Combining Procreate artwork and vector drawings creates some wonderful designs and limitless possibilities. First from Procreate I already have a simple piece of artwork ready to go. Heading over to Inkpad, I’ll import my artwork from Dropbox, which is much the same as using the camera roll. So, here is my new drawing with my artwork all ready as a new layer.
Because I want to do a cut out text effect, I’m going to start with drawing a white circle, to fill in the hole in the centre of my painting. Now on to the text. Now I’m happy I’ll duplicate my text layer, this is because I want to convert my text to outlines, and its always handy to keep an original of your text in case you want to change it later. With that layer safely locked and hidden, I will select my visible text layer and use Create Outlines from Text from the Path menu.
Now with my text outlines still selected I can select my white circle, with the Multi-Selection tool, and use Subtract Front from the Path menu, and there you go text on my Procreate Artwork. This time I’m going to copy and paste my vector artwork, but again you can save it to Dropbox or your camera roll. I just happen to have a very friendly Octopus waiting for a nice under water home over in Procreate. Using the share menu in the top right of my screen I will select Copy Drawing.
Once Mr Octopus is safely copied I’ll transport him over to Procreate, where his new home waiting for him. In my layer menu I want to make sure he will arrive nicely nestled amongst the seaweed. In another Procreate painting I have this rather messy splodge of blues. I’ll copy this over to Inkpad, and Paste it into an empty drawing using the Edit Menu.
With the Text Tool, I’m going to create two separate lines of text. Since I have an underwater theme, I’d like some wiggly text. So, using the Freehand Tool I’ll draw myself a nice wavy line. I don’t want that silly black fill so I’ll turn that off, then with with the Multi Selection Tool I can select my first line of text and from the Path Menu tap Place Text on Path. Now with my first line of text selected I will select my blue splodgy background and this time from the Path Menu I’ll use Mask.
Oh yeah, that’s nice. Okay now I need a second wavy line for my text, as before I’ll create one with the Freehand Tool and turn off the fill, which got turned back on when I selected my text. I’m going to want this one a bit longer, but still to match the curves of the top line. Having used my texture creating the last Mask, I need to Paste it in again. Pasting it in has put it right in front of my text, but it needs to be behind in order to create a mask. I can move it back with the Arrange Menu, Send Backward.
Now, still using the Multi Selection Tool I’ll reselect my text and create a Mask from the Path Menu. Using Procreate’s three finger swipe I can chose Paste and there is my text. Add and edit Text content in crisp vector format. A bounding box containing the word Text will appear on your canvas. When you add new Text to your canvas, the word Text is already highlighted and ready to type over. To further adjust your text’s font, style, design, and attributes, tap the font name in the Text Entry Companion. This will invoke the Edit Style Panel.
To move your Text, drag the active bounding box around the canvas. Resizing your Text box will only change the shape of the container. Keep your Text in crisp editable vector form for basic edits. Vector Text can resize up and down without loss of quality. To use certain Procreate tools, you must rasterize your Text. In the Layers panel, you can identify vector Text by the ‘A’ visible in the Text layer thumbnail. You can override the automatic naming of a vector Text layer. To rasterize your text, tap the Text layer in the Layers palette.
Add and edit Text content in crisp vector format. A bounding box containing the word ‘Text’ will appear on your canvas. To move your Text, drag the active bounding box around the canvas. Resizing your Text box will only change the shape of the container. Keep your Text in crisp editable vector form for basic edits. Vector Text can resize up and down without loss of quality. However, in order to use certain Procreate tools, you need to rasterise your Text. In the Layers panel, you can identify vector Text by the ‘A’ visible in the Text layer thumbnail. You can override the automatic naming of a vector Text layer. Within the past week, Procreate released their latest version, which allows you to add text!
It’s been really fun playing around with the new feature and seeing how I’ll integrate text into future Procreate artwork. This week, I thought I’d share an easy way to create artwork with text, as well as sharing some masking tips, too. Read on for how to use text in Procreate! My free Procreate brushes are in my free Resource Library! This is where you can customize the look of your text on the same layer. Select a font, a style, all caps, underline, etc. Tracking is adjusting the same space between all characters, kerning adjusts spacing between individual characters.
Now we will learn how to color the outline in Procreate. To fill the layer, tap on the texture’s layer (it should appear above your text layer) and choose clipping mask. The texture should fully fill the outlined layer text now. Use the selection tool to resize, rotate, etc. On another layer, create your lettering. Once finished, tap on the layer > mask. This applies a layer mask to your lettering’s layer. Any time you paint black on the mask, you’ll hide part of your lettering. Select your text layer by tapping on it > select.
(How to auto-select in Procreate: tap the selection button to bring up the selection toolbar. Tap automatic) Return to the mask on your lettering layer and begin to paint black on the areas you’d like your lettering to appear behind your text. When you are finished, deselect.
