Procreate Basics for Beginners: Get Calm, Get Good, Start Making Sellable Art

You downloaded Procreate, opened your iPad, and got smacked in the face by 40 buttons. Classic. Your brain whispered, “Nope,” and your finger hovered over the home button like it was a fire alarm.

Breathe. You don’t need to learn everything today. You just need a few basics that keep you out of panic mode, so you can start making art that actually turns into stickers, planners, clip art, and other cute stuff people buy.

The quick setup that saves you from future heartbreak

If you only do three things before you draw, do these.

1) Pick a canvas size based on what you sell

Start bigger than you think you need. Resizing down later is way less painful than trying to scale up a tiny file that turns crunchy.

• Default safe size: 5000 by 5000 pixels (works for a lot of product types)
• Digital stickers only: 1000 by 1000 pixels at 72 DPI (smaller files, easier for customers to store)

If stickers are your main thing, this guide helps you choose sizes without guessing: Procreate sticker canvas size guide

2) 🌈 RGB vs CMYK — Which Should You Use?

Color settings feel boring until you print something and your pretty colors look… tired.

• RGB: Great for planners, stickers, PNG clip art, and most digital use, also many home printers handle it well
• CMYK: Often used for professional printing, it can look more muted on some sticker prints

If you’re getting products manufactured, check what the manufacturer wants, then run a small test print if you can. Your eyes get the final vote.

3) Pick one brush, yes one, and chill

Brush shopping is a hobby. A fun one. Also a massive time thief.

Pick one brush and use it for:

• Brush tool
• Eraser tool
• Smudge tool

Stick with that one brush for a week. You’ll learn how it behaves fast, and you stop wasting your drawing time scrolling.

The Procreate moves you’ll use every single session

Learn these once, and your future self will be smug about it.

1. Two finger tap = undo
2. Pinch = zoom in, zoom out
3. Three finger swipe = copy and paste menu (cut, copy, duplicate, paste)

Practice them until you do them without thinking. It’s the closest thing Procreate has to a cheat code.

Layers 101: the difference between “oops” and “ruined”

If you draw everything on one layer, you are one mistake away from staring into the void.

A simple layer stack that works:

• Sketch layer
• Line art layer
• Color layers (separate layers per color if you want easy edits)
• Background layer (optional)

Rename layers if you can. If you can’t, welcome to the club, you’ll still survive.

Alpha lock vs clipping mask (so you stop fighting your own art)

Both keep you “inside the lines,” but they behave differently.

Tool	What it does	Best for	The catch
Alpha lock	Paints only on existing pixels of that layer	Quick recolors, adding texture directly	Mistakes affect the base color on that layer
Clipping mask	Puts edits on a new layer that only shows inside the layer below	Shadows, highlights, texture you might change later	Slightly more layers to manage

If you love control (and also make “happy accidents”), clipping masks are your best friend.

A beginner workflow you can repeat every time

This is the part where things start feeling doable.

Sketch, then lower the pressure

1. Start with a sketch layer.
2. Add a new layer on top, lower the sketch opacity.
3. Set the sketch layer to multiply so it stays visible but lighter.

Line art, slow and steady

Create your line art on a new layer. This is where you clean things up, fix shapes, and make it look how you want.

Color like you plan to sell it

Put color layers under your line art. Separate layers per color make it easy to adjust for:

• customer requests
• new colorways
• matching a product theme

Want faster fills? Set your line art as a reference layer, then color drop into your color layers.

Keep backgrounds simple at first

Add a background layer underneath everything if you want one. Start basic. Build skills one at a time.

If you need a full sticker focused walkthrough after this, use this: Simple guide to designing stickers in Procreate

Quick fixes that make your art look instantly cleaner

Quick shape for straight lines and perfect circles

• Draw your line, then press and hold with the Apple Pencil to snap it straight
• Draw an ellipse, hold, then tap the screen with your finger to turn it into a circle

Selection tool for “why is that eyeball doing that”

Use the selection tool to grab part of your art and move it, resize it, or fix weird little issues. Use freehand for organic shapes. Use transform options like distort when you need to nudge things into place.

Export settings for sellable files (the ones people actually need)

Go to Actions menu, Share.

• PNG: transparent background, best for most digital product art
• JPEG: fine for digital invites or images with a background
• PSD: best if you want to edit later in Photoshop
• PDF: useful if you’re focused on printing

If you want transparent PNGs, turn off the background layer before exporting.

Simple art sells, because it’s about feelings, not flexing

Your art doesn’t have to be realistic or packed with details to be worth money. People buy art because it meets a human need. It makes them laugh, feel seen, or feel cozy for five seconds in a chaotic day.

So yes, make the simple sticker. Make the cute clip art. Make the wall print that feels like a warm little pep talk.

If you’re overwhelmed, start here Free Digital Drawing Guide

If Procreate still makes your brain glitch, and because it has cute drawing prompts, grab this: Digital Drawing without the Overwhelm. You’ll focus on a few simple tools, small finishable pieces, and building confidence without pressure.