Procreate Tips

I am a big fan of the iPad drawing app Procreate. This is a list of my ”notes to self” about how to use it!

🎭 Masking

There are three types of mask...

Alpha Lock

The simplest of all (and probably not really a mask =])

• When Alpha Lock is enabled, all future edits are confined to the existing boundaries. You cannot add new pixels to the layer, you can only modify the existing pixels.
• You can still remove pixels.
• Alpha Lock is destructive editing (because it’s all on the one layer)

Mask

Masks sit above a single regular layer. All they can do is hide or reveal the layer immediately below.

• Where the mask layer is white, the layer below is revealed.
• Where the mask layer is black, the layer below is hidden.
• Where the mask layer is a shade of grey in between, layer below is faded (partially revealed). The darker the grey, the more hidden the layer!
• To make the effect permanent, merge the mask layer with the regular layer.

Clipping Mask

Clipping Masks are a little bit like Alpha Lock, in that they constrain new edits to existing pixels. Unlike Alpha Masks, however, the existing pixels are on a different layer. This means that Clipping Masks are non-destructive. This makes them very powerful.

• Clipping Masks sit above a base layer (the first regular layer immediately below them)
• Clipping Masks are “alpha locked” to the base layer.
• You can have as many Clipping Masks as you want locked to a single base layer.
• To make the effect permanent, merge all the layers together!