(soft music begins)
- [Instructor] Hello, iPad Letterers
and welcome back to Show Me Your Florals.
It's getting a little
bit more exciting today
because we're going to talk about
three of that key concepts
that you will need to know
when painting watercolor florals.
I'm going to show you how
to use The Layers panel,
how to use Blend Modes, and then also,
how to use Layer Masks.
And since these are really,
really important concepts,
I very much recommend
that you watch this video
all the way to the end so
that you don't miss anything.
And the first thing we
are going to talk about
is the layers.
You can have a look at your layers palette
by clicking on the Layers icon, here.
You can add new layers by
tapping on that plus icon.
And then the amount of
layers that you can create
depends on the size of your canvas.
And also on the iPad you have.
So I'm just gonna show you you
what does canvas looks like.
So they can go to Actions and then Canvas.
And then in the Canvas
Information, you can go on Layers.
And now this will show you how many layers
you have available for your artwork.
And in our case, we definitely have
plenty of layers available.
When I was studying graphic design,
we were taught to always name our layers,
and of course, you can
do that in Procreate.
So you can tap on the
thumbnail of the Layer
and then tap rename.
So maybe we'll call this Base,
so this can be our base layer.
And then we can drag that
layers around as well
in a stack, like this.
So just hold it, and then
now we're dragging it
to the bottom.
This is important to know
because the order of your layers
in the stack here really matters.
So the way that layers work is almost like
your tracing paper that you would note
from your lettering practice.
And what this means is
there anything at the bottom
of your stack will get hidden
by things that are above.
Let me show you how this works.
So currently we have
nothing on the base layer,
so I'm just going to
choose one of the colors
and then use the soft air brush.
And now I'm going to paint.
And you can see now
because the shape we've
created yesterday is on top.
I can't see everything
that's on the base layer.
So if I wanted to reveal
everything from the base layer,
I would turn off the
visibility of this layer here,
and then also here, to reveal it.
Now let's bring these back.
And now let's paint
something on top as well
with a different color.
So if we choose a different
color and then paint on top,
you can see now that
everything that's below
gets hidden because this
is on the layer above.
If I wanted to rearrange
the order of my layers,
I could do that as well.
Let's say I wanted to make
this the bottom layer,
I can drag it down.
And now, you can see that
this is at the bottom
and everything that's on
top is now getting revealed.
And then we have some more options
for these layers as well.
So when you tap on that fly out menu,
you see a number of options appear here.
For example, you can clear the layer.
So this clears anything that's
currently on this layer.
And this is also what
makes it so important
to have different layers,
because it means you can
delete part of your artwork
without destroying everything else.
So I didn't want those two shapes anymore
which means I can just clear them,
but this doesn't affect the layers below.
And then another thing we
can do with these layers,
let's say, we are happy with this,
we can merge them as well.
So you can tap on the
layer and then Merge Down.
And so now these combines the
two layers into one object
that we can move around independently.
But of course, this means now,
if you're not happy with
the red or the green,
you won't be able to change
this individually anymore.
So I always recommend to
leave the layers separate,
unless of course you're
running out of layers,
or you're completely happy
with the two elements
living on the same layer.
And then the next concept with layers
that is quite important
to remember as well,
is something that we call Alpha lock.
And Alpha lock can be activated
by two fingers swiping to the right.
You can also activate it by
tapping on the layer thumbnail
and then selecting Alpha Lock.
You can see here, it's got tick,
so that means it's selected.
You can also unselect it and
then we can select it again.
So now what Alpha lock
means is that all the pixels
that currently have color
on this layer, are locked.
So you can only paint on the
pixels that already have color,
but you can't paint on any other pixels.
Let me show you how this works.
So let's change the
color to this light pink.
And now if I paint over the top,
you see, I can paint on top of everything,
but out here, I won't be able to paint.
And this is a super,
super important concept.
And definitely one of those things
that we are going to use for
painting our florals as well.
And then the next concept
I want to show you
is the selections.
So, I can tap on the layer thumbnail,
and then you tap on Select.
So now this creates a selection mask.
And this is quite similar to Alpha lock,
except what happens now is
you can paint on any layer
and all the pixels that are not selected
are currently locked.
So if I wanted to paint the same shape,
but not on the same layer,
I would use this option.
And so now let's change
to a different color.
Let's say, I want it to
just color in the edges
of this shape.
I could do this.
And then, I'm not affecting
any pixels outside.
So this is definitely
helpful to know as well.
And then I've already
shown you that visibility
of the layers, you can turn
them on and off like this.
And then, we can also create layer groups.
So if you don't want to merge to layers,
but you still want to
organize them a little bit,
you can highlight two layers,
and then you can see here now,
that group option comes up,
so you tap on Group, and
now we have a new group.
So if we wanted to move
this around, for example,
we can select the whole
group and then we can select
both layers at the same time.
We can also resize the
group at the same time.
So this is definitely
another very handy feature,
especially if you wanna work
in a non-ndestructive way.
Alright, so now we have that layers sort.
So let's talk a little bit
more about Blend Modes.
You can get to the Blend
Modes by tapping on the,
in icon here, which reveals
all that Blend Modes.
In previous versions of
Procreate, the Blend Modes
were nicely grouped so
it was easy to guess
what the Blend Mode does.
But now, it's a little bit
of a hodgepodge of names
that don't make a lot of sense.
The best way to learn this
is to actually try it out.
Blend Modes are mathematical formulas
that decide how to play two pixels
that sit on top of each
other on two separate layers.
It's a bit complicated and unpredictable,
so I'm not going to bore
you with all the details.
Trial and error seems
to be the best strategy
that I've found so far.
So the most important Blend
Modes you want to try out,
are Multiply, which is at
the top and then Color Burn,
and then also, Overlay.
And you can see already,
when you try this out,
how the blending of the
two different layers
get affected like this.
But sticking to the most common options
seems to do the trick for me.
Just going to show you a few
examples of how this works.
So we can take, create a new layer
and then paint a random square here,
and then a new layer and
we're gonna change the color
and paint this on top.
And now you can see how
this layer completely covers
what's underneath that pink layer.
Now, if we changed it
Blend Mode of this layer,
let's say, we use a Multiply,
you can see now how the two colors
blend into each other like this.
And now if you wanted to see
how the different Blend Mode work,
you can just scroll through the list
and then you can see how
this completely changes,
how that layers kit represented
with the different Blend Modes.
One important thing to remember is that
the Blend Modes only affect
that layers that are below.
So if I change the Blend Mode
here, let's say, to Multiply,
it wouldn't affect any
of the layers above,
which is also why we've cut out,
takes just layers here at
the top of the template.
And you'll see this when we open this up,
the first Texture has
that Multiply Blend Mode,
and then the second one has Color Burn
And this is the reason
why they are on top.
And this is also the reason
why you always want to paint
below the textures layer,
to take advantage of these Blend Modes.
And then the third concept
we are going to look at
are Layer Masks.
This is a super important feature
when it comes to non-destructive work.
And it can take a little
while to get the hang of it
so it's definitely worth practicing.
Layer Masks allow you to select a fleet,
modify the opacity of the
layer that they belong to.
And this differs from the use
of the Layer Opacity Slider.
As a mask, it has the
ability to selectively modify
the opacity of different
areas across a single layer.
So the Opacity Slider
here affects the opacity
of the whole layer,
but the Layer Mask only affects the parts
that actually have the mask.
And I know this sounds a
little bit complicated,
so let me show you how this works.
So let's tap on that layer
thumbnail and then tap on a mask.
And you can see now here,
there is a new layer inserted,
which is called Layer Mask.
And you can also notice that
this is currently all white.
And the reason why it is all white
is because everything
is currently revealed.
The way I like to remember
this is that white reveals
and black conceals.
And you can see it also, when
we go to the color wheel,
we can't actually select any colors.
We can only select different
variations of black and gray
all the way to white.
And so this is really nice
because it means you can
erase part of the layer,
but then if you make a mistake,
or later on, maybe you
decide that you wanted
these pixel specs, they
are not gone forever,
but they aren just hidden.
So now, if I turned the
visibility of the layer off,
you'll see that we've got everything back
and everything is still intact.
So this is a very, very powerful feature
when it comes to working
non-destructively in Procreate.
So your homework for today
is to practice the three
concepts that I've shown you.
Let me know if you have any questions
and I'll be more than
happy to answer them.
In case you haven't watched
yesterday's video yet,
I'm going to ploop it up here as well
so you can watch it and
then you can catch up.
Thank you so much watching,
and I'll see you in the next video.
(soft music)
