Put Your Art into your own Calendar Design with Procreate Page Assist

1. Welcome : Hello, lovers of Procreate. In this class, I want to introduce you to the power to Page Assist in Procreate. This amazing feature is built to have multiple artboards with multiple layers in one multi-page interface. Page Assist allows you now to import any PDF and access each page separately. Now you can flip through the pages as you like. Treat it as a workbook and add layers above the original page, maybe to improve your Lindbergh or to recreate shadings. With this tool of Procreate, you can easily create any presentation to showcase your work. My name is Rico from Text and Tulip. I'm an illustrator and hand lettering artist. I just received the box from the publisher house packed with a calendar I fully created in Procreate with Page Assist. In this class, I will take you behind the scenes and not only introduce you to Page Assist, but I will also show you how easy it is to set up a consistent grid to arrange your calendar with your artworks in no time ready to go as a printable PDF or to share digitally. In the first part of the class, you will create a multi-page interface of scratch, navigate through the page options, and speed up your workflow by using consistent elements that serve as a grid for each page. In part two, you will import a PDF into Procreate, alter each page with Page Assist and layer groups, and finally, export a principal multi-page PDF. By the end of the class, you will be able to export your own calendar in a multi-page PDF. Beginners and pros, all are welcome. Page Assist is a great tool for professional designers and all who love to draw on the go and keep a digital sketchbook. It can be a great way to maintain a daily drawing routine, as well as to organize your design concepts in one place. Let us dive deep into Procreate and Page Assist. Can't wait to see you in class. 2. Your Project: Your project consists of two steps I want you to share. First, share screenshot of your workflow within Page Assist. It's absolutely easy. Show us your timeline or layer panel while working in Page Assist. Depending on your device, you take a screenshot like this, and now save it to your photos. Second, share two images of the pages you've created. Highlight the repeating elements you've used as a grid. Once your pages are ready, export two of them as a JPEG, and save the images to your camera roll. Let me show you again. Select one of your pages, and for this example, I want to go with April. Type the range and go to Share, Share Image, type JPEG, and save the image. Now, head to Project and Resources tab within my class. From here, click "Create Project." Now, upload your pictures from Task 1 and Task 2. Click "Publish" once you're ready. Last but not least, be kind and leave encouraging feedback to your classmates. This will help strengthen the Skillshare community and create a great place to learn from each other. I'm so excited to share the features of Page Assist with you. See you in the next lesson, where we are going to line up the tools we need. 3. Your Tools: Here are the tools you need for this class. I work with the iPad Pro and the Apple Pen second generation. On top of my screen is a paper-like screen protector. Because of that, the screen display can look a little blurry during the class. You will also need any version of Procreate that supports page assist or at least Procreate 5.2. Procreate is available in any app store. You pay only a small amount once and have lifetime access to Procreate on all your devices. If you want to do exactly as I show in this course, go to Resources and get the plain calendar PDF I created for the class. Please download it on your device. We will import it into Procreate later in class. Also, select 12 images you created. This is what you need, a drawing device and stylus, Procreate with page assist 5.2, the plain calendar PDF, and 12 pictures, illustration, photographs, simply any artwork you can call your own. Everything in place? See you in the next lesson where I'm going to introduce you to the basics of page assist. 4. Page Assist Basics: In this lesson, you will set up your canvas, activate Page Assist, navigate with Timeline and Layers Panel, and you will learn how to add, copy, and delete pages. First, open a new document, tap on the plus in the right corner, an A4 is displayed as an option. Now, this is your basic canvas and all following pages will have exactly the same specifications. Before you set up the canvas, consider special criteria you might have to meet. For example, for my principal calendar in A4, the printing house requests an additional two millimeters on each side, 300 DPI, and a CMYK color profile. If you are going for a digital project only, A4 and RGB will work just fine. Head to the canvas informations if you like to check all the specification you will work with. You can see the dimensions and the resolution. I choose 300 DPI. Also, the maximum of layers is displayed. Available are 92 in my case, and this depends on the kind of iPad you're working with. My color profile is set to RGB. Hit "Done" in the top menu bar to get back to your canvas. We return to the Action menu and tap "Canvas" again. Now, tap the Page Assist toggle to switch. It will turn blue. Now, the Page Assist interface is active. At the bottom of your screen, you will see a timeline opened up. The timeline represents every page of your document as a thumbnail. In the timeline, tap on new page to create a new page or go to "Layers", tap on the "Plus", and a new separate page is added in the timeline below. Page Assist can be a great way to keep a digital sketchbook. You can draw and paint on your canvas as you normally do. Your changes will affect the currently selected page in your timeline. To navigate between your pages, you can flip through the timeline or choose the layer menu. You're currently selected page is always underlined in blue. If you want to delete or duplicate a page, you have at least two options. First, the timeline, tap on the thumbnail to select the page, tap it again to open the page options of the page, and now choose. Undo your last action with a two-finger tap on your canvas. The second way is your layers panel. Each layer represents a page. To delete or duplicate a specific layer, tap on the layer bar, swipe to the left and now choose the option you want. All actions will be represented in the timeline as well. These are the basics. Now you are able to set up your canvas, activate Page Assist, navigate with Timeline and Layers Panel, and to add copy and delete pages. In the next step, you will learn how Page Assist can ease your workflow. I will show you how to set up a standard page. 5. The Standard Page: In this lesson, you will create consistent elements, group multiple layers into one page, and design a consistent grid for your artwork. Page assist is amazing if you want to have repeating elements on your page, which have to be always in the same spot, at the same size, like illustrations, your hand-drawn logo, or as simple as a page number. Let's take the fox calendar as a reference. Each page should show my logo at the bottom of the page, be consistent where the calendar figure sit, and have a design spot for the image of the month. Let us activate page assist to get that done in no time. At first, I need a new layer for my logo. I go to the Layers panel, and now I choose a warm red and a stamp brush of my hand-drawn signature. With the support of snapping tool, I can easily align it and get it centered in the middle at the bottom of the page. Guide lines looking great. Let's place it here. Be aware, Procreate is a pixel-based program, to keep your lines nice and sharp, please avoid to scale your drawings from small to big, or to move your drawings on your canvas a lot. This is especially important for drawings with a very fine line work. The next layer will hold the calendar figures. You can draw them straight away on a new layer in this document, or insert an image as I do. As these two are my first standard elements, I group them with drag and drop. I move one layer right on top of the other, until it will automatically nest inside the other layer. Well done. Last but not least, I need to find the right spot for the illustration. Hit the wrench in the top menu bar and tap on "Insert Photo", tap on one of the blue corner nodes to access the dimensions. I change it to 1,750 by 1,750 and place the illustration in the upper third of my page. Still, the snapping tool supports my workflow and helps to center the illustration easily. Now, I do not want to get distracted by a particular image for the month in the layout grid so let us create a neutral placeholder. Swipe with two fingers to the right, and this layer is set to Alpha Lock. Now, I can recolor just this element without affecting the whole canvas, and I go with a light gray. To keep everything well organized, tap on the bar "New group" to select it and tap again to access rename. I would call this page standard page. Now, to use this grid on every page of my document, I just need to duplicate this default page. Now, it's time for recall. Name two ways to duplicate a page in page assist. Exactly. Swipe the bar of your standard page to the left and tap "Duplicate" or head to your timeline, tap on the thumbnail of your active page to access the page options and tap "Duplicate". Again, keep in mind to always duplicate the original standard page to maintain the quality of your artwork. The more you copy the copy, the more you will experience quality losses. I think we got it, well done. In this chapter, we worked with multiple layers within one page, created a standard page with a consistent grid, and repeated two ways to duplicate a page. In the next lesson, I will show you how to import a PDF into Procreate and work on the pages separately. 6. Import a PDF to Procreate: In this lesson, you will download a very helpful PDF, open the PDF in Procreate, find 12 images for your calendar, and prepare your images as PNGs. Also, I will share a little secret about the images I've illustrated for the fox calendar. But first, head to projects and resources. Under the resources, you will find the plain calendar PDF, tap on the "File" to start the download. Now head to your download folder and there it is. Tap on the "File" to open it. This PDF consists of 13 pages, one plain cover page, and one page with the calendar figures for each month of the year. Take it as a starting point for your upcoming designs, even though the dates might have changed by now. In the right-hand corner, you can tap on "Open" in Procreate. Procreate opens automatically. You can access all calendar sheets as pages. They're displayed in the timeline and in the Layers panel. Before I show you how easy it is to consistently place a signature and images for each month please get your images ready. Meanwhile, let me share the little background story to the illustrations I'm working with. I illustrated 12 foxy pictures. The canvas in Procreate had to square size of 25 by 25 centimeters with 300 dpi and was set to CMYK. Each illustration is created separately on its own canvas in Procreate to enjoy a maximum of layers to work with. The ideas for the images didn't fall from sky. It's a family tradition. In summer, I hand out 12 pieces of paper and they say, hey Ulrike, draw, in this case, a fox that steals the goose, someone wrote back, or please draw a fox as sly as a fox. I did that. Ulrike, please draw a fox that loves hanging out at the beach or dancing foxtrot. Of course, we don't want to miss that. This sort pushes me out of my comfort zone and forced me to draw things and perspectives I have never would have dared to take on. First most design of the calendar, I recommend you prepare your images as PNGs. If you save them as a JPG, you will always export the whole canvas you were working on, including all the whitespace around your image. A PNG on the other side sits on a transparent background and allows an easy fit with no unnecessary overlaps in the calendar design. I prepare them like this. Open your "Illustration", go to the Layers panel and "Deactivate" background color. Go to the Actions menu and share the image as PNG. Now you can save it to your camera roll. In the gallery, all the other images are already set on transparent background. I select all of them tap "Share", tap "PNG", and save 11 images. Export successful. Well done, now you know how to download a PDF, open the PDF in Procreate, find 12 images for the calendar, and prepare your images as PNGs. See you in the next lesson where you will learn an efficient method for calendar design in Procreate. 7. Design Your Calendar : [MUSIC] Now it's time to wrap up everything you learned so far and design your calendar. You will use the standard page for each month and insert 12 images into the grid. Let's quickly summarize the elements of the standard page. The standard page is packed with consistent elements you need on each page within your project. We will build the calendar grid that consists of the gray placeholder for the image, a signature or place for your logo, and one sheet of the plane calendar PDF. We already opened the plain calendar on Procreate so all months including the page for the cover image are presented in the timeline and in the layers. We'll create a new layer above one calendar layer and I group them with drag and drop. On the new layer, I will place my first standard element, my logo. Feel free to place your signature or simply a page number. The Snapping Tool is still activated and this makes it easy to move the object to the correct position. The placeholder is my second standard element. Therefore, I import one of the prepared PNGs. Since I need the illustration a little smaller, I tap on one of the corner nodes to access the dimensions and place the illustration in the top third of my page. I turn it into a neutral placeholder so with a two-finger swipe to the left, I activate Alphalock and fill the image with gray, but this way, not the entire layer. Now I group my two standard elements. Since the calendar numbers are different on each page, they are not part of the grid. Now, rename it to grid. Now it's time to duplicate. Swipe to the left, tap Duplicate, and done. After that, I nest the duplicated grid into the calendar layer above. Remember to name each group according to the month. Of course, I will start with January and move forward to February and let's check. Here you can see how nicely this page is prepared with multiple layers we can work on. Now we need this grid 10 more times but please bear in mind that you must always duplicate the original grid. Do you remember why it is so important to copy the original and not the copy of the copy? Well, it is absolutely essential for the reasons to keep quality losses as low as possible. Keep in mind every copy you make of a drawing within your document will have to deal with quality losses. The same applies to enlargements or when you move your object on the canvas. [MUSIC] You can pause the video now and repeat the process for each month by yourself. Duplicate the original grid and group the copy with the next calendar figures. Now rename the group into the name of the month and continue the process until you reached December. [MUSIC] Once the grid is set, we start to place the illustrations for the month, tap on the layer of the gray placeholder, go to the Actions menu, insert a photo and choose the PNG file of your illustration. Now just resize to the same size as the placeholder below. If Snapping Tool is selective, you will find it really easy to get the spot right. Let's design another month together. Now, select the PNG and place the illustration directly over the placeholder using the Snapping Tool. Are we ready? Beautiful. I want to invite you to combine ease with accuracy. When the Snapping Tool is activated, it is quite easy to find the right place for the object on the canvas but with the addition of clipping mask, your illustration will fit exactly into the shape of the underlying object. Turning on clipping mask will allow me to automate illustration only within the form of the placeholder. This small checkmark indicates that the layer is connected to the one below it. This way you can be sure that spot overlaps are cut off exactly and at each illustration has the same outer shape. Let us repeat it on the other pages as well. Activate clipping mask and done. [MUSIC] You can pause the video again and repeat the process for each of the remaining months on your own. Insert the image, then use Snapping Tool to align the illustration with the placeholder below, and finally, turn on clipping mask for 100 percent accuracy. Finally, the fox sits down on the hill and discovers the shooting star that carries all the wishes for the next year. No matter what you came up with, I wish you to be 120 percent satisfied with your results. Now you're able to design a calendar with page assist. You're well-trained in preparing a standard page with a grid for each month and insert your images perfectly aligned to the grid. But do not forget to give the plain page a striking cover image. Take your time. See you in the next class where we are going to export the multi-page artboard as a PDF. 8. Export a PDF From Procreate : This is the last step of our process. You will export your artwork as a PDF and you will know how to avoid the major mistake. We start with the big mistake. Hit the wrench and tap on the Actions Menu Share. Now go with the first option that shows PDF. Of course, we like the best quality. Save your rectifiers and choose the right folder and give it a proper name. For now, I'll type the name and test for this file. The PDF file is now in my folder but it's only 2.3 megabyte in size. If I look closely, only one page of the entire calendar was exported. Back in Procreate, I go to Share, but I go to Share Layers. Now I tap on PDF and choose the best quality. Again, I save it in the folder of my choice. You can already see that the file name changed into the cover image. In my folder, the new PDF has a size of 24.5 megabytes. Looks good and all are happy. Congratulations. You mastered the last step. You can export your artwork as a PDF and note difference between single and multi-page export. See you in our final lesson for a little sum up and closing thoughts. 9. Sum Up and Final Thoughts: Congratulations, you made it. No matter what your superpower is, now you're ready to set up a multi-page design in Procreate using Page Assist. You can set up and navigate Page Assist, design a standard page with repeating elements on multiple layers, and import an existing PDF and export your work as a single or multi-page PDF. As a learning example, you designed your own calendar. Now it's up to you, try out your new skill set. Page Assist is a great way to maintain a daily sketchbook or to create a showcase for a client. Let me know in the comments, which way you will use Page Assist and Procreate the most. Do not forget to head to Project and Resources, and upload the screenshot of your workflow and two pages of your final piece. Please be so kind and leave feedback plus a review for the course. This will help other students to find the course more easily here on Skillshare. Thanks for following along. I hope this introduction to Page Assist was helpful, enjoy art-making. Cheers.