Making watercolour digital paintings in procreate, with DesignCuts procreate kits

I love to paint, and draw, but sometimes it is really not possible to take my art supplies where I am going- and if the creative muse hits, then i’m stuck, hoping it is still there by the time I can get back home, and also that I remember what it was I wanted to draw, or paint!

When my grandad died a few years ago, I was lucky enough to have been left enough money in his will to buy a second hand ipad pro, and an apple pencil. I really would rather I still had him with us, but I’m very grateful to have been able to buy something that is a daily godsend.

Not only can I keep up with social media, emails and netflix, but I can use the procreate app.
For those of you that haven’t heard about it yet,  It is a totally amazing art app, with no limit to what you can create with it- from lineart, or sketching out ideas, to full blown paintings.
There is also a really handy user manual, which will talk you through every tool that is available in your arsenal, and some brilliant techniques.


 For a galentines gift, one of my dear friends gave me a gift voucher to DesignCuts, which is an amazing resourse website for artists and graphic artists, full of fonts, flatlays, graphics and most importantly (to me anyway) procreate kits created by lots of different amazing artists and creators.

 One of the things I picked out to buy with my voucher  was the watercolor botanical kit, by Wonderbox Creative which includes so many beautiful watercolour brushes, and lots of other amazing design goodies such as textures, photo reference pictures, and colour swatches.

 Me being me, the first piece I created was nothing to do with flowers, but I just wanted to do some free flow play, and get a feel for the brushes included in the kit.

I do love a little whimsy, when I am in the right mood, and I was definitely in the mood for rainbows, and some sleepy clouds. I played with a few of the brushes, including the pencils and ink liners, and backed it onto one of the textures. In my next piece, I had read the PDFs included, and learnt a cool trick on how to get the paper to show through the finished artwork, for a more realistic look- definitely something I will be doing in future works, and may even go back and apply to this artwork.

Today, whilst out at my in laws, I had more time on my hands, and had had the foresight to bring my ipad and my pencil with me - so armed with those, and bundled up in a coat ( it is a really old farmhouse, with wood and coal fired heating, and the fires are all currently unlit) I dove right in to some botanicals, using one of the reference photos provided, watercolour paper textures, colour swatches and brushes  also from the kit, and created this- 

There were actually more flowers in this photo, but I chose to only utilise the top sprig this time.

Originally I just drew and painted the flower, but one of the techniques i love in card making is to use alcohol inks behind the image, to really make it pop- so I went to a layer behind the flower, blending some purples and lilacs together, with the procreate blending tool had a little play with the salt brush too.

I’m really happy with how it turned out, and have been making plans to go out walking and find some clusters of flowers locally that I can then turn into paintings as well. 

Tomorrow, it is back to my craft area, with projects that need finishing, and a couple of new ones to start. I have so many ideas rushing through my mind, but way too little daylight!

I hope you have enjoyed these paintings, and if digital art is something you are interested in, you really should check out designcuts - their marketplace is full of lots of amazing resources, all with commercial use licenses, and plenty of freebies too!

Until next time, 

Rachel