How to Create Texture With Pencil Brushes in Procreate

1. How to Create a New Document in Procreate

Step 1

Open Procreate and click on the + sign in the top-right corner. A new menu will pop up where you can choose your canvas size. Look again in the top-right corner of the pop-up menu—right under the big + sign is the small + sign, so click on it.

Step 2

It will open a new window called Custom Canvas. In the Dimensions section, you can name your canvas and enter the Width and Height. Make sure your DPI is 300. Click Create, and a new document will be opened.

2. How to Create a Sketch Using a Sketching Brush in Procreate

Step 1

We will create two sketches using the best sketching brushes for Procreate!

First, you want to create a rough sketch, where you want to decide the placement of your illustration (where the badger will sit, where the table and trees are positioned, etc.). It doesn’t need to be detailed. Use the Soft Pencil Small brush from the Procreate Pencil Brushes set. The set has perfect Procreate brushes for sketching. This pencil brush for Procreate has an amazing texture that perfectly works for sketching: when you draw by pressing lightly, it will turn out less opaque, and when you press more, it will develop a darker color and texture. 

To remember what badgers look like, feel free to browse Envato Elements. If you scroll down, you can even listen to the sounds that badgers make!

Step 2

Now create a detailed sketch, where you draw out all the small elements. 

First, lower the opacity of this rough sketch layer, because you will create your detailed sketch over the rough one and will still need to be able to see it. Open the Layers panel and click on the capital N on the right side. In the pop-up menu, drag the Opacity slider to the left, at around 20%. 

Step 3

Next, create a new layer for your detailed sketch. Use the same Soft Pencil Small brush from Procreate Pencil Brushes.

3. How to Pick Colors for Your Illustration

Step 1

After you've finished your detailed sketch, you can delete the layer with the rough sketch. Open the Layers panel, make sure you have the rough sketch layer selected, and swipe it to the left. Click Delete.

Now, you want to lower the Opacity of the detailed sketch layer. Again, open the Layers panel and click on the capital N on the right side. In the pop-up menu, drag the Opacity slider to the left, around 20%. 

Step 2

After that, you should decide what color the background will be, even before the colors of the whole illustration. We are still on the Layers panel. Look down at the Background color layer and click on it. Choose a light green color of your choice and press Done.

Step 3

Now for the fun and important part: choosing the colors. Make sure you are on a separate layer, preferably between your Background color layer and your detailed sketch layer. Take any brush, pick a color, and then apply it to the chosen object. You don’t need to color them nicely—later you will draw a nice shape for each of them.

There is one trick here: if the background is, like ours, light green, then the colors that fit will be a dark green and a light one, almost white. If your background is, for example, light yellow, a nice combination of colors would be a dark yellow and a very light one, almost white, and so on. 

Going further, if your main color is green, it connects well with red and its tone variations (another saturation or brightness).

Play around with it! To keep things simple, I will assume later in this tutorial that you chose similar colors to mine.

4. How to Draw the Illustration Using Pencil Procreate Brushes

Step 1

Draw your illustration as you would normally draw using real coloring pencils, stroke by stroke. For each piece of your illustration, draw a basic texture, then add a new texture over it, and occasionally add even more texture. You will figure out how it works later.

Take the Pencil 1 sketching brush from the Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes set. I chose this brush for its amazing graphite texture. The brush size was too small to color in all the elements, and in this case, it would take a very long time. You can use a little trick here: select this brush and click on it one more time. The new Brush Studio window will be opened. Scroll down the left panel to find the Properties. Look to the right to find Brush behavior > Maximum size. Move the slider to around 300%. Then press Done.

Step 2

Create a new layer where you will draw the badger’s head, preferably under the detailed sketch layer. Pick a light yellow color and start to color in the drawing using the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes.

Choose another brush, called the Pencil Cage from Procreate Pencil Brushes, and make your color a little lighter. Draw over it to add more texture. By layering one texture over another, you can achieve an interesting result. If your brush size is too big, feel free to erase any strokes that go outside of the badger’s head.

Step 3

Using the same method of layering texture over texture, draw the black parts of your badger’s head and hands. First, create a new layer for it. Then take the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes, choose a dark gray color, and draw the black parts. Don’t press too hard. 

Next, change your color to an even darker gray, and change your brush to the Pencil Cage from Procreate Pencil Brushes. Chose a large brush size, and add a new texture over it. The big size of the brush will go behind the dark gray spot, and that’s why you need a separate layer for it. You can easily erase the excess.

If you are happy with how everything looks so far, merge the two layers by pinching them together on the Layers panel using two fingers. Now you have the badger’s head (light and dark parts) on one layer. You should have three layers: Background color, detailed sketch, and badger’s head and paws.

Finally, return to the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes, make the color black, and add the nose.

Step 4

Now let's draw the badger’s fur. To make the process quick, you need the amazing Frequent Thorns Pencil brush from Procreate Pencil Brushes. It allows you to create a fur texture in one stroke. Take this brush and create an outline around the head, using white.

First, you need to adjust your brush size. Then pick black and draw black fur like in the image below. Don’t forget to add white fur on top of the badger’s ears. 

Using black once again, add the eyes, but change the brush to the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes.

Step 5

Let’s draw the badger’s shirt. Use the beige color and the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes. From time to time, switch your sketch layer on and off to see how the edges of the objects look. To do so, you should tick it on and off on the Layers panel.

After that, we want to add more texture to the shirt. Choose a darker color, the Pencil 21 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes, and cover the shirt again. Press lightly, but not too light, so that all the textures remain visible. 

Step 6

Draw the vest with the same method. Choose a reddish-brown color, take the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes, and color in the vest. 

Make the color darker, change your brush to the Pencil 23 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes, and draw a new texture over it. Just look at this amazing texture!

Step 7

Next, let’s draw the teapot and the teacup. As these objects are small and the texture won’t be very visible, we can use just the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes. Choose light and dark pink for them, and brown for the tea.

Step 8

Keep the  Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes and draw the cake, the cake slice, cookies, and strawberries, all in different colors. Then take the Pencil 23 brush Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes and add an extra texture to the cake and the cookies’ surfaces.

Step 9

Now we want to draw some cherries and a ladybug. Just use the Pencil 1 from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes as the objects are very small, and an extra texture won’t be visible. If you draw the cherries and can still see the background color through them, color the berries again with a darker red. Press lightly.

Step 10

Create a new layer under the cake, cookies, and berries. Keep the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes and make sure you have a light yellow color. Draw the plates and the fork.

Step 11

Let's move on to the tablecloth. Create a new layer for it, under the plates and fork. Keep the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes and choose an off-white. Draw the tablecloth.

Change your brush to Pencil 16 from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes, make the color lighter, and make sure that your brush size is big. Cover the tablecloth with this texture. Don’t worry if your brush covers more than just the tablecloth as later on you can erase any strokes that go outside the lines.

Step 12

Keep the same color and use the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes to draw the chair.

Step 13

Change your color to green—it should be darker than the background color. Using the Medium-Hard Grain Pencil brush from Procreate Pencil Brushes, draw the stalks. Using the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes, draw the leaves of the flowers. 

Step 14

Take a similar color to the one that you used for the tablecloth, and use the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes to draw the upper parts of the flowers.

Step 15

Now we want to refine our flowers and give them more depth. Take the Pencil 10 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes and a light pink color. Draw over the flowers as in the picture below. Change the color to white, keep the same brush, and cover the top of the flowers as in the image below. 

After that, make sure you have a slightly darker green than the leaves, take the Medium-Hard Grain Pencil brush from Procreate Pencil Brushes, and draw little veins on the leaves. If you see that the background is still visible through the leaves, you can add this darker green to the leaves. Press lightly, just here and there.

Step 16

Keep the Medium-Hard Grain Pencil brush from Procreate Pencil Brushes and draw butterflies and the stamens on the flowers.

Step 17

Now move on to the trees. Create a new layer for them on top of everything, but still underneath the sketch layer.

The Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes set has an amazing brush called Pencil 21, and we will use it to draw our trees and bushes. Choose the dark green color and draw swirls on top of the illustration and on the bottom, where the bushes are. They play the role of foliage.

Step 18

Right after that, we need to draw branches. Take the Pencil 1 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes and draw the branches in brown. Change the brown to a slightly darker variation and the brush to the Pencil 10 brush from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes, and add some darker parts on the branches to give them more depth. 

Change your brush again to Pencil 21 from Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes, make the green color lighter, and draw more swirls on the top and bottom of the illustration.

Step 19

Keep the Pencil 21 brush, and decrease the brush size. Make your green color even lighter, and create those little swirls to show the front foliage.

Step 20

Here I decided to add some individual leaves. Using two brightness variations of your green and the Medium-Hard Grain Pencil brush from Procreate Pencil Brushes, draw sharp-edged ellipses on your foliage. On the trees:

And on the bushes:

Step 21

Using the same Medium-Hard Grain Pencil brush, draw pink blossoms on the trees:  

And red berries on the bushes:

Step 22

Remember the Frequent Thorns Pencil brush from Procreate Pencil Brushes, which we used to draw the badger’s fur? Make it bigger, choose a green that's darker than the background, and draw the grass. You just need to make a few strokes, and this amazing brush will draw the grass for you.

Step 23

To add a final touch to our illustration, we need to create clear edges for each object. Switch off the layer with the sketch. Take the Procreate sketch brush Medium-Hard Grain Pencil from Procreate Pencil Brushes, use a small brush size, and create light outlines for everything. I even added buttons to the badger's vest.

Don’t limit yourself to just outlines; you can add some dots or tiny curves. The sketching Procreate brushes are perfect for this process. 

Look at the difference in the image below, without and with clear edges:

5. How to Apply a Paper Texture 

To give our illustration a paper texture look, we want to use a special brush. Take the Watercolor Paper 8 brush from Procreate watercolor cotton paper, use the biggest size, and choose black. Create a new layer where you will draw a paper texture. Using your Watercolor Paper 8 brush, cover your whole canvas with this brush. Don’t lift it up because you will get a different opacity of the brush.

After that, change this layer's Opacity from Normal to Color Burn. And that’s it!

You Did It!

If you are reading this, you are probably done with the illustration. Or maybe you scrolled down just to see the process? If you find it complicated and want more of an explanation, just tell me! If you are finished, I congratulate you! Tell me on the forum how it was for you, and share the results.

Popular Pencil Procreate Brushes From Envato Elements

Do you know how to have unlimited access to Procreate pencil brushes like these? You can subscribe to the Envato Elements library and always have the joy of trying new brushes. In case you're interested in trying them out, here they are one more time:

1. Basic Pencil Procreate Brushes (Brushset)

Here I’ve linked some of my personal favorite brushes that I also used in the tutorial! They offer a wide variety of hatching and texture brushes.

2. Procreate Pencil Brushes (Brushset)

This set has these amazing brushes that make it so that when you draw one stroke, you get many strokes. Procreate Pencil Brushes is a perfect way to add texture to your illustration.

3. Procreate Watercolor Cotton Paper (Brushset)

If you miss real paper when you are drawing in Procreate, this watercolor paper is your solution. I highly recommend it to you all!

Interested in Learning More?

If you're interested in creating more in Procreate, take a look at these tutorials, which can either help you or inspire you!

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