In this article, we’re going to create a really easy but effective scene containing an orca against a pastel-toned sunset. We’ll also be featuring some geometric waves! Adding some not-so-realistic shapes and colors gives a cool effect and makes our artwork a little unique. This project is very easy and suitable for Procreate beginners. We’ll be mainly making use of the Gaussian Blur, Liquify, and Transform tools.
There are no downloads required for this one, apart from if you want to use specific color palettes. I’ll be using colors from the Pearly Nature color palette. I find that using color palettes really helps with inspiration, and also helps to visualize certain colors together; it also gives us ideas of colors that we may not instinctively use with one another. There are many great Procreate color palettes for download from Creative Fabrica which are certain to give you some color inspiration in your future projects.
Below is the image that we’ll be working towards.
Let’s get started. First of all, we need to create a new canvas. Do this by pressing the + symbol in the top right-hand corner of Procreate’s gallery page. Select the option named Screen Size.
We’re going to set the orientation of our canvas to portrait, so if you like to hold your iPad in a landscape position, turn the canvas around on the screen. If you are comfortable holding your iPad in a portrait position, then you don’t have to do anything. Personally, I struggle to work if I am not holding the tablet landscape.
Open the layers panel and tap the + to create a new layer.
In the Brush Library, select Monoline which you’ll find in the Calligraphy section.
Tap on the brush and you’ll see the Brush Studio appear. Under the Stabilization section, toggle the sliders under Amount and Stabilization to around 75-80%. This will help us draw straight lines easier.
Choose a blueish-grey shade, I’ll be using one from the Pearly Nature palette, but feel free to use any shade you like. This color is going to be the ocean – but be as realistic or out there as you want to be!
Draw a horizontal line across your canvas, and hold your pen on the screen to snap it straight.
Zoom in, and use the grid lines behind your canvas to ensure that it’s exactly straight. This is very important as we’re going to use these lines as a guide for our waves.
Repeat this step with a second line, and then tap the Transform tool (the button which looks like a cursor, on the top left menu) and move the second line slightly above the original.
Create a new layer, and using the Monoline brush, draw a wavy line from one side of the canvas to the other.
Don’t worry if the spacing of the “waves” isn’t exact, we can fix this now. Open the Adjustments menu (the button which looks like a magic wand) and tap on Liquify.
In the menu which appears, ensure Push is selected and then make sure that your Size, Pressure, and Distortion are set to a reasonable percentage. This will depend on the size of the waves that you’ve drawn, so if yours are similar to mine then copy the settings in the image below.
Use the Liquify tool to “push” the waves to meet your guidelines, and also so that the spacing is pretty even between them. Feel free to experiment and take your time on this part.
Once you’re happy, you can either uncheck the boxes next to the layers containing your guidelines to hide them or delete those layers altogether.
Open the layers panel and swipe left on the layer containing your wiggly wave line, and select Duplicate. On the duplicated line, use the Transform tool to move it slightly above your original. Repeat this step a few times.
Tip: when duplicating elements multiple times, always make sure to duplicate the original one. This will preserve quality and stop your image from blurring.
Once you have a few wave lines, open the layers panel and tap Merge Down on the uppermost one, and continue until all of your waves are on one layer.
You can then swipe left on this layer to duplicate it and speed up the process. Keep going until your screen is filled to just below halfway.
Merge Down all of your wave layers so that they’re only on one layer.
Open the Brush Library, and select the Monoline brush again (which you can find under Calligraphy).
Add a new layer, and check the box next to your wave layer to hide it temporarily. Now, using a black color draw a shape like the one below. This is going to be the body of our whale.
Zoom in a little and add some fins to the underside and some markings. You really don’t have to worry about being exact as each animal would have different markings in the wild!
Add a few more markings towards the back and middle of the whale, and draw the back fin.
Now, the trickiest part – the tail. Draw one half at a time and don’t worry if your lines go into the body part, as we’ll be coloring it in any way.
Fill the main body of the whale with black – look how quickly we’ve brought this majestic creature to life.
Unhide your waves layer and use the Transform tools to position your whale roughly center.
Select a pastel purple shade (or any other color that you like) and draw a rough circle on the canvas. Hold your pen on the screen to snap the circle to an exact ellipse. Then in the menu which appears at the top of the screen, select Circle.
Use the Transform tools to resize the circle if you wish, and then fill it with color.
Where the bottom of the sun overlaps the wave, zoom in and carefully erase the bottom section so that it looks like the sun is rising above the ocean.
Add a new layer, and drag this to the bottom of the list.
In the Airbrushing section of the Brush Library, select Soft Brush and draw some horizontal lines across the canvas in pastel tones.
Tap on the Adjustments menu, and then Gaussian Blur. Slide your pen across the screen to increase the level of blur – you’ll see your colors in the sky blending together. I’m going to blur it to around 42%.
Now, you’ll see that your sky has blurred into the sea a little. Zoom in and use the Eraser tool (ensure that it’s set to the Monoline brush) to carefully erase any color which has fallen below the top wave line.
Tap on the layer containing your waves, and then carefully fill in the gap between each line with a light blue shade.
Now, add another new layer and place this directly above your sun layer.
Tap on the new layer, and select Clipping Mask. This will attach the new layer to the sun, and ensure that anything we draw will only appear where there is already color (i.e. on the sun).
Using a couple of different shades of purple and the Soft Brush, draw some lines across the sun.
Then use Gaussian Blur to blend these shades together.
We’re all done! If you want to resize your canvas and reduce the amount of sky and ocean around the whale, tap on the Actions menu, and then under Canvas simply open the Crop & Resize menu.
Ok, so that’s it – you’ve brought your very own sea creature to life on your iPad! This is a really fun and simple project and an easy way to bring a little bit of the ocean to your fingertips. Let us know how you got on in the comments.
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