How To Become An Expert Procreate Graphics Designer?

Procreate Graphics Designer

Now that businesses know the impact of design on their marketing efforts and revenue, there is a spike in demand for pro designers who can incorporate brand ideas into visually appealing graphics. 

Interestingly, graphic design freelancers typically earn a minimum of $20 to $150 per hour and close to $60,000 yearly. That’s a huge figure for anyone wanting to start a career in graphic design. But the same report shows that about 10,000 graphic designers will lose their job between now and 2029 despite the increasing demand.

This points out how important it is for you to be extremely good at what you do – whether creating illustrations and infographics, designing awesome graphical JPEGS, or building a website prototype with procreate.

In this article, we will explore the few steps that can help you scale up from amateur to expert Procreate graphics designer in no time.

You may also want to know: Which One Is The Better Option: Graphic Design Vs Web Design?

What you need to do for Expert Procreate Graphics Designer

Get Familiar With The Ins And Outs Of Procreate 

Getting familiar with the ins and outs gives you a pro advantage on Procreate. There are a lot of inbuilt quick-access functions and short route tricks to achieve some tasks. However, you cannot know all these things if you are not a frequent procreate designer.

For example, by using the “disable touch actions” under gesture control in the preferences section, you can rid unnecessary nuisances that pop up when you accidentally touch your canvas with your fingers. Also, you can set special functions such as two fingers held on the screen to undo, and three fingers to redo.

Another inbuilt trick is the brush cursor. With this, you’re able to see the edges of your brush when working or using the brush to paint your wireframe. A similar feature to this is the Color Drop which helps you fill your design with a unique color instead of repetitively picking and painting each section individually.

The quick menu feature gives you easy access to favorite or frequently used tools. That way, you don’t have to always go on a searching spree for your tools when creating a design. The Brush Set feature is used for saving favorite brushes like watercolor, and it is an extremely helpful feature in Procreate for tattoo artists.

There are many other features to try out. No doubt, these easy-to-access features will enhance your productivity and help you create professional designs like a pro.

Take A Course 

If you want to quickly hack design with Procreate, you need to take a course. 

Consider these stats;

  • Compared to traditional classroom learning, corporate e-learning takes only 40 percent to 60 percent less time to complete.
  • E-Learning can increase retention rate by 25 percent to 60 percent.

These records show how effective online courses are. There are diverse design courses available online for you to explore such as Procreate Masterclass 2023, and Procreate Masterclass: Digital Drawing on the iPad and you can find others here. 

Now, this isn’t a hack to become an expert overnight. Online courses will only expose you to new how-to and why-not. So you need to constantly practice what you learn. Of course, some top-notch courses provide links to amazing assignments and do-it-yourself tasks that you can leverage for the experience.

Also note that taking online procreate courses is not for newbies alone. While you have certain knowledge about designing with procreate, you can take your design skills through the roof, learn more about the basic theories of design, and derive new tricks through subsequent advanced courses.

Edit Pressure Curve

This is a feature that determines how Procreate responds to pressure when sketching a shape, writing some words, or crafting calligraphy lines with the brush tool. So the more pressure you apply through your stylus pen or fingers, the thicker your strokes are.

With the default pressure curve settings on Procreate, you might need to exert more pressure in order to see a notable graphic effect on your canvas. That’s not a good idea as it quickly wears out your fingers, if you’re not using a stylus, and can damage your device screen.

Alternatively, you can adjust the pressure curve settings to either increase your canvas sensitivity to touch or reduce it. Go to the Wrench settings and click on the preference button. Afterward, navigate to the “edit Pressure Curve” text and adjust the default linear line to form a sigmoid curve. 

Once you have adjusted the curve to your desired settings, go back to procreate’s workspace and try creating some strokes to ensure everything is right in place. With increased sensitivity, your canvas responds faster, and it becomes easier to elicit impressions with your brush strokes. 

You also don’t need to apply much pressure to your designs and strokes unlike before. And this fast-tracks your design experience while giving you that comfortable feel necessary for sketching out interactive design concepts.

Use The Record Feature 

You can become better at using Procreate by trying out the record feature. This tool typically creates a playback of your entire design process and it is helpful for self-assessment or checking out tiny unnoticed details.

To create a playback, locate the wrench icon on the top-left corner and open the “Actions menu”. Navigate to the “Canvas” section and click on it. Follow through and look for “Timelapse Replay” which you should click if you are ready to record.

Once you’re done recording, export the video file in a compatible format and watch it immediately you have free time to criticize your design process. Review your mistakes and see what areas need more improvement. Jot down the aspects lagging and see how long it took you to create a concept.

Don’t forget you can share your design playback for marketing purposes or to get feedback from your design community if you have one.

Participate In Online Design Challenges

Finally, participate in online design challenges. Watching Youtube videos and staying up all night to understand Procreate’s in-built tools are both great steps to up your game. But you won’t truly know how far you’ve gone unless you compete with other designers.

Find an active community on Facebook or Linkedin and request access to join if it is a closed group. Ask the community managers if there are active or upcoming design challenges available and the criteria necessary for you to participate.

To become an expert, you need to meet with someone who has set a pre-existing bar. That’s why you should also network with reputable and responsive procreate designers available who can put you through. 

Conclusion: Procreate Graphics Designer

Great designers create great designs. So before you launch your services as a procreate designer, ensure you have all it takes to create satisfying graphics for your clients. First off, get a reputable design course from platforms like Udemy and procreate. course. This will equip you with basic theoretical knowledge and certain design hacks. 

Editing the pressure curves, watching YouTube videos, and being self-critical by watching recordings of your design process will also help you to become a pro in the shortest time possible. Don’t also forget to network with other expert procreate designers in order to put you through or exchange valuable resources. And lastly, join an active community and look out for procreate design challenges.