The Grail of Procreate: Easy Watercolor with Free Brushes
Creating a believable watercolor in Procreate has always been a challenge. There are ways, but most involve unique textures, techniques, and premium brush packs. I wanted to figure out a way to create this elusive medium quickly so that it could be used both in finished art and for quick sketching. After a lot of testing and failures, I’ve finally come upon a solution that is easy to execute and delivers a very believable result.
This video will walk you through that process that a uses 4 of the brushes in the SketchBox Brush Pack for Procreate available now. By the end of this, you should have a lovely watermelon painting and a deeper understanding of the brushes provided.
You’ll need to download these free Procreate brushes to follow along:
- Sketchbox Brush Pack for Procreate
- Free Aqua Edge Brush for Procreate (Update: This brush is now part of the SketchBox Pack and no longer available as a separate download)
I use an additional watercolor paper texture which is purely optional. If you’d like the one I’m using you can get it here: https://etsy.me/2m9czOt
The Brushes
Aqua Paint
The standard watercolor brush in the pack. It’s a glaze brush, so it gradually builds up value as you add strokes.
Aqua Amped
Similar to the previous brush but the color gets multiplied. The more strokes, the more saturated and dark your colors get until it goes black. Probably best to use it with lighter pencil pressure or a reduced opacity until you get used to it.
Just Water
This brush doesn’t deliver pigment. Used for Blending or watery wash effects.
Spackle & Smudge
Load it as Smudge Tool. An amazing smudge tool (my favorite) and used to blend areas naturally and also bring back texture over areas washed out by the just water brush.
Aqua Edger
An optional brush that’s pretty good at delivering a believable watercolor edge bleed when used with the Spackle & Smudge brush.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Towards the end of the tutorial, we’ll explore some tips and tricks to add more realism to your painting. These include adding some paper texture, hue-saturation adjustments, layer blend modes, and adding watercolor-bleed edges with our Aqua Edger brush.
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