate to come up with a landscaping plan for our (full shade) front yard. Leaf- and flower-like brushes came in handy for creating it, as did the ColorDrop feature.
Design sketches come in handy for a couple of reasons. First, you get to see exactly what something will look like before you commit. Second, if you’re working with someone else on a project — like a contractor or a landscaper — you can equip them with a crystal-clear idea of what you want to accomplish. In the video below, I’ll show you how you can draw over a picture to experiment with your space.
Whenever one of my kids has a birthday party coming up, I import a recent cute photo of them into the Procreate app. Then, I make festive doodles around it using the “Script” brush (under “Calligraphy”). Once I’m happy with how the invitation looks, I export a pdf or jpeg version of the image to my computer. Then, I whip up some quick text for the back in Photoshop and send the invitations off to a professional printer. And voilà! One-of-a-kind invitations.
Sometimes, you need to be able to write over a photo or artwork to highlight certain aspects of it. Procreate is amazing for that! I recently used this technique in the Elegantly Whimsical Family Crest Tutorial to point out the different colors in a family crest. You might want to use it to label, for example, different family members in an old photo or annotate parts of a diagram for work.
Procreate absolutely saved me when I was working on The Calligraphy Book. I needed to make drafts quickly, and it became obvious that making drafts with real pencil and paper wasn’t going to serve my timeline. Enter Procreate. It allowed me to make drafts for the publisher’s approval in a fraction of the time of what it would take to do so manually. For example, here’s the Procreate draft that I came up with for the book’s cover:
Once my publisher had approved the pencil draft, I imported the psd file into Photoshop and printed it off onto four different pages. Then, I taped the pages together.
Next, I placed a large piece of drawing paper over the Procreate-created draft and put both papers over a light box. Then, I traced over the pencil draft with my pointed pen and sumi ink to bring the illustration to life. Here’s how it turned out in the end:
This technique was my go-to for creating all the chapter opener illustrations in the book, too. Procreate made the draft process so much smoother than working with traditional pencil and paper, and I couldn’t be more thankful for its versatility.
A long time ago, someone asked me in an interview how I know blog post projects are going to turn out okay. The truth is that, before hopping on the Procreate band wagon, I often wasn’t sure. I usually jumped head first into making projects with only a vague idea of what the result would be. That usually worked out just fine, but sometimes I ended up with “dud” project concepts that wasted a fair chunk of my time.
Now, I often play around in Procreate before coming up with a project idea. Procreate is great for when you’re not sure about color scheme, lettering style and/or placement, and/or illustrated elements. Think about dabbling in Procreate next time you’re in the beginning stages of making a birthday card, lettering art, or any other creative project.
An Apple Pencil, a pointed pen, and a brush pen have one thing in common: they are responsive to pressure. Depending on what brush you’re using, when you apply pressure to your Apple Pencil in Procreate, your stroke will thicken. This makes Procreate a nice option for practicing your calligraphy when you don’t have your supplies on hand.
I do think that there’s something to practicing your calligraphy on the iPad. You can become acquainted with letterforms and pressure exertion under no-risk circumstances. Any errors are quickly undone with that double finger tap, and it’s easy to try out new styles or techniques without hesitation. This makes it an ideal tool for honing your skills and boosting your confidence before moving to pen and paper. In the video below, I’ll demonstrate how to use Procreate to write calligraphy.
TPK does offer several Procreate versions of calligraphy worksheets, but you can make any page of any worksheet into a Procreate-friendly piece. Just save the desired page as an image (by taking a screenshot or converting it to a JPG/PNG format), then import it into Procreate as a layer. From there, you can write or draw directly over the worksheet!
I, personally, don’t love to doodle on the iPad for fun because I like running with the sometimes unexpected results of real-life pen or paint and paper. That said, the whole point of Procreate is creating illustrations, and I have used it for that occasionally. For example, I needed to whip up some demonstration illustrations for 51-55 of The Calligraphy Book. The illustrations were meant to depict pen movements and they all featured the same subject, but with a different pen position.
Again, while these illustrations could have been done by hand, it was 100x faster and easier to create them in Procreate. This was important because I was on a deadline. I was able to begin with a base illustration of the arms, shoulders, chest, left hand, and paper/work surface. Then, I modified the illustration as needed to demonstrate different pen positions. While I 100% encourage you to play around with illustrating in Procreate, I, personally, prefer pen and paper. For me, there’s nothing like stepping away from the screen and making something tactile to relax.
As you explore Procreate, remember that its true strength lies in its flexibility—it’s a tool that adapts to your unique style and needs. Whether you’re testing ideas, creating art, or practicing calligraphy, the app is here to support you. Thank you for following along with this guide; I hope it inspires you to try something new!
Warmly,
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