Digital Art Course for Beginners: Procreate

What you'll learn

Learn digital drawing and painting with Procreate on your iPad with our with our graphic design & visual arts short courses in Sydney!

Turn your iPad into a portable art studio and discover why Procreate has become one of the world's most popular creative apps. Whether you enjoy drawing, painting, illustration, lettering, or visual journalling, Procreate makes it easy to create professional-looking digital artwork wherever inspiration strikes.

In this hands-on beginners course, you'll learn how to confidently navigate Procreate's intuitive tools while developing practical digital art skills. Using your Apple Pencil and iPad, you'll explore sketching, drawing, colouring, shading, layering, and special effects, building the knowledge needed to bring your creative ideas to life.

You'll also learn how to import photographs and hand-drawn artwork, create custom colour palettes, work with layers, and prepare artwork for sharing online or printing.

Whether you're an artist transitioning from traditional media, a creative hobbyist looking for a new outlet, or someone completely new to digital art, this course provides a supportive and practical introduction to working creatively with Procreate.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this Procreate Course for Beginners, you will have explored concepts and techniques such as:

• Creating digital artwork using Procreate
• Using Procreate's drawing, painting, and editing tools
• Working confidently with brushes, layers, and selections
• Understanding the difference between raster and vector artwork
• Creating and using custom colour palettes
• Recolouring and refining artwork
• Applying effects and adjustments to enhance illustrations
• Importing photographs and existing artwork into Procreate
• Understanding common file formats for saving, sharing, and printing artwork

After completing this course, you may wish to continue your learning in our Digital Art Course for Continuers: Procreate.

Course content

What will be covered in this Procreate Course for Beginners?

Session 1: Getting started with Procreate

• Why Procreate has become one of the most popular digital art tools available
• Understanding the Procreate interface and workspace
• Creating a new canvas, resolution settings, and colour profiles
• Resizing artwork and understanding canvas limitations
• How canvas size and DPI affect available layers
• Importing photographs and existing artwork
• Introduction to brushes and brush sensitivity
• Creating shapes using QuickShape tools

Session 2: Building your first artwork

• Essential Procreate gestures and shortcuts
• Using Drawing Guides and Symmetry tools
• Working with layers and blend modes
• Selection tools and editing techniques
• Saving, exporting, and sharing your artwork
• Understanding common file formats

Please note: Sessions 1 and 2 are combined for intensive Saturday workshops.

Session 3: Working with colour

• Understanding colour palettes
• Creating your own colour palettes from scratch or from photographs
• Recolouring artwork using different techniques
• Creating custom gesture shortcuts
• Using transparency to add depth and interest
• Adjusting colours using Procreate's editing tools

Session 4: Editing and special effects

• Using clipping masks and masking techniques
• Creating clean edges and non-destructive edits
• Applying effects and adjustments to artwork
• Exploring creative possibilities within Procreate
• Preparing artwork for printing
• Exporting artwork for different purposes

Please note: Sessions 3 and 4 are combined for intensive Saturday workshops.

Content may vary slightly depending on class pace, participant interests, and instructor approach.

Intended audience

Who is this Procreate Beginners course for?

This course is suitable for complete beginners with little or no experience using Procreate.

It is ideal for artists, illustrators, designers, crafters, hobbyists, and anyone interested in exploring digital drawing and painting on an iPad. No previous digital art experience is required.

Course venue

Rozelle Campus

2A Gordon Street, Rozelle NSW 2039 (corner of Gordon St & Victoria Rd on the grounds of St. Joseph's Church)

Course materials

What to bring to class

• An Apple Pencil
• The Procreate app installed on your device (approximately $20 AUD from the App Store)
• Device charger
• Pen and notepad for taking notes

Please ensure your device is fully charged before class.

Additional information

Please note the following:

Procreate is currently available exclusively for Apple iPads.

Compatible with Apple Pencil (2nd Generation):

• iPad mini (6th generation)
• iPad Air (4th generation and later)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later)

Compatible with Apple Pencil (1st Generation):

• iPad mini (5th generation)
• iPad (6th generation and later)
• iPad Air (3rd generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st and 2nd generation)
• iPad Pro 10.5-inch
• iPad Pro 9.7-inch

If you're unsure whether your device is compatible, please contact us before enrolling.