Looking to get started with digital drawing? Procreate is the perfect app for beginners with its simple UI and friendly features that anyone can learn. The biggest hurdle in any new creative venture is often that initial step of trying something new. If you’ve never drawn anything beyond stick figures before, it might seem impossible to draw a straight line without also making a mess of it! But don’t worry, as with most things creative there’s always a trick up your sleeve to make things easier. Let this tutorial help you understand how to draw a straight line in Procreate for beginners by using one simple layer mask. Follow along and find out what you need!
How To Draw Straight Line In Procreate?
- Start off by creating a new document in Procreate. You can choose the size and orientation of your canvas as you like. I’m going to create a square, but you can make it however you want.
- Draw a simple shape with the Pencil tool in your favorite color. I used purple for this tutorial, but feel free to use any color that pleases your eye!
- Using the Pencil tool, create a shape using the same color as before, except this time hold down on the Shift key while drawing to make sure it’s perfectly straight and level (or tilt it up slightly if you want). Just like before, if you hold down Shift while drawing, Procreate will do all of the hard work for you!
- Select your shape with the Selection tool (A) and then click on Layer 1 in Procreate with an empty hand (B). With Layer 1 selected, press on Control-J (C) to copy your selected shape into a new layer called “Layer 1 copy” (D). Then press Control-J again to paste it back onto the original layer called “Layer 1” (E). This will keep all of your shapes separate from each other so they can be modified without affecting each other or any other shapes on their own layer. If there are any mistakes or mistakes that happen while drawing this line later on, just select all your shapes and use Command-J to copy them back and paste them back onto the original layer.
- Now that you have your shapes separated, we can start adding some effects to make drawing this line a little easier! First, go to Layer 1 copy and duplicate it by pressing Control-J (F). Then go to Layer 1 and select both of your shapes (G). Then press Command-J (H) to merge them together.
- To give your line more depth without having to add any extra colors or strokes, we can use a layer mask! A layer mask is used to modify the layer underneath it; in this case, the original layer (Layer 1) will be modified but only the lines on the Layer 1 copy will be modified instead of all of them. So let’s add a new layer mask by pressing Command-Control-N.
Why It’s Easy To Draw A Straight Line In Procreate?
Draw a line
If you’re looking to get started with drawing in Procreate, the first thing you need to do is draw a line. For this tutorial, we will be using the Pencil tool, but if you know how to draw with the Pencil tool then feel free to use it instead. The easiest way to draw a line is by clicking on the beginning of the line and dragging it until it reaches the end. You can also create an anchor point by clicking and dragging on an existing point or by clicking in empty space and then dragging at that location. If you want to learn more about anchors click here.
Add a mask
Once you have your line drawn, go ahead and click on “Layer Mask” from your layers menu at the top of your screen. This will add a layer mask over your line (see below). By adding this layer mask we can make our straight line look smooth without having to worry about making any mistakes along the way! The layer mask is also very useful if we want to hide some of our work later on or if we want to use other editing tools on our image later on (such as blending modes). To hide a layer mask simply select one or both of them from the layers menu.
Change the blending mode
Now that we have our first step complete we can start making things look better! We can do this by changing the blending mode for our layer mask from Normal back to Overlay. To do this, click on the layer mask itself and then click on the “Layer Mask” icon at the top of your screen. This will bring up a menu that you can use to change the blending mode of your layer mask (see below).
Add a second line
After you have changed your blending mode we can start adding another line by clicking on “Add New Layer” from the layers menu at the top of your screen. This will add a new layer above our current one. To make sure we don’t accidentally hide our first line, select it from the layers menu and hide it by clicking on “Hide All Layers” at the bottom of your screen (see below).
Add a third line
Now that we have two lines on our image we can start adding some more! Clicking on “Add New Layer” from the layers menu will add another new layer above our current one, but before doing this make sure you select both lines from your layers menu so that they will be visible in Procreate as well as in Photoshop or other editing software later on (see below). To do this click both lines together and then click on one of them twice to select it (see below). You should now see two selected lines in Procreate and one selected line in Photoshop or other software later.
Try out the Shape Tool instead
1. With the Pencil tool selected in Procreate, draw a shape using any color that you like. I used blue for this tutorial, but feel free to use any color that pleases your eye!
2. Select the shape with the Selection tool (A) and then click on Layer 1 in Procreate with an empty hand (B). With Layer 1 selected, press on Control-J (C) to copy your selected shape into a new layer called “Layer 1 copy” (D). Then press Control-J again to paste it back onto the original layer called “Layer 1” (E). This will keep all of your shapes separate from each other so they can be modified without affecting each other or any other shapes on their own layer. If there are any mistakes or mistakes that happen while drawing this line later on, just select all your shapes and use Command-J to copy them back and paste them back onto the original layer.
3. Now we need to hide our line by making it transparent! To hide a shape, go back to Layer 1 and select both of your shapes with Command-J. Then set their Opacity value to 50% (F).
4. Select the Shape Tool from the Tool Options bar at the top of Procreate (G), then click on Layer 2 in Procreate with an empty hand and select Shape Tool from the Tool Options bar at the top of Procreate again (H). Click once on Layer 2 and then click on Layer 1 copy with an empty hand to create a new layer, and then click twice on Layer 1 copy to make it the active layer (I).
5. Go to the Layers tab and change the Blend Mode from Normal to Soft Light (J). This will give your shape a softer look without the harsh lines that hard light can have.
6. Now we can start adding some color! Select your shape with Command-J, then go back to Layer 1 and select both of your shapes again with Control-J. Then go back to the Tool Options bar at the top of Procreate, select Shape Tool from the Tool Options bar, and set its color to any color you like (K). You can also set it in Levels or Curves if you would like it darker or lighter than what I did here.
Recommended Brushes for Drawing a Straight Line
- The first step is to apply a layer mask, which is a mask that’s applied over another layer. You can use any brush to do so.
- In this example, I’m using a simple brush that I found on Brusheezy.com. The outline of the brush is the shape of the tip, and you can simply drag it around to trace your desired shape.
- If you have trouble tracking it with your finger, try holding down the option key as you drag your finger around your canvas (if you’re on Mac). This will let you draw a straight line with less pressure and better accuracy!
- It’s best to draw one side at a time first! Take your time tracing out one side, then flip it over and trace out the other side in reverse order – first one side then the other! This way if you make mistakes or mess something up, you won’t have too many issues trying to fix it later on. Once both sides are traced out, press enter twice (or click anywhere outside of either) to finish off drawing them both simultaneously with one stroke! Done! You now know how to draw a straight line in Procreate for beginners by using one simple layer mask!
Conclusion
There are many different ways to draw a straight line in Procreate. Drawing with a ruler is a tried-and-tested method that has been used by artists for centuries, but with a layer mask, it’s easy to create a straight line with ease. If you’re a beginner hoping to draw a straight line in Procreate, this tutorial will help you understand how to do so. Drawing with a ruler is a tried-and-tested method that is easy to learn and will help you become more confident with your device. Simply choose a brush that best suits your style, and you can create a straight line in no time.
