How to Use Procreate App for Beginners: Step-by-Step Guide

Procreate looks almost empty when you first open it, and that minimal screen hides a deep program. The good news is that using the Procreate app for beginners comes down to roughly a dozen controls and a handful of habits. Learn those and the rest can wait until you need it.

This walkthrough goes from a blank gallery to an exported finished piece, in the order you will actually meet each feature. It also points out the settings beginners tend to get wrong in their first week.

What You Need Before You Start

Procreate runs only on iPad (a separate, simpler version called Procreate Pocket exists for iPhone). It is a one-time purchase from the App Store rather than a subscription. You can draw with a finger, but an Apple Pencil, or a compatible stylus, adds pressure sensitivity, which is what makes brush strokes thicken and thin naturally.

Before opening the app, two quick settings help: turn off Night Shift and True Tone in your iPad display settings while painting if you care about accurate color, and make sure you have a few gigabytes of free storage, because high-resolution canvases take space.

It also helps to know that the app only handles the mechanics. Seeing light and shadow, simplifying shapes and choosing colors are skills that transfer straight from paper, so a grounding in basic painting techniques for new artists will make your first Procreate pieces look more confident. Many people find that alternating between a sketchbook and the iPad speeds up progress in both.

Step 1: Create Your First Canvas

1. In the Gallery, tap the + in the top-right corner.
2. Choose a preset such as Screen Size for practice, or tap the small icon beside “New Canvas” to make a custom size.
3. For a custom canvas, set width and height in pixels, inches or millimeters, and set DPI. Use 300 DPI if you might print the piece.
4. Tap Create.

Canvas size decides your maximum number of layers. Larger canvases at higher DPI give you fewer layers, and the limit varies by iPad model. A good beginner middle ground is around 3000 by 3000 pixels: big enough for a decent print at about 10 inches square, small enough to keep plenty of layers.

Step 2: Learn the Interface in Five Minutes

The screen has two toolbars. Everything else is canvas.

On the left edge sits the sidebar: the top slider controls brush size, the bottom slider controls opacity, the small square between them is the Modify button (an eyedropper by default), and the two arrows at the bottom are undo and redo.

Step 3: Pick and Test Brushes

Tap the paintbrush icon to open the Brush Library. Brushes are grouped into sets like Sketching, Inking, Painting, Airbrushing and Artistic. Tap a brush, close the library and scribble on the canvas to test it.

For a first session, three brushes cover most needs:

• A pencil from Sketching for rough drawing.
• A clean inker such as Studio Pen from Inking for line art.
• A soft airbrush from Airbrushing for shading and gentle gradients.

Pressure matters. Press lightly for thin, faint strokes, harder for thick, dark ones. If your strokes feel too heavy, go to Actions, then Prefs, then Pressure and Smoothing, and adjust the curve. Many beginners find a slightly softened curve more comfortable.

The Smudge tool and Eraser use the same library, so you can erase with a textured brush or blend with a soft one. Tap and hold the smudge or eraser icon to borrow your current brush shape.

Step 4: Choose Colors

Tap the circle at the top right. The color panel has several views along the bottom: Disc, Classic, Harmony, Value and Palettes. Disc is the most intuitive: outer ring for hue, inner disc for saturation and brightness.

Harmony is useful when you are unsure which colors work together. Set it to Complementary or Analogous, and Procreate shows matching colors around the wheel. Save colors you like by tapping an empty swatch in your palette.

To pick a color from your painting, touch and hold anywhere on the canvas with a finger, or tap the Modify square in the sidebar. A loupe appears and samples the color underneath.

Step 5: Use Layers From Day One

Layers are like stacked sheets of clear film. Painting each part of a picture on its own layer means you can erase, move or recolor it without disturbing anything else.

1. Tap the Layers icon, then the + to add a layer.
2. Drag layers up or down to reorder them. Higher layers sit in front.
3. Tap the checkbox to hide or show a layer.
4. Tap the N on a layer to change its opacity and blend mode.
5. Swipe left on a layer for Lock, Duplicate and Delete.
6. Pinch two layers together to merge them.

A simple beginner stack is: background color at the bottom, a sketch layer with lowered opacity, line art above it, and flat colors on a layer below the line art. Tap a layer thumbnail for more options, including Alpha Lock, which lets you paint only on pixels already present. Alpha Lock is the easiest way to shade inside a shape without going over the edges.

Step 6: Master the Core Gestures

Gestures make Procreate fast. Practice these until they are automatic:

• Two-finger tap: undo. Hold to undo repeatedly.
• Three-finger tap: redo.
• Pinch: zoom in or out and rotate the canvas.
• Quick pinch: fit the canvas to the screen.
• Three-finger swipe down: open Copy and Paste.
• Three-finger scrub: clear the current layer.
• Four-finger tap: hide the interface for full-screen view.
• Touch and hold: eyedropper (by default).

One feature beginners love is QuickShape. Draw a line, circle or rectangle and keep the pencil pressed at the end. Procreate snaps it into a clean shape. Keep holding and place a finger on screen to make a perfect circle or square, or tap Edit Shape at the top to adjust it.

Step 7: Fill Shapes Quickly

Drag the color circle from the top right and drop it inside a closed shape to fill it. This is called ColorDrop. Keep holding after dropping and slide left or right to adjust the threshold if the fill leaks out or leaves gaps.

Gaps in your line art cause leaks, so close outlines fully. For cleaner fills across separate layers, set the line art layer to Reference in its layer options, then fill on a layer beneath it.

Step 8: Move, Resize and Fix Proportions

Tap the arrow icon to transform whatever is on the selected layer. The bottom toolbar offers Freeform, Uniform, Distort and Warp modes. Uniform keeps proportions; Freeform stretches. Turn on Snapping to align things neatly.

If you only want to move part of a layer, use the Selection tool first. Draw around the area with Freehand mode, then tap Transform. Selections are also useful for keeping paint inside a region you outline.

Step 9: Save and Export Your Work

Procreate saves automatically as you work. To export, tap Actions, then Share, and choose a format:

• Procreate: keeps all layers; best for backups.
• PSD: layered file for Photoshop and many other programs.
• PNG: high quality, supports transparency.
• JPEG: smaller files for sharing online.
• PDF, TIFF, animated formats: for print or animation.

Procreate also records a time-lapse of every stroke by default. Under Actions, then Video, you can export it, which is satisfying to watch and a useful way to review your process.

A First Project to Practice Everything

Reading about tools only goes so far. This 45-minute exercise touches every feature above:

1. Make a 3000 by 3000 pixel canvas.
2. Fill the background layer with a pale blue by dragging the color onto it.
3. On a new layer, use QuickShape to draw a circle for a sun and a few rounded shapes for clouds.
4. On another layer beneath, sketch rolling hills with the pencil.
5. Fill the hills with green using ColorDrop.
6. Turn on Alpha Lock for the hills layer and use a soft airbrush in darker green to add shading.
7. Use Smudge with a soft brush to blend the cloud edges.
8. Use Transform to resize the sun until the composition feels balanced.
9. Export as a PNG and review the time-lapse.

If you enjoy simple subjects like this, our list of easy flower painting ideas for beginners translates well to the iPad, since each idea relies on a few layers and basic shapes.

Is Procreate a Good Paint Brush App for Beginners?

For many people, yes. The interface is uncluttered, the default brushes are high quality and the one-time price is modest compared with subscription software. Gestures make undo nearly effortless, which encourages experimentation.

The limitations are worth knowing. It only runs on iPad, so it is not an option if you work on Android or a laptop. It also has fewer page-layout and vector tools than desktop programs. If you are not yet sure whether digital or traditional painting suits you, try a week of short daily sketches in each and notice which one you keep reaching for.

Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

• Painting everything on one layer. Fixing anything later becomes painful.
• Starting with a tiny canvas. Screen Size is fine for doodles, but it limits printing and detail.
• Using a huge canvas. An oversized canvas can leave you with only a handful of layers.
• Ignoring pressure settings. If lines look uneven, adjust the pressure curve and StreamLine (stabilization) in the brush settings.
• Downloading dozens of brush packs at once. Learn the defaults first; they are capable.
• Not backing up. Export important pieces as .procreate files to cloud storage now and then.

Where to Go After the Basics

Once the core tools feel natural, explore clipping masks for shading, the Brush Studio for customizing brushes, Reference layers for coloring line art and the Adjustments menu for color correction. Learn one new feature per week and use it in a small piece, rather than trying to master everything at once.

FAQs

Is Procreate hard to learn for beginners?

The basics are quick to learn. Most people can paint a simple picture in their first hour. Features like Brush Studio, animation and advanced adjustments take longer, but you do not need them to start.

Do I need an Apple Pencil for Procreate?

You can use a finger or a basic stylus, but you lose pressure sensitivity. An Apple Pencil or a pressure-sensitive compatible stylus makes brush strokes look and feel much more natural.

What canvas size should a beginner use in Procreate?

Around 3000 by 3000 pixels at 300 DPI is a practical start. It prints at roughly 10 by 10 inches and still leaves a healthy number of layers on most iPads.

How do I undo in Procreate?

Tap the screen with two fingers. Tap and hold with two fingers to undo many steps quickly. Three-finger tap redoes.

Why won’t my brush paint on the canvas?

Common causes are a hidden or locked layer, Alpha Lock turned on for an empty layer, an active selection elsewhere on the canvas, or brush opacity set very low. Check the Layers panel and sidebar sliders first.

What is the best paint brush app for beginners on iPad?

Procreate is a popular choice because of its clean interface and one-time cost. Free or freemium options also exist, so it is reasonable to try a couple before deciding which workflow you prefer.

Next Step

Once these controls feel familiar, the bigger challenge becomes painting itself: seeing values, mixing color and arranging a pleasing composition. Those skills carry over between media, so practicing simple subjects on paper can sharpen your iPad work too. Our guide to painting for beginners covers these essentials and the starter tools that make early practice easier.