How to Intertwine Text and Clipart with Layer Masks in Procreate
How to Intertwine Text and Clipart with Layer Masks in Procreate
If you’re in love with the look of letters and florals intertwined like this you’re going to love today’s tutorial.
It’s super easy to take floral clipart and make pretty and modern graphics with text in Procreate. I’m excited to teach you how to make this pretty and super easy artwork today that will step up your Instagram game.
Let’s get started with Layer Masks in Procreate
I’ll be using clipart and fonts from Creative Market for this tutorial but you can use your own drawings, paintings, and lettering of your choice. We’ll be using:
- An iPad (I have the Gen 3 iPad Pro 12.9″ in this tutorial)
- Procreate App (this tutorial was made with version 5)
- Vicky Christina font from Creative Market*
- Scarlet Bouquet Watercolor Clipart from Creative Market*
Items marked with an * are affiliate links
Watch How to Intertwine Text and Clipart with Layer Masks in Procreate
Step 1: Download and Unzip The Font and the Clipart Files
When you download the files they should go to your Downloads folder.
Open the Files App (defaults on your iPad). If you can’t find it, swipe down on your screen and type in Files.
Here you’ll locate your Downloads folder. If you’re unsure if your downloads are going to your iCloud account or your iPad directly).
You can open Settings/Safari and scroll to Downloads in the General section. I don’t normally like saving my downloads to my iPad as it does increase the amount of space used. And, if I save things on my iCloud and get a new device, I don’t have to worry about trying to get everything backed up. You can also change this to another cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive if you wish.
After the downloads have completed, tap on the zip files to unzip them.
Step 2: Create a New Canvas in Procreate
Open the Procreate app and start a new canvas. For this project, I’m going to use a square canvas so I can easily share it on Instagram later.
To create your own canvas in Procreate, while in the Gallery, click the + sign in the upper right corner. Then click on the icon in the top corner of the palette.
On the next screen, set your DPI. I’m going to set mine to 150 DPI. If you want to know more about DPI I have a video that you can click here to check out.
Next enter the dimensions. Instagram sizing recommends 1080 x 1080 pixels so I will enter that for my width and height. Notice the number of max layers? This will vary depending on the DPI, size of your canvas, and your particular iPad model.
Name your new canvas so you can use it again by tapping on the UNTITLED and giving it a name.
Step 3: Add Watercolor Clipart to The Canvas
For this process, I always use Multi-tasking Split View. I keep my Files app in on the Dock. It’s easy to drag an app icon to the dock.
With Procreate open, I swipe up to reveal the Dock, slightly. Don’t swipe too fast or up too high. Next, I tap on the Files app and press and hold while dragging it to the side of my screen. Now I have the Files app on the right and my Procreate canvas on the left.
Locate the clipart file you unzipped in Step 1 in the Files app. I’ll be going into the Bouquets folder. I always try and use a piece of clipart that has a lot of extra vines and things to make intertwining look more interesting. So I’ll use Bouquet 2 for this project.
Press and hold on the thumbnail for the clipart and drag it to your Procreate canvas.
To close out the Files app, simply select on the divider bar and drag it to the right.
Step 4: Import a Font in Procreate
Tap Actions (wrench icon) and choose Add Text. This is where you can import and use fonts in Procreate if you’re not into lettering.
Start by typing out your phrase. For this project, I’ll use Be Kind as my phrase.
With the text palette open, tap on the section of the screen (called Styles) to open the font customizations.
Choose Import Font and locate the TTF font file. You can’t use all the fun glyphs in Procreate that come with OTF font files at this time. So I just import the TTF. You can also drag and drop fonts into Procreate (Check their Procreate Handbook on their website for more ways to install fonts). There are also other ways to use Glyphs with other apps that you can import into your canvas, but we won’t cover that today.
Step 5: Modify Your Text
Highlight your text and then scroll to the FONT column and locate the Vicky Christina font to apply it.
With the Style screen open, you can adjust the size, tracking, etc. I also click on the text bounding box and make the words fit on one line.
Adjust tap you can see the vines and to where it seems to make the most sense.
Next, tap on the text layer and Rasterize. This makes the text uneditable so we can now erase sections away using Masks.
Tap on the text layer again and choose Alpha Lock. We’ll recolor the text to work best with this clipart.
Use your finger to press and hold and sample a color from the clipart.
Tap on the text layer again and choose Fill Layer. This will recolor. You can do this again until you’re happy with the color you choose.
Step 6: Applying the Layer Masks in Procreate
Masking is a great non-destructive way to erase details. If you don’t like it you can simply delete that layer and not have to repeat everything we did to get the text the way we wanted.
Tap on the text layer again and choose MASK (not clipping Mask). Notice the new layer and it’s filled with white above. If we use a black brush now, we can paint on the text layer anywhere and it will look as though we are erasing things away. When I use my black brush, notice how it’s coloring on the Mask layer? And the text layer appears to be intact still?
Before I start painting over areas, I need to make sure the clipart vines are selected. This only works if the clipart you use or your artwork is NOT flat and has a white background. It needs to be transparent (PNGS).
Tap on the clipart layer and choose select. You’ll notice the selection lines. Don’t deselect or this won’t work.
While it’s selected, tap back on the Layer Mask layer. With your black paintbrush (I prefer to use a Mono brush or something without texture. I’m using my Colo Mono brush from the Colorado Brush set) start painting over where you want the vines to appear as if they are showing up forward on some of the letters. It’s a little mind trippy, but you’ll get the hang of it if you keep things simple to start.
Step 7: Gradient Background
Let’s make a gradient background for your new graphic.
Select one of the lighter colors, but not the lightest. This is just like we did when we sampled the colors in step 5.
Fill in the background layer. It’s not easy to fill the background layer like a new layer unless you have the color selected in your color palette. So you can create a new layer below everything and above the Background layer and click on it to choose Fill Layer.
Next, choose the selection icon and move over to Eclipse. Draw an oval with the selection on the center of your canvas. There is no way to move this selection so you may have to attempt this a few times to get it centered.
With the selection still on, tap on Feather and increase this on the slider to about 40%.
Choose a color slightly lighter than the background color and on that new background layer, you can press and choose Fill. This will fill the new feathered eclipse with the lighter color making it appear like a highlight/spotlight on the background.
There you have it! I really hope you were able to learn something valuable today and get your creative juices flowing! I really enjoyed teaching and appreciate you watching my tutorials.
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