The Procreate app has become one of the most popular art apps for iPad. Loved by professionals, amateurs, and beginners alike, your only limitations are your skills and creativity.

No matter what type of art you are into, you can make it with Procreate.

If you decide to get into Procreate and start using it for the first time, you will have a significant learning curve ahead of you. Though the app is quite intuitive in many ways, there is no way around the need to invest a significant amount of time and effort into learning about the app and all of its features.

Do not be dismayed, this is a very good investment of your time. Once you have nailed the basics of the program, the creative possibilities that you see will grow endlessly.

Official Education Resources

If you are getting started with Procreate, the first place you should look is the official Procreate support resources section on their website. On that website, you will find the Procreate mobile handbook.

Procreate has invested thousands of hours, into creating the ultimate how-to guide for their painting app, and it covers everything you need to know to get started with Procreate.

Topics covered include the user interface, gallery, working with colors, using brushes, layering, setting text, animation, 3D-painting, and much much more.

This handbook is updated constantly, and at the time of writing was up to version 5.2. So if you are looking for the most up-to-date information, based on the most recent version of Procreate, try the official Procreate support page and look for the mobile Procreate handbook.

Youtube

For many skills and subjects, YouTube has become the de facto world classroom. In this way, it is no different for Procreate.

If you search Procreate on YouTube you will find thousands of related videos.

Procreate has its own YouTube channel which is very prominent in the search results, but there are also thousands upon thousands of other Procreate-related videos by other individuals who have uploaded their own personal hints and tips for your benefit.

The benefit of researching on YouTube for Procreate tutorials is that you get to see how other individuals interact with the app. Though the official Procreate resources are great, they teach you a certain way to interact with the app, based on how they understand it.

Though this is important, it's also really interesting and important to see how other people use and interact with the app, because they can share ideas, strategies, and tactics that the official Procreate resources don't share.

Procreate Courses

Given how popular Procreate has become, there is a growing number of Procreate classes you can take online.

Procreate classes and courses are a great way to take a deep dive into specific topics of interest. Though the official Procreate resources are great at getting a bird's eye view of all of the functionality included in the app, and YouTube is great for one-off videos on various topics and aspects of Procreate, the online courses allow the course provider to go very deep on one specific skill.

There are all sorts of different courses that focus on different Procreate skills. Some of the specialized Procreate courses you can take include tutorials on drawing Wildflowers, drawing portraits, tropical patterns, and alternative 3D painting patterns not included in the default packs.

There is a range of in-person classes, and also online classes available, meaning you can choose whichever mode you prefer. On the one hand, there is no substitute for face-to-face interaction and the ability to ask questions and get feedback in real time. But conversely, many people thrive with online training because they can stop and start the lessons whilst they comprehend the material provided, and rewatch things over and over again as many times as they need to until they feel they have mastered the skills and concepts being delivered in the class materials.

Community Groups

Finding other people who are also on the journey to learn and master Procreate can be a great way to speed up your learning process.

One of the many benefits of the internet is its ability to provide a platform for people with similar interests to come together. Though you may not know many people in your town or city or family who are passionate about Procreate in the same way you are, there is likely to be someone else out there on the internet, from somewhere in the world who does share your passion.

The different social media platforms and other chat apps available are great ways to find, connect, and learn from these people.

There is a very active Reddit community, and dozens of different Facebook groups that are all centered around Procreate, and how to use it. If you join one group and don't find that you resonate with the people in it, there are many other groups that you can join until you find one that you feel is a good fit for you.

There is a dual benefit to these online groups. Not only do you learn from others about what they are doing and how they are doing it, but you can also become inspired by what they are doing, and find that their sharing creates and encourages you to stay on the path and keep learning the app.

Practice Practice Practice.

We have all heard the saying that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something.

Even if you don't wish to become a Procreate expert, there is still a lot to take from this statement.

Even if you are not aspiring for expert status with your Procreate skills, you are still going to have to put in considerable time and effort to developing skills to efficiently use this app. If you want to get the most out of this app, then your skills need to be to the point where you don't need to think about what to do, you just do it.

For your art, and creativity to be unleashed with Procreate you need to operate it largely subconsciously, and to better do this you need to spend hundreds and hundreds, if not a thousand hours becoming familiar with, and mastering its core features.

That is not to say that you have to stop doing everything else you are doing and have a complete uninterrupted focus on Procreate for hours and hours each day. There are many other times in the day, where you can be working on your Procreate skills, whilst doing something else.

If you have to ride public transport to your studies or to work, then you could potentially practice your Procreate skills whilst sitting down on the bus or the train.

In the evening if you are watching TV, you can still have your iPad on your lap, with Procreate open, and be experimenting with different techniques and exploring different features while you watch your favorite show, or have it playing in the background.

Final Thoughts

Learning and mastering a new app such as Procreate, will require a significant investment of time and effort on your part to be able to get the most from the app. But there are many resources both online and in-person that you can access to make this learning journey as easy and communal as you would prefer.