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Procreate

Jenn!!!! That is INCREDIBLE! Your FIRST??? I'm dazzled and feeling inadequate. Although, I guess I've been spending more time painting and learning how to make my own backgrounds, AND trying to do things I can use in challenges, rather than playing with imported elements. That's where I'm goin' next! This is so inspiring, so I have to return the thanks for the nudge to pursue ProCreate.
 
SharLamb said:
Jenn!!!! That is INCREDIBLE! Your FIRST??? I'm dazzled and feeling inadequate. Although, I guess I've been spending more time painting and learning how to make my own backgrounds, AND trying to do things I can use in challenges, rather than playing with imported elements. That's where I'm goin' next! This is so inspiring, so I have to return the thanks for the nudge to pursue ProCreate.
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Thank you! I want to do that too - well doodle/paint with it ... but I have blank canvas fear. It's so much easier for me to grab a designers paper and elements. I say hats off to YOU for doing it yourself! that's "creating"!
 
Oh wow Jenn @jenn mccabe !!! That page is amazing! I might have to bite the bullet and get the iPad version too! I can see how this could be addictive! Do you think an Apple Pencil is necessary? Or did you use just your fingers?
 
I have/use the pencil. Compared to my huge cpu monitor, even the biggest iPad is small, and I find myself using the pencil to keep more control. I use my fingers to pinch to resize and sometimes move the canvas around on the work surface. I also have an iPad keyboard/cover, so I can type text on a real keyboard, and use the arrow keys to nudge elements/shadows, etc.
 
Thanks @Karen -I used the apple pencil. Not sure how it would be be with just fingers. There are other options for the iPad - if you're not drawing/painting and just want to scrap ... I would think any compatible "pencil or stylus" might do because your just tapping/or pushing & pulling shadows, dragging elements.

If you really want to paint/draw - the iPencil is the golden standard with Procreate though.

But here's a quick google search of some alternatives - some as low as $9.99 - probably would be much nicer than using your fingers to scrap.

https://www.igeeksblog.com/best-ipad-pro-stylus/
 
Well, ladies. I've hit my first big complaint about ProC. I am frustrated because I can't use my .abr brushes, and most of the .brush brushes for ProC are for people who are drawing/painting. There's a convoluted method for altering PS brushes for use in ProC, but W A Y over my pay level! I'm hoping someone comes up with a simple set of .brush brushes, or ProC will come up with an easy conversion with one of their upgrades. If anyone knows of a set of simple brushes (like one that includes a square brush!) for ProC, let me know.
 
SharLamb said:
Well, ladies. I've hit my first big complaint about ProC. I am frustrated because I can't use my .abr brushes, and most of the .brush brushes for ProC are for people who are drawing/painting. There's a convoluted method for altering PS brushes for use in ProC, but W A Y over my pay level! I'm hoping someone comes up with a simple set of .brush brushes, or ProC will come up with an easy conversion with one of their upgrades. If anyone knows of a set of simple brushes (like one that includes a square brush!) for ProC, let me know.
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I’ve made some already for myself but they never hit the shop as I was t sure if scrap girls are ready for that.

Oh and btw. This is my latest scrap on iPad video


Nicole | NBK-Design
 
Oh I look forward to watching it, but must wait until tomorrow. I am awake way too late, so must read for a few minutes and drift off to dreamland. I actually made myself 3 brushes today: a hard round, a soft round, and a hard square. Stamp-like brushes are very rare so far in ProC. I am still awkward with it, but get better with each project. Thank you so much for helping me along this path!
 
I love the video. I can see that I’m getting better with ProC, because I knew how you did it! Thank you so much!
 
This is the best thread ever, LOL.
I just got a new iPad with a pencil b/c I got tired of watching my DH do EVERYTHING on his. Seriously, he doesn’t use paper anymore.

Anyway, I immediately downloaded ProCreate b/c... well, you know... a new creative toy. BUT it is NOT very intuitive, LOL. I was on a super long flight trying to figure it out and failed miserably. All the help and tutorials, even from the site, are on YouTube and I had no WiFi.

I’m going to watch these and master this thing yet! I’m inspired!
 
SharLamb said:
Well, ladies. I've hit my first big complaint about ProC. I am frustrated because I can't use my .abr brushes, and most of the .brush brushes for ProC are for people who are drawing/painting. There's a convoluted method for altering PS brushes for use in ProC, but W A Y over my pay level! I'm hoping someone comes up with a simple set of .brush brushes, or ProC will come up with an easy conversion with one of their upgrades. If anyone knows of a set of simple brushes (like one that includes a square brush!) for ProC, let me know.
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I can see how that would be frustrating. I’m not a huge brush person, I’m afraid I have to admit. Not sure why? It was the lure of brushes that first got me to fall in love with digi in the first place. But I often forget to use them! I do miss the ease of applying shadow styles - like @Li Li Wee mentioned -it’s a bit tedious with lots of layers.

@NBK-Design will you be making any Procreate brushes for your shop?
 
If I realize there is a need I sure can get some brushes done. I work on a few and they are not that easy to set up like it’s with photoshop. But I really would love to do some. Maybe some hints what you like to have.


Nicole | NBK-Design
 
Yes, Jen. I agree...not intuitive, except that I worked with Affinity for several months (never did take to it), and there are some similarities...but I like ProC WAY more! The first thing I did was watch Nicole's video where she explains all the steps. Then I started surfing the net for tutorials, and watching the built-in ones. I can see me mostly using it for art journal pages, and only doing occasional scrap pages. My best hint is to use just one kit per project. There's no easy way to keep track of the products you use. I'm finally feeling more at home with it after a week, and doing several pages.

Nicole, I figured out how to make the few brushes I really wanted, so nothing pops out as a need for me at the moment. I'll let you know as I play with it more. :)
 
Today I am learning how to make two simple things to replace tangible items on my tangible desktop. I just don't use all the sections of a typical Planner. All I need is a calendar and a virtual spiral binder for jotting stuff down...like TLP challenges for the month, and which ones I've done; or where I am in my Photoshop Artistry course. So I've used ProC to make Basic Pages, which I can then duplicate as needed. I found a ton of free calendars by Googling "blank calendars" or calendar templates...something like that. I saved the PDF of the one I liked best, and am saving each month as it's own page in my Photos (I did screen shots of each month). Then when I move the months, as needed to ProC, I can write directly on my iPad...can easily color-code. In all the youtube videos I see, the gals are decorating up their calendars like crazy with stickers and photos, and writing in calligraphy or using text to fill in their days. I can't believe how much time goes into this. I'm keeping it VERY simple, plain, boring...saving my creative juices for scrapping! I admit to making the background a pretty color. That's about all the enhancing I plan to do. I guess I'm not much of a girly-girl!

I admit, I don't have those sexy hyper-linked tabs to take me to each month that I would if I used Good Notes or Notable, but I think I can live without them. I put all the months in a "stack" in the ProC Gallery, and the "template" and spiral binder pages in a separate "stack."

Although I tried to love my Travelers Notebook, it just feels clunky on my desk. I love it for actual TRAVEL, though, so it isn't a total loss. All the stickers and washi tape I bought for it when I first got enthused are a loss...can't see me ever using them unless I put them all on a sheet of paper and scan them, then use them digitally! LOL

If I remember (in a month or two), I will let you know how it's going.
 
Have you got the free calendar sheets I’ve done back in nov/dec? Maybe those can work for your project


Nicole | NBK-Design
 
NBK-Design said:
Have you got the free calendar sheets I’ve done back in nov/dec? /QUOTE]

I did Nicole. Thank you. But my big issue is that I don't want to have to write in all the birthdays and anniversaries, etc....the recurring annual events. I finally figured out, as they say nowadays, a HACK! I just pull up my Google Calendar page for the month I want to use. It has all the dates marked already for all my occasions and automatically updates them every year.

I take a screen shot of the page and edit it in Photoshop, doing things like using levels to make all the lines really black, removing the white background, etc.

Then I save it to my desktop as a png so it is transparent, then move it to dropbox.

Then I open a new project in ProCreate, and insert the calendar page from dropbox. Now I save it as a PSD (saves to my photos), and it is in the STACK I have called Callendars in my ProC Gallery.

That sounds like a lot of steps, but it takes less time doing it than it does explaining it. And SO WORTH THE EFFORT because I don't have to write in all the stuff every time. I can write in new things as they arise, and even do some decorating.



So far all I have done by hand is the lettering in red. I used a photo for the background, but on some of the others I've made, I've used scrapping products/papers/elements, etc.
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jenn mccabe said:
I've been on the fence thinking about getting procreate for my iPad for awhile now. I do think lili uses it - if you follow her on FB or IG she usually posts videos of her work on her iPad and she has several here in the forums.

My problem is I never seem to have much time to create these days. Maybe learning to do it on my iPad will make me do it more, since its so portable vs my desktop no working laptop anymore)? IDK.

For $10 it can't hurt to try. I think Affinty looks really cool but isn't that one a bigger investment? I was watching NBK's videos while at the salon sitting under the dryer last weekend. :D I'm gonna check out your page now Sharon. So does this mean you got the app? If so - do you like it?
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Jenn, You created an awesome page on Procreate, how did you find creating shadowing? Was it easy?
 
Justagirl said:
Jenn, You created an awesome page on Procreate, how did you find creating shadowing? Was it easy?
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Thank you Em! It's pretty easy ... but I'm finding my shadows are darker when I resize the image for web in PS and upload here. I have to fine tune my opacity a bit better. Right now, I'm a little heavy handed for how I like my shadows to appear. This page wasn't too bad but the 2nd page I did (for the Blog/Inspo challenge for iNSD)... the shadows are too harsh for me. They didn't look that harsh on my iPad though.

Not sure if anyone knows how to avoid bringing it into PS to resize for web. Is there a way to do it on the iPad? I haven't looked into that yet.

You basically make a copy of the thing you want to shadow. Select it (one gesture on Procreate). Fill it with your black -or other color - (also one gesture on Procreate). Blur it - one gesture plus a slider to fine tune the amount of blur. Then you can move it down and over and warp it a bit. The warping is very similar to PS. You can finish it off by reducing the opacity of the shadow. It's not as easy as adding a style ... but if you think about PS and how you have to put shadows on their own layers, blur them and then warp and fine tune the opacity - that part is very similar. There are quite a few steps with doing it in PS that way anyway. KWIM? I do miss having a quick shadow style for things I don't want to warp.
 
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