Do you know what alpha lock in Procreate is and what it does? If you don’t, this is just the place to learn about it! Using alpha lock in Procreate will be easy after you read this!
Where do you find alpha lock?
Alpha lock is on the layer options menu, as shown down below.
To access the layer options menu, go to Layers. Tap the selected layer (this layer is blue); the Layer Options Menu will then appear, where you should see Alpha Lock listed. To activate Alpha Lock, simply tap “Alpha Lock” on the Layer Options Menu. Please note that alpha lock is only applied to one layer, so it won’t affect the other layers.
To deactivate alpha lock, bring up the Layer Options Menu again. (If Alpha lock is active, it should have a check mark next to it). Tap “Alpha Lock” to deactivate it.
What does Alpha lock do and how do you use it?
Alpha lock locks in the contents of your layer so that you can only draw on top of the layer’s contents. For example, if I draw a circle on a layer and put that layer in alpha lock, anything I try to draw outside of the circle won’t appear, but anything I draw inside the circle will appear. Essentially, alpha lock turns what you’ve draw on a layer into the canvas. Why is this helpful? Let’s say I’ve drawn a basic heart. Now, I’ll put alpha lock on and add stripes to the heart. It’s super easy because all I have to do is draw straight across the heart and it will only show up on the heart instead of the whole canvas! This makes adding details and patterns much easier!
Let me give you an even better example. I’ve drawn a cat and I have a separate layer for the cat’s coat. I’ve drawn the coat, but now I’ve decided I’d like to change it. I could just delete the coat layer and start over, or I could use alpha lock and go over it quicker! All I have to do is turn alpha lock on and I can quickly go over the old coat with the new one. Because the paint only shows up where the old coat was, I can quickly go over everything without having to worry about getting paint in the wrong spot.
I hope you see why alpha lock makes things so much easier!