Who knew you could fake a watercolor? This course, Foolproof Shortcuts and Techniques for a “Fake” Watercolor using Procreate and Illustrator on I-Pad, will show you how! Were you in one of my earlier classes called “Fake a Watercolor”? Those courses has 2 parts: Part 1 was in Illustrator, where you learned all about creating Illustrator brushes. You then used these brushes to produce an amazing silhouette composition. Next you took this composition into Photoshop, in Part 2, where you applied all the finishing touches to make it look like a real watercolor!

Well, this is the iPad version of the same course except this time it is:

So much easier!
Much more fun!
Introduces you to Illustrator on the iPad
Uses Procreate instead of Photoshop

Whether you are into art licensing or not, you can learn this process to help you produce artworks in bulk or a series, in a fraction of the time it would take to paint using the natural media. This course is explained in a step-by-step way that any graphic designer can follow. The skills you learn will reinforce all you know about Illustrator and Procreate while giving you a unique and practical purpose. Take a deep dive into the fine art world and produce a fabulous artwork in the process!

The verbal guidance and demonstrations will help you learn all the necessary core skills that can be applied to so many of your future designs. Whether you are new to design, or a fully qualified licensed artist, learning these skills can be pivotal in your art licensing adventure! Imagine the time you will save! In this class, I will show you the basics of Adobe Illustrator for iPad by creating a simple floral silhouette using a combination of tools. You will learn a lot about the user interface and all the relevant tools and settings. Next, I will show you how to export this, and then import it into Procreate. Once in the Procreate interface, I show you many tips and tricks as you learn a variety of useful concepts.

Here is an example of my piece created with these techniques.

In the class I will be showing you methods to help YOU create beautiful pieces to resemble real watercolour, but that’s not all! I will also show you tools to finish these floral illustrations in three or four wildly different ways. That’s truly the fascination of this process in Procreate. As you learn the technique and make it your own, you will be able to create authentically, intuitively and uniquely. This class teaches the basics of Illustrator on the iPad and beginner to advanced Procreate techniques. The initial silhouette illustration we create is simple in order to keep it beginner friendly. The lessons taught in the class will provide you with the knowledge and head start you need to explore creating more advanced illustrations using these two important software programs.

I will demonstrate multiple tools and techniques, and I break down everything with demonstrations – everything from the essential foundations to multiple methods of finessing and adding sophisticated accents. And naturally, I cover a multitude of Procreate tips and tricks along the way, including importing brushes and using filters like Liquify. The best part is, your end product is ridiculously gorgeous.

The key concepts I will include are:

Using alpha lock with resident and imported brushes
learning the Procreate liquify tools and options
working with colour and adding richness with brushes
experimenting with Procreate blending modes
using hue and saturation to adjust color
basics of Adobe Illustrator for iPad, including the layout of the application.
using a combination of the pencil tool, blob brush, eraser tool and shapebuilder
creation of a basic silhouette using the pencil tool, blob brush, etc
adjustments to your shapes using a combination of all of the drawing tools
Procreate basics and advanced Procreate techniques

This is a great course for you to take no matter what you plan to be using the art for. You can use only resident Procreate brushes, or expand the possibilities with purchased assets. Learn to work efficiently and in a professional way. You needn’t know anything about Procreate watercolour and alcohol ink to take the class. If you're looking to create intuitively, or do something therapeutic, you will find these techniques most satisfying. It’s great no matter your skill level.

Intro:

This short intro will give you an overview of the class.

Lesson 1: Inspiration, Examples and Overview

In this lesson, I will show you the inspiration I had for creating my work and I will show you where you can find additional info. I will explain how to work with reference you find.

Lesson 2: Illustrator on the iPad for Creating the Mask

In this lesson I will explain all of my go-to and favorite tools in Illustrator for the iPad. This lesson is peppered with tips and tricks that I have learned. I show you all three of the drawing tools, focusing mainly on the blob brush and the eraser tool. We will create an silhouette of a floral garden to export at the end of the next lesson.

Lesson 3: Finishing the Components in Illustrator

In this lesson, I will show you one of the methods for creating the thin outline stroke of the silhouette for use as edge pooling in an upcoming lesson. We wrap up this Illustrator lesson by exporting everything we need and then importing into Procreate to ready our document for the next step.

Lesson 4: Setting Up in Procreate and Prepping

In this lesson, I show you how to add the two masks and set up the document for starting our watercolor. The next step is laying in some of the watercolor paint, and in this lesson I use only the resident Procreate watercolour brushes.

Lesson 5: Adding Authentic Watercolour Details

In this lesson, I show you how to use both resident brushes and a purchased brush set. I will demonstrate the use of several brushes from the imported set. I explain how to incorporate both techniques together and how the purchased brush strokes can be integrated into your designs.

Lesson 6: Additional Effects and Textured Edges

In this lesson, I show you how to use brushes to add tons of texture and detail. We will also use the vector outline of the silhouette shapes from Illustrator to add an edge pooling effect, using Gaussian Blur and the Noise Filter. I explain how to incorporate all techniques together and to use the brushes for blending and perfecting your art.

Lesson 7: Special Effects and Additional Texture

Again, we will look at adding more texture and detail. We use several different types of brushes to add texture and we do plenty of blending and perfecting.

Lesson 8: Alternate Uses for the Alpha Lock

Here we look at some of the options and you have when using masking with the alpha lock . I also show you how to add the roughened edges to make the vector line crispness disappear. Here we look at some of the options for finishing that are very different from the watercolour. Additional options are examined here to produce some wildly different looks.

Lesson 9: Finishing Touches to Perfect the Artwork

This last lesson gives you options for finessing the final look at our watercolour. Additional options are examined here to produce some slight but effective additions, including adding a paper texture.

Concepts covered:

Concepts covered include but are not limited to brushes in Illustrator for iPad, the shapebuilder tool, the eraser tool, the pencil tool, the pen tool, blob brush, the lasso tool, the remove anchor points function, the smooth tool, use of the layer’s palette, creating foreground, middle ground and background, simplifying, crystallize in Procreate, Illustrator export and airdrop, layer adjustments, hue and saturation adjustment layers, clipping mask layers, alternate backgrounds, color, importing and organizing brushes in Procreate, watercolour brushes in Procreate, production workflow best practices, and much more.

You will get the bonus of…

1 hour and 26 minutes of direction from an instructor who has been in the graphic design business and education for over 40 years
knowledge of multiple ways to solve each design challenge
a list of helpful online sites to further your education into surface pattern design.