In this article, we’re going to create a super simple doodle-style drawing of some planets and stars using Procreate for iPad. I love artwork that looks like a doodle, and it’s really easy to create too! Everything which we’ll use in this tutorial is a preset in Procreate, and there’s plenty of opportunities to put your own spin on the project to make it your own.
Our first step is to create a new canvas by clicking the + in the top right-hand corner of the gallery page.
After you’ve done this, tap on the layers panel in the top right-hand corner, and click the + to add a new layer.
We’re going to begin the basis of our doodles shortly, so open up the brush library, and under the inking category, select studio pen. This is my favourite brush to use for drawing outlines.
Next, we need to draw some lines, so let’s add the drawing guide to help us out a little. Tap on the actions tool in the top left-hand corner of Procreate (the button which looks like a spanner or wrench), and then click on canvas. You’ll see the third option down which is drawing guide; toggle this switch to on. Once this is switched on, you’ll see a grid covering the page. Don’t worry, this grid won’t appear on your final artwork, it’s simply to guide us.
Using your studio pen on brush size 8% and with a black colour chosen, draw a straight vertical line down the canvas. Do this towards the left-hand side.
Tip: To create a perfectly straight line, draw your rough line first and then hold down your stylus, and it’ll snap straight!
If you want to amend the line, for example, make it longer, shorter, or reposition it, tap on edit shape and then you’ll see the nodules pop up which can be used to resize and reangle.
Add a new layer and repeat these steps ensuring that your lines are all evenly spaced out across the canvas.
Repeat until your canvas is full, or you’ve done as many as you want to do.
Now, let’s start adding some elements to our “strings”. I’ve drawn a rough star hanging off the first line, so you can do this, or draw something different if you’d prefer.
Remember that this is a doodle drawing so your lines don’t need to be perfect!
Repeat this step as many times as you want. I’ve made every other hanging line a star. It’s critical to remember to put each element onto a new layer!
On the longer lines, let’s add planets. Open the layer which contains your first empty string. Draw a rough circle on the end of one of your lines and hold your stylus to snap the shape to an exact circle.
Tap edit shape and then circle. Resize or move the circle as much as you would like to.
Repeat this step until your lines are all full.
I’m going to turn the drawing guide off now, so repeat the steps we followed to turn it on, only you’ll now need to toggle the switch to off.
Let’s start adding some colour! I’m going to fill in the stars with a nice yellow shade.
Tip: drag the colour down from the top right-hand corner to the inside for your element for quick recolouring.
I’m now going to rename my layers just so that I don’t get confused. To do this, tap on the layer from the layers panel and select rename.
Open your Planet 1 layer and create a new layer directly above this, called Planet 1 Colour.
Choose whatever colour you’d like your first planet to be, and using the studio pen, slowly colour in the shape. Remember that this layer is above our black outline one, so ensure to stay in the lines.
In the layers panel, drag the colour layer below the outline one – you’ll see that you’ve neatly filled in the lines!
The reason why we’re doing it this way rather than simply filling is that we’re going to add some special blurring effects and we don’t want the outlines to blur along with the colour.
You can leave your planet as a solid colour if you want, or you can add texture or other decorative parts. I’m going to add a little more colour dimension and texture.
If you choose to do this step, tap on the Planet 1 Colour layer and select alpha lock. This will ensure that colour only stays on the part we have already coloured – it won’t go outside of the edges!
Check out this handy guide on how to use masks in Procreate.
To add texture, I’m going to open the airbrushing section within the brush library and then use the soft brush.
Using a small brush size, draw some lines across the planet.
Now, tap on the adjustments tool and you’ll see fifth down the list, gaussian blur. Tap this and then select layer,
Slide your stylus along the screen to adjust the blur level. I’m also going to use the burnt tree brush to add some light texture.
Now, let’s move on to the next planet. You can really colour these however you want, but as planets are often multiple colours, I’d suggest using the gaussian blur to blend shades and soften any stripes.
I’m also going to draw rings around a couple of planets. You can do this by using the studio pen brush and drawing an ellipse around your selected planet.
This is a little tricky, but it’s not so bad once you know what you’re doing. Draw another ellipse inside the outer rings, you can always copy the below.
Reposition your rings and carefully erase the parts which overlap where they shouldn’t
Colour in the rings as you prefer.
Tip: group your layers by swiping left on each one to select, and then hit group in the top right-hand corner.
On my next planet, I’ve simply coloured it purple, applied alpha lock, and then used the water brush to add some texture. We ideally want to avoid flat and solid colours as planets themselves don’t look like this.
Move along through your doodled solar system and utilise alpha lock to colour in your planets as you wish.
You’re all done! You may want to spend a little time adding backgrounds or background colours to your image, or even re-shuffling the stars and planets.
I’ve used the nebula brush to just add a little bit of background dimension.
Thanks for checking out this article and we hope that you enjoy creating this intergalactic doodle piece of art! Let us know in the comments how you got on and which planets you chose to include!
This article was written by
