Recreating my watercolour paintings in Procreate

For years I've worked in traditional watercolours, painting wildlife. But with so many great watercolour brushes available for the Procreate app now, I wanted to see if I could recreate my usual watercolour style using the iPad.
The finished print I created is available here:
daniwilliamsart.etsy.com/list...
Watercolour brush sets that I've used and recommend:
www.etsy.com/uk/listing/77325...
www.etsy.com/uk/listing/13393...
www.lisaglanz.com/product-cat...
Website
www.daniwilliams.co.uk
Etsy shop
www.daniwilliamsart.etsy.com
Instagram
/ daniwilliamsillustration
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[@user-rq3cc2td8r]

I love this whole video! When I switched from painting with acrylics to using Corel Painter, I emulated everything I could as well. I scanned gessoed boards and used the same underpainting techniques, customized my favorite brushes, etc. It was really something to see, how similar the results were. It really helps to have a solid foundation in traditional media!

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Thank you! This isn't how I'd normally use Procreate, but I was impressed by how similar the end results were (especially as I tend to reduce the size of my finished drawings) and it's such a timesaver!

[@AlekkzByDzyn]

As someone who's always adored watercolor (real brushes) I still haven't really dug deep into learning how to watercolor on paper but I've picked up an ipad and Procreate several years ago to start my sticker business, I am now slowly discovering that you can do watercolor on Procreate and I really appreciate you making a video and showing the two comparisons. I was struggling to find how to make it more "realistic" on procreate and what the differences really were between the two styles. Thank you so much! :)

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

I wish I was better at both real and digital watercolours! My techniques are always very splodgy and reliant on the line work, but I'm enjoying experimenting with both. All of the brush creators I mentioned in the video/description, have great tutorials.

[@DigitalBuddyArt]

Wow, it looks very realistic, like real watercolors!

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

It's all in those amazing brushes!

[@brendahelquist8823]

Thank you. I love the water color look,, and had a hard time getting with Procreate.. I learned a lot from watching this.

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Thank you! I'm very much learning myself so I'm pleased this was useful.

[@lrganster]

Thank you for sharing ❤❤

[@doodlingdebbie1]

I love what you were able to achieve using Procreate. Beautiful work and you’re so talented. ❤

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Aww, thank you so much! I'm still getting to grips with Procreate but it's an amazing tool.

[@doodlingdebbie1]

@@daniwilliamsillustration it truly is an amazing tool and bless Procreate for doing all they do for artist. Those subscription services like Adobe are just ridiculous. Keep doing what you do and inspiring others. ❤️

[@vapsman88]

Thanks for the video! I have been in search for years to emulate Watercolors Digitally with great disappointment until I bought an iPad and Procreate. The Apple Pencil is amazing and have found several WC Brush sets but unsure how to replicate Traditional with digital. Your technique is an epiphany and will try to work that way. Please do more videos like this one.

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Thank you. You should definitely check out the creators of the brush sets I mentioned. They all have good tutorials.

[@duckslocatedinthepond1111]

This is great! Ive recently gotten into digital art from being exclusively watercolor and i've been missing my textures. Great video!

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Thank you! Having th right brushes makes all the difference.

[@drendelous]

I would love to see more techniques to apply using procreate watercolours

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

I'm still learning, but I'll try!

[@epoelzl]

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to post this brief, yet valuable, comparison of digital vs. traditional watercolor. Just starting out using Procreate, and now feel better about the results that can be achieved. Somewhat off topic, but could you please provide the name of, or link to, the intro music jingle you used? It's something from a past life(?), and will drive me crazy until I know where it's from! Lastly: Those quick cuts featuring your adorable put a huge smile on my face! Thanks for your time!

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Hi, do you mean the little piece of music at the start when my name comes up? That was just a piece of free music in iMovie (shhhh, don’t tell people I’m editing in iMovie). I can’t remember the name of it but will try and remember to look when I’m back at my computer.

[@epoelzl]

Thanks for responding! It was right under my nose, and explains why it was vaguely familiar! There is NO SHAME using iMovie! Have Final Cut Pro, which I always find too complicated, and end up using iMovie!

[@Ellabunni]

such a cute video! i clicked right away seeing the sharks! I love your art style so much!

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Thank you. My art style is evolving, but I will keep going.

[@peterc2248]

Great video

[@valem1751]

Nice video. Clear description and amazing drawing. Keep going!!❤❤😊

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Thank you so much 😀

[@sixtimesnine9170]

Great video. I’m a digital, not traditional beginning painter, but I love traditional watercolour look and aspire to do real watercolour as well. I got frustrated with the process of trying to recreate watercolour look in Procreate, as it just seems to take so much extra time fiddling and tweaking, to get the look. How do you find comparing the time it takes in Procreate to do the painting vs how long it would take in real media? Keep up the videos. You’ve hit a sweet spot of subject, duration and technique that really interests me. You have a new subscriber. Hope your channel keeps growing, and curses to all the pirates in the world!

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Hi, yep it's definitely a very different process in Procreate. Unlike creating pencil or ink effects in Procreate, where the techniques aren't that different to the real thing. I enjoy doing both and would find it hard to choose between them but time wise, Procreate wins just because you end up with a finished picture, on your computer, the background removed if you want etc. Whereas my real watercolours have to be scanned in, 'cut out' away from the background, tidied up if I've gone over the lines too much, tweaked to get back colours or values lost in the scanning. Plus sometimes just the time of getting out the paints and tidying up again. I think it depends what effect you want from the end result. Good luck!

[@drendelous]

Lisa Glanz's brush sets are superb

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Yep! I have so many. They're amazing.

[@AvatarAlexx]

Beautiful❤

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Thank you ☺

[@evelynwald9132]

I really loved this video because of the comparison of real watercolor painting vs procreate. That you couldn’t tell the difference in the final print was amazing. Just curious, what printer and paper did you use to print out your work? Thank you so much for sharing this. You are a very talented artist (loved your drawings) and your insights were very helpful. ❤

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Thank you so much, glad you found it useful. I'm currently using a Canon Pixma Pro and this was printed on Bockingford inkjet watercolour paper which has a lovely texture perfect for watercolours, although it is a little yellowy.

[@evelynwald9132]

@@daniwilliamsillustration interesting, I’ve never knew an ink jet specific watercolor paper existed. I have the entry level Epson printer with refillable ink and have fed Canson watercolor paper through the printer which is not recommended by the manufacturer. It works, but I have to fiddle with the paper by holding it plus adjust the colors a bit. I learned through Teela Cunningham to make a test print page by applying different types of overlays to the completed picture. (Like a screen of 70% or a color burn), then print out that sample page to see what adjustment will print the best. I hope you do more videos as you are also a good teacher. Thanks for your response. PS: I am also a fan of Calvin at Drifter’s Studios brushes too and it was nice that you shared who you use for Procreate watercolor brushes.

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

@@evelynwald9132 Yes, it took a fair bit of playing with adjustment layers and so on to get the best print. And then if I use a different paper, I have to tweak everything again.

[@Foxmonster78]

Loved the vid! ❤ btw, what pack is the watercolour blender in?

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Thanks. Julia Dreams and Drifter Studio both have blenders in, but I think only Lisa Glanz's most recent pack includes one.

[@Foxmonster78]

@@daniwilliamsillustration ok, thx.☺️

[@kathleenhartegilsenan1534]

Hi Dani. Thanks for the great video. I have a question- when you make a print of work you have created in procreate, do you include the paper texture layer, or do you feel the digital texture would compete texture of the real paper?

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

Good question. I usually print on a textured paper that is similar to a rough watercolour paper, so I remove the background from the image as it's not needed. When I've accidentally forgotten to do that and printed the background, it ends up looking sort of muddied. But if I were printing on a very smooth white paper, I'd probably experiment and see what looked best.

[@ChrisW228]

I’m curious why it saves more time to go slowly with the eraser vs. just going slowly with the brush in the first pass?

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

It's just the way I prefer to do it. I get a more even cover with fewer of the marks where the pencil has been lifted and has gone over itself, which you always get with watercolour brushes. But I use different techniques depending on which brush I'm using and what I'm drawing.

[@ChrisW228]

@@daniwilliamsillustration Gotcha, thank you.

[@antoinette_decor]

Hello, what model of tablet is this?

[@daniwilliamsillustration]

It's the 5th generation iPad Pro, 12.9".