Procreate is a drawing app, but it has some features that you can use to edit photos. In this blog post, I’ll go over what some tools are that you can use to edit your photos in Procreate.
I’m going to list some tools you can use to create specific editing effects below. I’ll include some blog posts with these tools so that if you’re new to Procreate you’ll be able to learn how to use that tool.
Selections and Transform
Selections and Transform; these two tools are the dynamic duo. (Selections looks like a twisted S in the top left corner of the picture below. Transform looks like a computer mouse to the right of Selections.) With Selections, you can use freehand to draw around any area that you want to edit/not edit. The area enclosed by the black and white line is the area you have selected.
If you want to edit the area outside of the black and white line, tap remove. White and transparent stripes should appear on the screen inside the black and white line. Where the white and transparent stripes appear, that is the area NOT SELECTED. If you change your mind and want the enclosed area to be selected, click invert.
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Once you have the desired area selected, tap Transform. Transform allows you to enlarge (pull the blue dots on the corners of the selection out to do this), warp, and rotate the selected area. Warp allows you pull the selected area in and/or out to warp the picture. This is what I’m doing in the picture below; I pulled the selected area out to make the pedals of the flower bigger.
To save the transformation, tap the transform button. If you don’t like the result, you may undo it.
Read more about Selections from the Procreate Handbook.
Read more about Transform from the Procreate Handbook.
Adjustments
Adjustments allows you to edit many aspects of your picture. For example, you can change the hue, saturation, and brightness of your picture. You can do things like make the picture glitch, make it look like glitter, and so much more. If you want to adjust only one part of the picture, select that area and tap adjustments (it looks like a wand to the left of selection). Next, just tap the desired adjustment. If it seems like an adjustment isn’t working, put your finger on the screen and slide it to the right. This could increase the adjustments’ effect.
,Tip: to create a glitter effect, use the Noise Adjustment.
Read more about Adjustments in the Procreate Handbook.
Colordrop
Colordrop is simple; put your finger on the color bubble, drag the color out towards the picture and drop it where you want to change the color of that area. If you don’t like it, just hit undo. Below is an example of a picture I colordropped many different colors into.
Read more about colordrop from another one of our blog posts.
Layer Blend Modes
Layer blend modes is a fun way to change your photo; there are quite a few choices, and each one is unique. To change the blend mode, go to layers. Tap the “N” on the layer. From there, you can choose the blend mode and change the opacity of the layer. To get the most out of blend modes, duplicate the photo layer and change the blend modes on each to different modes. If you don’t like how the different blend modes appear, just turn the blend mode back to normal.
Learn more about blend modes in the Procreate Handbook.
Draw on it
The last one is to draw on the picture. I prefer to add a new layer before drawing on top of the photo. In the picture below, I used bubble brushes, glitter brushes, confetti brushes, and the wet blending watercolor brush (from our watercolor set) to edit the photo below (you can get all of these from our product section on our website).
Read more about drawing over a picture in Procreate from one of our blog posts.
Those are the many ways to edit a photo in Procreate.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to read our other blog posts, subscribe to our email list for tips and tricks sent right to you, and check out our digital brushes for Procreate in the product section of our website.