Another Style of Watercolor Clipart in Procreate

Hi Everyone!

This week I’m going to share another variation of watercolor style clipart in Procreate. I will be using some of the same brushes as last week from the Everything Watercolor brush set by Uproot Brushes. Let’s get started!

I will be using my same Capricorn line drawing from the past few weeks. At the end of this post you will see all the different ways I’ve used this same base drawing and rendered it different ways.

I’m going to be using the Smooth Paper texture canvas that comes with the Everything Watercolor brushes. I will go ahead and delete the others so I can have more layers to work with for my painting.

I’ve got my line drawing as the bottom most layer and I have reduced the opacity to 5%, so I can just barely see it. We’re not going to trace it too precisely, this painting is going to be a little looser than the paintings from the last 2 weeks.

I quickly sketched my lines in a dark navy blue color with the Dry Ink brush that is included with Procreate. You can find it under the Inking brushes.

Then I’m going to create a new layer underneath, set it to Linear Burn and use the Brushy McBrush Face from the Everything Watercolor brushes. I’m using a light blue color for the whole painting, I want this version to be more monochromatic.

Next, I’m going to add some variation to the light blue. I’ll create another layer, set it to Linear Burn, then I will make this layer a clipping mask. If you tap on the layer, a menu pops up to the left, select Clipping Mask.

Now I’m going to use the Stain Jane brush from the Everything Watercolor brushes. In the same light blue color I will go around and add some darker blue areas. It will appear darker because my layer is set to Linear Burn. Since this layer is a clipping mask, all of my “painting” stays within the light blue of the original layer I painted. This is a great way to add some of the color variation like you get with real watercolors.

Here’s what it looks like without the clipping mask applied.

I’m going to lower the opacity of my original light blue layer just a little bit, the blues got a little to dark for my liking. Now it’s finished!

Here it is next to the other paintings from the last 2 weeks. This is a fun exercise if you’re trying to figure out your drawing/ painting style.

Creating Watercolor Style Clip Art in Procreate to Use With Your Cricut or Silhouette Machine

Hi Everyone!

This week I’m going to share a watercolor style technique that I like to use in Procreate to make clip art that I can use with my Cricut or Silhouette machine.

I will be using the Brushy McBrush Face brush from the Everything Watercolor brush set from Uproot Brushes. This is a great set of brushes and it also comes with some very nice paper textures. The paper textures make a huge difference when trying to make convincing digital watercolor artwork.

Let’s get started!

I will be using my same Capricorn line drawing from the past few weeks. In the end you will see all the different ways I’ve used this same base drawing and rendered it different ways. This is also a great way to figure out what kind of drawing/ painting style you prefer to use for your own artwork.

I’m going to be using the Smooth Paper texture canvas that comes with the Everything Watercolor brushes. I will go ahead and delete the others so I can have more layers to work with for my painting.

I copy and pasted my Capricorn line drawing and put it underneath the paper texture. I also lowered the opacity of my drawing to where I can barely see it. The paper texture always needs to stay on top, you painting and drawing layers will always be below the texture stack.

There are already some layers labeled “Paint Here”, I’m going to go head and duplicate these while they’re still empty, but you can always add more later.

For simplicity, I’m going to use the same colors that I did last week, and I’m going to start with the tail again. I select my Brushy McBrush Face brush and start painting on one of the “Paint Here” layers. With this brush, once you lift your pencil off the screen, when you draw/ paint over the same area again it will get darker.

I really love the ends and edges of this brush, they’re a little rough so it looks like i’m painting with an actual brush.

This brush also layers very nicely, once I’ve got my base layer down I can go back in and make some darker areas like with real watercolor.

I still like to keep all of my colors on separate layers, so it’s easier for me to go back and make any color adjustments if needed.

Once I’ve got my base colors down, I’m going to add some more shadows. The color I started out with was little dark, but I ended up adjusting my layer opacity to 50%.

Now for my finishing touch, I’m going to use the Dry Ink pen that comes with Procreate (you can find it in the Inking brushes) I want this to look like I quickly went around it with an old Micron pen. I’m going to loosely trace around my original one drawing, but I’m not going to worry about being too precise. I want this illustration to have a looser feel than my gouache style painting from last week.

Now it’s finished, and here’s a side by side with my painting from last week. I can use these painting as clip art for stickers and I also plan to make some repeating patterns once I have finished all the zodiac signs.

Watercolor style with black ink details

Gouache style with pencil details

Creating Gouache Style Clip Art in Procreate to Use With Your Cricut or Silhouette Machine

Hi Everyone!

The last few weeks I showed you my process for how I create and test my single line SVG files. If single line SVGs aren’t really your thing, for the next few weeks I’m going to share with you some other methods for how I create artwork to use with my Cricut or Silhouette machine.

Since I already have this nice outline of my Capricorn, I’m going to use it as a guide to do a full color gouache-style version in Procreate on my iPad Pro. I’ll be able to use my finished artwork as clip art for stickers and other things.

Procreate is one of my absolute favorite apps for the iPad. It is a paid app, but it’s worth every penny in my opinion. It comes with some great brushes already included, there are numerous brush sets you can purchase from other artists, or you can even create you own custom brushes.

Today, I’m going to use a combination of brushes that are included with Procreate and some brushes that I have purchased. But you can absolutely create your own artwork using just the brushes that are already come with Procreate. Let’s get started!

I’m going to open my file that contains my line work for my Capricorn single line file. You can also start with a rough sketch too. I’m going to lower the opacity of this layer to about 10%, it’s visible but won’t interfere with my painting on top too much.

I like to work in a lot of layers, I think it’s easier to make adjustments to individual layers if I need to make any changes the further I get into my drawing or painting. I’m going to start with the tail first and I’m just going to fill in my base layer without any details. I’m using the Round Smooth Semi Wet brush from Lisa Glanz’s Gouache brush set. This is one of my favorite brush sets that I have purchased, I love using these brushes for my gouache style artwork.

The initial color I started with is a litter darker than I wanted, so I’m going to use Hue, Saturation, Brightness to adjust the color to my liking.

I will use the color picker tool (the little square between the brush sliders) to grab the new adjusted color. Then I will continue to fill in the tail.

I like to have separate layer for each base color. Once I’m finished with the tail, I’m going to fill in the body on it’s own layer.

After the body, I fill in the horns and hooves on their own layer.

Now I’m going to go in and do some detail work with the Peppermint pencil. This is one of my brushes that is already included with Procreate. The details for the body will be on their own layer and the details for the tail and horns will be on their own layer.

After I’m done with the details, i’m going to go back and add some shadows and highlights with the Thick Sticky brush from Bardot Brushes Gouache Paintbox set. Since I’m working with layers, I can sandwich my shadows and highlight between my pencil details and my base layers.

Looking at my drawing/ painting, I want the pencil lines to be a little darker, so I set my layers to Multiply. I still want to to be a little darker, so I swipe left on the layer and duplicate them a few times. Now it’s to my liking!

To use this file as a print and cut, I will need to export it as a PNG, this will give it a transparent background and will merge all my layers. If I want to make any color adjustments, I can always go back to my layered file in Procreate and re-export it.

Creating a Single Line SVG File in the Adobe Illustrator App Using Vectorize

Hi Everyone!

This week I wanted to share another method you can use to create your single line SVG file in the Illustrator App using the Vectorize tool.

One great thing about the Illustrator App is they continue to improve it. I’m not sure when they came out with the vectorize tool, but I stumbled upon it when I was tracing my sketch manually with the pencil tool.

Initially, I tried it out with my rough sketch, and the results weren’t great.

I went back into Procreate and I traced over my rough sketch with Studio Pen brush at 5% for a more refined drawing. The thinner you draw your lines here in Procreate, the better single line file you will get in Illustrator.

I saved my file as a PNG. At this point, it looks like it would make a good draw file in Cricut Design Space, but that is definitely not the case, you will get the dreaded double lines.

So we will need to do some additional steps in Illustrator to get a proper Draw file. I’m going to import my PNG file into the Illustrator app.

With my image selected, in the tool bar on the right side, I’m going to click on Object and in the dialog box I will select Vectorize.

This works a lot like Image Trace in the desktop version of Illustrator. I’m going to make sure I have my color mode set to Black and White and my Output set to Strokes. You can play around with the sliders a little bit to help refine your drawing.

Once you get it to where you like it, you can click Expand Vectorization and now you will have a drawing composed of single line strokes.

One last thing I’m going to do is make all of my strokes 1pt in width.

Now I can go through and refine my drawing even more with the direct selection tool and add any parts that may be missing with the pen or pencil tool. Once I’m satisfied with the way it is, I can save this as an SVG and import it into the Cricut Design Space App.

Creating Your Own Single Line SVG Files - Part Two

Hi Everyone!

This week is part two of how to create your own single line SVG files. I’m going to share with you how I take my sketch from Procreate and use the Adobe Illustrator app on my iPad Pro to create the SVG file.

Last week exported my file from Procreate as a JPEG. I’m going to bring that file into the Illustrator app by selecting the picture icon in the tool bar on the left and finding that file on my iPad.

You can adjust the size of the image, I typically keep my pretty large at this point. I’m going to add a new layer above my sketch layer, then I’m going to lock my sketch layer.

I typically start with a basic out line of my image and then fill in all the little details on a separate layer. You need to use either the pencil tool or the pen tool to create a single line SVG. This is so your image is made up of individual paths and not filled shapes. I’m going to use the pencil tool since it feels most natural when I’m tracing my image using my Apple Pencil.

I’m going to start tracing the outline of the horns with my pencil. If you need to stop and lift up your pencil, you can continue that same line again by selecting the path and start drawing at one of the end points.

Now, you can choose the draw the rest of the outline or start refining each section as you go along. I’m going to refine each section as I go along. Using the Direct selection tool, I can delete anchor points, change curved points to sharp angles and vice versa.

After the outline is complete, I will create a new layer for the details.

I do the details by sections in the drawing. As you can see, I simplified the scales on the fish tale from my original drawing. Now is great time to make any adjustments to your drawing. Once I finish the details, I make each section a subgroup in my layer.

Now it’s time to export this file as SVG. Click on the box with the arrow in the upper right tool bar across the top in the app. Select “Publish and export.”

On the left side of the screen, select “Export as.”

In the drop down next to Format, select SVG and click the blue Export button.

I’m going to select “Save to Files.”

Then I select the “Illustrator” folder. Next week I will show you how to test this file using the Cricut App on my iPad.

Creating Your Own Single Line SVG Files - Part One

Hi Everyone!

One of my goals this year is to create more SVG files to add here and my Etsy shop. There are a lot of SVG cut files available out there, but not as many single line or draw files. I thought I would share my process for how I create my single line SVG files.

I start off by trying to come up with an idea for a collection of files, this year I want to do all of the zodiac symbols. Since we’re still in January, I’m going to start off with Capricorn, which is often depicted as a sea goat.

I love using Pinterest to gather inspiration and I created a board where I’m collecting images of all the different zodiac symbols. I’ll keep adding to this board as I work my way through all the zodiac signs.

After I’ve gathered a few images I go through them and I start to pick out what parts I like from each image.

I really like how the fish tails loop around on these.

I think I want a profile view for the head.

Next, I’m going to start creating a rough sketch on my iPad Pro in one of my favorite apps, Procreate. If you don’t have an iPad, you can also do your sketch the good old fashioned way with pencil and paper.

I would like for these to fit on a round shape like a key ring or coaster, so I’m going to start out. with a circle shape and keep my design within that shape.

I like to sketch with the Peppermint Pencil, it’s one of the brushes that comes with Procreate. It’s almost like sketching with a real pencil!

Another great thing about Procreate is you can have your reference image in a separate little window inside Procreate.

Or you can do a split screen with Procreate and Pinterest.

I’m going to work with my reference image in a window in Procreate. So I take some screenshots of my Pinterest images that I will be referencing.

After I work out my sketch, I can either take a screenshot, save it as a JPEG or PNG file to bring into the Illustrator app.

If you made your sketch on regular paper, you will need to scan you image so you can bring it into Illustrator or another vector program of your choice.

Next week I will share with you how I turn my sketch into vector line art in the Illustrator App on my iPad.