ProCreate Tutorial By MaryJane Sarvis – Adding To Your Brushes Collection

You can purchase more brush sets within the app from two different tabs. You’ll see Procreate Artery at the far left end of top brush menu. There’s also an entrance through the wrench, top left under the info tab. Most people end up buying them all. I don’t regret any.

Go to their website, then custom brushes. They download to either Dropbox or directly into the Imported group. I just got a great group I tested in blue. You can move brushes into your preferred group by tapping and dragging directly into the title on menu bar. It’s a bit tricky and takes a few tries. I have yet to share mine, I will as its only fair!

Start by observing any brush. We’ll do Elements group. Double tap an individual brush. (Oceans) It will flip to show you the brush structure details. Notice the 2 windows. Observe the choices in each.

Top-import shape from –
Bottom-import grain from –

All of these brushes are made from the pro library choices. You’ll be styling your new brushes in this way. You can also edit each and all of the existing brushes from the menu on the bottom strip on each brush profile.

For your first tries make a few from the choices in the pro library. Hit the + sign in the upper right of any brush group. You can add to any group. The panel will rotate. Notice on the bottom menu – Source must be blue. Then try different shape/grain combinations. (I keep a white canvas open and save my tests). To adjust your brush use this bottom menu to weak your brush. This is your basic recipe.

The general tab, dynamics, stroke etc. will all become familiar as you tweak. I’d recommend playing with them all. Also learn by examining each back panel to your existing brushes. Tweak them too. You can add and rename. Thankfully there’s a reset tab top left of your existing Procreate brushes so you can’t lose them.

To make a brush from your own shapes and grains, or any combo of both:

Take a drawing or photo of your desired brush. I’ll explain making stamps later. For a brush remember these marks ‘pile up’.

Then go to another app to reverse your image. Positive to negative. I use Photo Wizard. There’s several filters there to assist with this. Remember that lighter marks might disappear.

I also used other settings like brightness/contrast to sharpen for this particular brush.

If I just barely touch the brush it acts like a stamp. We’ll get to stamps later. As I drag or paint with it you can see what all of the other settings along the bottom menu of each brush can effect. Size, opacity, scatter, the tips or how each stroke starts and stops is all there. Mostly I find that I have to tweak each brush individually. There’s no way other than trial and error to get the brush you want. At least in my intuitive style approach, though I’m sure you can investigate specific settings. I use the info I obtain from the brushes from the Procreate selections.

I decided that big leaf was too heavy so I made this drawing of small scattered leaves. I then reversed it.

I made two brushes from the above negative shown here. I think I’ll use them often now. I like the tiny spray. Save your negatives!

Little leaf 1- I used it as grain, then adjusted the scatter etc. so that its heavy then thick, but also does a wide sweep.

Very scatteredLl – shown at bottom left on canvas. I really changed the scatter, made it randomized and used a different shape. You can make a huge variety
of brushes from one negative.

Notice the dark stroke on top left of canvas. This was before I set the stroke spacing and scatter as is now on the settings shown. Most negatives will be dark until you’ve tuned it to your desires.

Shape (or negative) shown here. I made this brush from other brushes in Procreate by layering them, reversing the image, then returning it to Procreate as a shape. I still can use the grain box to create more options. I like it as is.

Any negative can become a stamp if you put the setting on stamp preview in general on bottom brush attribute menu. See blue highlights.

This was made from an photo of a rose then put through Photo Wizard. I also set the behavior to randomized. If I need them to be one direction I’ll just turn it off. Other than sizing and opacity, that’s it. *if you want to make stamps like in Juxtaposer that’s done in layers not as a brush necessarily.

I made the rose, then a few patterned and textures with the rose stamps. I ended up with another texture brush too. Possibilities are endless!

I made the rose, then a few patterned and textures with the rose stamps. I ended up with another texture brush too. Possibilities are endless! From stamp to texture. Note that a square pattern results until you fix your scatter. It’s still slightly visible in this brush. It really takes some time to get to know and to tweak each brush.