3 Realistic Drop Shadows in Procreate To Make Your Items Pop

3 Realistic Drop Shadows in Procreate To Make Your Items Pop

Creating realistic drop shadows in Procreate is a little tougher than using Photoshop. Apps like Photoshop are much more advanced and have presets that make creating real-looking drop shadows much easier.

In this video, I’ll show you three drop shadows for elements that look real and will help you with a starting point when it comes to making your own shadows.

For this Tutorial, I’m Using:

• I’m going to be using embellishments from my Down by the Sea Digital Scrapbooking Kit at holly pixels
• Procreate app (we’re on 5.2). 
• I use an iPad Pro 12.9 inch and Apple Pencil 2

Down by the Sea Summer Digi Scrapbook Kit by Holly Pixels

3 Realistic Drop Shadows in Procreate To Make Your Items Pop

Multi-Tasking

1. You’re lucky as we’ll talk about multitasking again on the iPad. When I’m doing things where I need to bring in any elements or digital backgrounds to my art, I always use this method. It’s just faster.
2. I keep my Files app in the dock of my iPad. You can do this by dragging any app icon to the dock.
3. Next, with Procreate already open, I will slowly swipe up on my screen to reveal the dock. Then, I will press and hold the Files app and drag it to the side of my screen.
4. Now I can drag and drop items from one side onto my Procreate canvas.
5. I’ll go ahead and drag in a piece of paper from my Down by the Sea kit so you can see drop shadows I make a little better.

Number 1: Big Fluffy Shadows

1. Creating shadows in Procreate isn’t as simple as with Photoshop. There are no buttons to click or presets. Therefore you have to manually make a shadow. I’ll be using this method for all of my shadows on these three tips.
2. I’m going to start by showing you big fluffy shadows by dragging in this blue flower.
3. When you think about big fluffy items that don’t lay flat on your desk or any flat object, the shadows will be bigger and more diffused.
4. So, to create our shadow, duplicate the embellishment and on the layer below you can tap the layer and choose Alpha Lock.
5. Here you can fill it with colors like black. But in this case, I’m going to choose the color from my flower. Because my flower may reflect color onto the paper below with the shadow.
6. I’ll go ahead and change my blend mode to Multiply by tapping on this N on the layer.
7. Now, tap on the adjustments icon and choose Gaussian Blur. I’ll be using this method for all of my shadows to give them that blurred effect.
8. By choosing layer I will increase my blur higher because it needs to look more diffused. I’ll go to about a 20.
9. Now, I’ll slide the shadow layer down and over. Just make sure that any other drop shadows you make also go in the same direction or you’ll lose that realism. Think of it as the sun shining off to one side. All of your objects will cast the same shadow direction.

Number 2 – Bulkier Objects But Flat

1. Now let’s work with a bulker object that is more flat. Like a button. It’s not as flat as say paper which would have a really tiny drop shadow, but it does lie flat.
2. In this case, I’ll drag my button to the center of my flower.
3. Now I could do the same method and fill my duplicated layer for my shadow with yellow and chose multiply. But I think I’ll fill it with black and leave it as Normal. You can do whatever you like here.
4. This time, when I apply my gaussian blur I will keep it smaller to around 5. This makes the shadow of the button feel more real as it’s much flatter to the object.

Number 3 – Objects that Have Various Heights

1. For this, I’m going to be using this piece of string. Maybe the string lies flat in some areas – perhaps where it was glued down to the paper and raised in other areas.
2. We’ll follow the same steps as we did before. This time the gaussian blur to 9 and offset it.
3. Now tap the Selection iCon and choose Warp
4. Here you can move the shadow in various directions to make parts closer to the string – what is lying more flat to the paper and away from the string as to what is raised higher.

And there you have it! Now you can control shadows in your digital art, collages, and digital scrapbooking to make them look more realistic in Procreate!

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