Hey Guys! So glad you made it! Kris here and today is another tutorial on how to make textured illustrations in procreate.

I’m going to start by sketching out a very cute little bear and then add some textures by using different paint effects, digital and scanned texture overlays and some patterns.  I hope you enjoy!

Starting off in Procreate

I am starting off in Procreate with my 6b pencils.  It’s one of my favorites!  I am sketching a circle and sort of establishing a little character here.  He’s going to be a bear and I am going to draw him at a ¾ angle.  I am doing a little body, a little feet and legs to just get an idea of the proportions that I would like to start with.

I don’t know if you can see but I am curled up in my blanket while I draw because it is cold here.

Here I am going to get his ears going and snout.  Obviously I can’t put his face there because that is a mistake.  I will have his nose protruding so that will give his head a bit more of a bear shape.  That looks better and I’ll just make sure the ears look right too.

Define the Lines of the Sketch

I will just define the lines a bit more to really solidify the shapes and I want him to look quite juevenile so that is why I have oversized the proportions especially the head because usually a big head makes things look cute.

It’s not a hard and fast rule.  Nothing is really when you are drawing.  To me his body seems just a bit small so I am going to see if that looks better.  I think so and I will give him some little boots too!  Why not?  It’s a rainy day so I am feeling like yeah, let’s just make this a rainy day bear!

I’ll give him a little umbrella but I am just going from my brain here so this umbrella isn’t really working very well but that is okay because this is all part of the working it out stage.  I will try to play with the angle of the umbrella a little bit and even if I don’t get it quite right I can come back to it.

Adding Details To Your Drawing

Now we are just going to add some details.  Let’s make him hold a butterfly…maybe not…that doesn’t quite work for me.  Let’s make him hold a little bird.  That will be way cuter!  I am just playing with shapes establishing the size of the bear to the size of the bird.

That helps to make the drawing a little more interesting.

I like to zoom in and out a lot while I am drawing.  It may look weird on the video but I find it helps when I need to see something closeup.

I’ll go back and fix the umbrella.  I’ll actually look at a reference image of an umbrella, which is always a good idea.  This helps to give your umbrella a better shape for it to look realistic.  Before it was looking like one of those umbrella’s that you would stick in your cocktail!  There that is looking so much better.

References are always handy when you are drawing things that are real, like an umbrella.  That is so much better and I will resize it too and then put in a little pocket and maybe put a little froggy in there.

Again, you want to pay attention to detail and size.

Drawing The Background

After I have the main character sketch I like to add some background to make the image more interesting.  And I will still go back and get the lines of the coat how I like them.  This really is still a rough sketch and I want to get everything right with my rough sketch because it just makes everything easier after.

I do a lot of erasing and that is why I love drawing in Procreate because it is just so simple to edit and erase what you are doing.  You don’t have to redraw everything.  It doesn’t get too messy because you can keep cleaning it up while you go.  I am so enjoying the freedoms you have with that.

I will actually use my pencil and then also erase as I am trying to perfect the shapes of things.  You can see that I do that a lot!

Let’s move these boots up higher because that will look cute.  That’s better!  Not having that break in between just makes it simpler.  Sometimes simpler is better!  Even though I do love detail sometimes just keeping it simple and really clear lines and clear shapes really works better.

I turned on the opacity on my sketch layer and now I am going to go over and do my good copy.

Final Copy of the Sketch

Still trying to keep it sketchy because it is all about texture so I don’t want it to be too smooth or too clean.  Again I am using my 6b pencil and still having a sketchy line just not quite as messy as the rough.  I am just going over and tracing my work.

And there is the cleaned up version.

Adding Texture Through Coloring

I am going to go in now and color like a kindergartner basically.  Again, with my 6b pencil.  It really is my favorite.  I am literally going to go in and color in. I know you are thinking why not just fill it?  I know it would be simpler and far less time consuming but I find that this, and you can see, coloring it just gives it a way different texture.

Really it’s just a preference on the look that I am going for today.

I’ll use the dry brush to go in and give a couple more details on the coat and to start to create that fabric look.

Back to my 6b pencil I am going to give some stripes to the coat.  Actually, I am going to do it more like a plaid.  This just gives more detail which in turn adds more texture to the sketch.

I will pick another color and create another layer.  I love to use lots of layers so this gives me as much options as possible.  Again, that is what I love about Procreate is that I can change my mind a lot without having to redraw or color the whole thing.  I know I change my mind a lot!  Woman’s prerogative right!

It’s nice to explore and make decisions while drawing and not regret it. 

I’ll go in and define certain features that I want.  I like to keep everything having that really sketchy look to it.  The boots I am going to do a different technique.  I am going to outline them just by coloring in the edges of them.  Then I am going to use the free hand selection tool to go about in the middle of that line and then I am going to fill.

That way the outside line is more sketchy but the center is filled.  You are not going to get the background white showing through but it still looks good and gives a nice contrast in textures.  You can always add some texture overtop if you like also.

Shadowing to Add Texture

I will use some shadowing here and I will use my favorite for shadows which is the gouache paint brush.  I always like using the gouache brush for shadows.

Then I will change back over to my 6b pencil to do some more shadowing.  As you can see doing this really gives the image a lot of texture!

The Medium Nozzle Spray Paint

I do like using this in Procreate too especially when you are doing something that is furry and just giving little highlights.  On to the frog, I almost forgot to color him in.  He looks a little nervous.  We’ll give him a little highlights and shadow to really bring him to life.

I will also get bird colored in and give him some detail and some shadows.  And of course we will add some more furry details to our bear.

Digital Textures in Procreate

I am going to open a new document now and I’ll show you how to do some digital textures.  I’ll start by selecting the dry brush and in grayscale I am just going to put a bunch of lines on the page.  Basically I am going to repeat this process on different layers and use a different brush each time to give a different effect.

Next what I do is to select one layer at time and copy it.  Then I will go back into my project and paste that layer.  I will rotate it and shrink it down to cover only the portion of the sketch that I want it on.  Then I will clip it by using a clipping mask.  That will attach the layer to the layer below and give it a really cool texture.

It’s kind of the quick and dirty way of doing it!

You can play with the opacity to adjust how light or dark you want the layer to be.  And you can do this with as many of the texture layers that you created in the new document as you like.

I hope you enjoyed that and found some tips along the way!

PS if you are interested in watercolor flower clipart than watch this video on how to paint watercolor flower anemones.