Did you feel like wanting a custom special brush that suits your needs? Or needing a very specific texture or pattern tool for your type of illustration? With Procreate you can easily create your own brushes and I will show you how in this step-by-step guide.
First, we will go through the brush menu and all the options, so you will have a better understanding of what does what. 1. Create a new canvas and navigate to the brush menu.
Then you would tap the + to start creating a new brush.
2. Now you are working on a brand new brush!
The first thing to do is to go to shape. This would basically be the shape of your brush (d'uh).
To customize the shape, go to Shape Source (just underneath the brush preview and adobe the Shape behaviour options). You would the option to either import your own image or use the Procreate Library, which is also a great resource.
The Library contains a wide variety of textures and shapes, that are great for textures brushes.
3. Brush options
3.1 After I have my shape selected, I would go and adjust the Stroke path options. You have 3 sliders: Spacing, Jitter and Fall Off. Start with the Spacing slider. Spacing refers to the distance between each shape that constitutes your brush stroke. This factor plays a critical role in determining whether your brush strokes are smooth and continuous or consist of individual shapes. If you increase the Spacing value, you'll notice that the shapes of your brush are more widely spaced out. A low Spacing value will result in a more solid brush stroke. By adjusting the Spacing, you can achieve the desired level of texture and variation in your brush strokes.
Jitter is a setting that, like Spacing, spreads out the shapes in your brush stroke. However, unlike Spacing, Jitter does this in a non-uniform way. In other words, Jitter adds a random element to the placement of the shapes in your brush stroke, resulting in a more organic and natural appearance. By adjusting the Jitter setting, you can achieve a more varied and textured brush stroke.
Fall Off is a setting that determines how quickly your brush stroke fades out. By adjusting the amount of Fall Off, you can control the length of your brush strokes. A setting of 0% or None will produce a continuous line without a designated ending point, whereas a higher Fall Off value will create shorter, more defined strokes. By experimenting with the Fall Off setting, you can achieve the desired effect for your artwork and add depth and dimension to your brush strokes. 3.2 Stabilization Just underneath the Stroke path tab, you will find Stabilization, containing a few different sliders you could use to adjust your stroke.
StreamLine is a setting that controls the level of line stabilization in your brush strokes. By increasing the StreamLine value, you can achieve smoother lines with fewer jitters and irregularities. It could take away from the organic look, so adjust this according to your needs. This setting is particularly useful for creating precise and accurate outlines.
3.3 Shape (again) Your stroke is composed of a series of your chosen shape. The Shape source is the foundational shape for your brush. Most basic brushes feature a circular, oval, or square shape, but you can easily switch to a different shape by selecting this setting and choosing a different option.
Scatter: Use this setting to control whether your brush shape moves in one continuous line along the stroke or scatters around it. This feature can be handy for creating brush strokes with irregular patterns, such as paint splatters, glitter, or freckles.
Rotation: Adjust this setting to change the direction of your brush's shape within the stroke.
Count: This setting determines how many times your brush shape will make an impression within the stroke.
Count Jitter: This feature allows you to add variability to the brush shape count, creating more natural-looking brush strokes.
Randomized: Use this toggle to turn Procreate's additional variation feature on or off for your brush strokes.
Azimuth: Choose whether you want your brush strokes to be affected by the angle or tilt of your Apple pen.
Shape filtering: This option offers three choices (None, Classic, and Improved) for the degree of anti-aliasing applied to your brush strokes. Each option affects your brush strokes in a different way.
4. Grain
Grain is the texture your brush has. You can once again either upload your own image or use a texture from the library.
With the sliders underneath, you can adjust the scale, depth, contrast and other options until you are happy with the way your texture looks on your brush.
5. Wet Mix
Pretty useful if you are making a traditional-looking brush! The Dilution slider would be how much "water" you are adding to your brush, while Charge would be how much pigment you are using.
6. Colour Dynamic
Within this menu, you can fine-tune the colour variation of your brush using a series of sub-menus. These sub-menus provide controls for adjusting the hue, saturation, brightness, and intensity of your brush stroke. With so many options available, it's important to experiment with each one to understand how they affect the appearance of your brush stroke
I like to experiment with the Hue sliders, since it would give the brush strokes different shades of the colour I am using and makes some interesting effects.
In the Properties tab, you would choose the minimum and maximum size your brush could go, and then you would go to the "About this brush" tab to name and save it!
Now let's create our own stamp brush!
Draw your shape!
I would be making a scattered stars brush.
You want to make your shape white, on a transparent background. You can do that by turning off your background layer.
Then, export your shape as a PNG file so you would preserve the transparency.
Now, we would go to the brush menu and tap the + to create a brush, like we already did in step 1. You would choose the "import a photo option" and then import your own image.
Then, in Stroke path I adjusted the spacing quite high so my stars would be scattered and more natural with just one stroke. Play around with the other sliders as well. Adjusting the Fall off slider lets me have some of my stars more faded.
Then, in Shape I also adjusted the rotation and my stars look more varied, and don't give out the impression of the same star being multiplied!
I went back to my canvas and tested my star brush with just a few strokes:
Now you have a way to paint a starry sky in just a few motions! If you are looking to create a traditional texture brush, you would choose a shape from the library (or make your own) and play around with all the sliders, now that you know what they do. You can easily make pencil and ink brushes, specific to your liking. For paint and watercolour brushes, I advise to play around with the Wet Mix tab, since that would give it a more convincing look. Use the Procreate Library, since it is full of great textures and resources you could use to make your own brushes!
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