tools - procreate

At the start of 2019, I was fortunate enough to save up enough money for a new iPad after working in the summer. I had no laptop at the time and I thought this tool would be perfect for my design class as well as a university in the future. There are hundreds of different apps you can download for design but there is one app in particular that I have fallen in love with and use daily. This app is Procreate.

Procreate is a raster graphics editor app for digital painting developed and published by Savage Interactive for iOS and iPadOS. Used by professional designers, artists and even animation illustrators the responsiveness of the app, particularly when used with the apple pencil makes it feel so similar to creating on real paper. There are over 190 brushes you can choose from and can even create your own. This has been a real selling point to fine artists. The flexibility and portability of being able to create anywhere is winning a lot of analogue designers over as you can work anytime, anywhere. You can generally create and develop artwork at a speed that can keep up with your imagination. You can also easily organise your artwork in the gallery format by ‘stacking’ your works. Transferring your files from iPad to computer is made simple as there are many different export formats.

However, it is not so useful I find for creating typographic composition as you are limited to font choices. There is no lasso tool or magic wand you would find on your traditional photoshop so a lot of the time you have to spend time physically erasing an e.g background. There are also no vector brushes as it is raster graphics.

This app is only $10 and not subscription-based. Similar to photoshop you work with layers. I think photoshop needs to watch out for this competitor in the marketplace as procreate has similar if not better tools in certain areas. Below you will see some of the illustrations I have constructed. One of my favourite things to do is draw on top of photos by adding fun doodles or making collages. You can view my ‘personal projects’ page ‘the conscious club’ for more hand-drawn illustrations using procreate. I believe this app has shaped and changed digital design as we know it. Gamechangers excites me, that's why Procreate is my current favourite tool and I highly recommend it to anyone from designer to doodler!

#des100

source cites:

Procreate (software). (2020, March 28). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procreate_(software)#cite_note-3

Lee, G. (n.d.). Procreate 5 launches with the world's biggest brush library. Retrieved from https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/creative-software/procreate-5-hands-on-specs-release-date-details/

Korman, K. (2019, January 11). Procreate 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started. Retrieved from https://www.skillshare.com/blog/learn/procreate-101-everything-you-need-to-know-to-get-started