Procreate Tutorial: “Orange Wonderland” by Ulrike Text&Tulip

Step into Ulrike’s Orange Wonderland, where vibrant orange elements meet a playful graphic style. Inspired by her annual harvest from a sponsored orange tree in Spain, this piece beautifully combines rich colors with experimental shapes.

"Welcome to Orange Wonderland - my favorite creative place.

It’s the land of orange super planets, orange boats with orange leaves as sails and where oranges spend their happy holidays.

The best part: artistically anything is allowed here as long as an orange is involved.

Other than that you are most welcome to play with shapes and experiment with vibrant colors.

The source of this juicy creative flood is a small orange tree in Spain, for which I have taken sponsorship. In return, I receive an incredible 80 kg (176.37 lbs) of delicious fruit from the farm every year. Naturally, I had plenty of models to study, sketch, draw and of course, eat.

Gradually, the Orange Wonderland emerged. First in my sketchbook and finally in Procreate. To get into the swing of this adventure, it helps to make as many sketches as possible beforehand.

In my class, "The Creative Juice," we do this together. The prompts in the class help you to observe and depict oranges in all forms and angles. We also think outside the box while still focusing on one theme (clearly oranges).

Additionally, in the first creative short class, "Doodling with Intention," I show you how to quickly doodle a fun, quirky scene with oranges and get your creativity flowing. In the playful sea adventure today, we aim for a graphic look.

I will give you tips on how to achieve a clear, graphic result. This includes a super clean brush, consistent linework, using clipping masks, and the perspective tool. The image also thrives on a reduced but very vibrant color palette: yellow, orange, green, turquoise, and a rich dark blue for the outlines.

Let’s squeeze some creativity into your day with this picture. Come draw along on this orange sea adventure." - Ulrike

Let's dive into Ulrike's creative process, plus her tips and techniques that'll help you craft your very own orange wonderland.

Recommended Procreate Brushes

• 6B Pencil (Procreate Sketching Set)
• Monoline Brush (Procreate Calligraphy Set)
• Decimals Texture Brush (Procreate Texture Set)

Step-by-Step Tutorial from Ulrike

Ready to have your own attempt at this piece? Follow Ulrike's own instructions on how to make this inspiring artwork below.

Step 1: Sketching

Using a 6B pencil, start with a rough sketch (1), showing your main elements (2).

Use an additional layer with a composition grid to help you with arranging these elements (3).

Finally, reduce the opacity (4) of both layers and keep them at the top.

Step 2: Background

Set yellow as your background color (1).

Then, create a new layer above (2).

Select the Decimals brush (3) and change the color to orange.

Now fill your entire layer with the halftone using a single brushstroke (4).

Once your layer is filled, reduce its opacity to 50 % (5).

Step 3: Outline Your Elements

To maintain a consistent linework, use one color (1), the Monoline brush (2) and stick to two stroke widths - a thicker one for the outlines and a thinner one for lines within the elements.

Tip: Use separate layers for the different parts of your elements (3). This will make it easier to remove overlaps.

Instead of using the eraser, try masking (4). This allows you to revert to the original shape if needed.

Step 4: Coloring and Consistent Color Shading

Use separate layers for your color fillings underneath your outline layers (1). When drawing a color shading, create a new layer above the color layer (2). Use the same dark blue of the outline (3) and draw the shadow (2). Now reduce the layer opacity to 30% (4).

Tip: Look at the halftone drop shadow of the orange leaf on the planet. To keep its shape the same as the leaf, duplicate the layer with the leaf outline, color the outline and fill the shape with orange.

Move this duplicate layer beneath the original leaf layers in the layer menu (1).

Use the transformation tool (2) to move the duplicated leaf into place (3).

Create a new layer and activate the clipping mask.

Finally, use the Decimals brush to fill the layer (4).

Step 5: Extras

Create eye-catching extras like a ray burst effect using the monoline brush with an ultra-sharp tip and the Perspective Guide.

To create an ultra-sharp tip:

Duplicate the monoline brush in the Brush Library.

Tap on the duplicated brush to select it, then tap again to open the Brush Studio (1).

Go to Taper (2), then Pressure Taper (3), move the tip slider to the right (4) and change the size to maximum (5).

Repeat for Touch Taper (6). Tap 'Done' (7) to save your settings and return to your canvas.

Now your ray tip is always created at the beginning of your line.

To arrange the rays around the planet:

Enable Drawing Guide, tap 'Edit Drawing Guide' to open its interface (1) and select Perspective (2).

Position the vanishing point (small blue node) (3) in the center of the planet and make sure that Assisted Drawing (4) is switched on.

This will allow you to draw only on the guidelines.

To achieve even spacing, always leave a guideline on which you do not draw.

Step 6: Final touches

Congratulations you are almost in Orange Wonderland! Take a look around your canvas and find ways to incorporate an orange twist.

Initially, there were only two passengers on the boat gazing at the romantic view of the orange planet. Now, I've added a little swimmer (1). I hope it's not the captain!

Last but not least, do not forget your signature (2).

Have fun playing with more orange shapes and new designs. I can't wait to see what you come up with!