The Artist‘s Guide to Applying Paper Textures in Procreate

As a digital artist, you have access to an endless array of tools and techniques to take your creations to the next level. One of my absolute favorites is adding realistic paper textures to my work in Procreate. It‘s an instant way to add tactile warmth and traditional charm to any digital painting, sketch, or design.

Hi, I‘m Carolyn – a professional illustrator who‘s been using Procreate daily for over three years. I‘m excited to share with you everything I‘ve learned about leveraging paper textures in this powerful app. Whether you‘re a total beginner or a seasoned pro, this guide will walk you through all the steps and secrets to applying paper textures like an expert. Let‘s dive in!

Why Use Paper Textures in Digital Art?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty techniques, let‘s talk about why you‘d want to use paper textures in the first place. After all, the beauty of digital art is that you have a pristine, blank canvas – why dirty it up with paper grain? Here are a few compelling reasons:

• Realism: Using paper textures adds an authentic, traditional feel to your digital paintings and sketches. It conveys the illusion that your art was created on real, physical paper.
• Visual interest: That subtle grain and texture just makes your art more intriguing and rich to look at. It activates more areas of the brain compared to flat colors.
• Natural imperfections: Perfection can look sterile, but small imperfections make art feel more organic and alive. Paper textures add those little flaws that give your work character.
• Tactile charm: There‘s something warm and inviting about the look of paper. It makes viewers want to reach out and touch your digital creation.
• Unlimited options: From smooth vellum to rough watercolor paper to antique parchment – you can instantly change the look and feel of your art with a huge variety of paper textures at your fingertips.

Basically, paper textures are an incredible way to make your digital art look more interesting, natural and "traditionally-made." Now let‘s learn how to actually apply them in Procreate!

How to Apply a Paper Texture in Procreate – Step by Step

First, you‘ll need to choose a paper texture image to use. You can find tons of free and premium paper textures online – some of my favorite sites are textures.com, Creative Market, and Unsplash. Or, you can create your own by taking a high-res photo of real paper.

For this example, I‘m using this antique paper texture from Unsplash:

Got your texture ready? Great, let‘s apply it to your art in Procreate!

Step 1: Open your Procreate file and make sure you‘re on the layer you want to apply the texture to. If you want everything in your artwork to have the texture, drag the layer(s) into a new group.

Step 2: If your canvas has a solid background color, tap the Background Color layer in the Layers panel and uncheck it to make it transparent.

Step 3: Tap the Actions menu (wrench icon) > Add > Insert a Photo > choose your paper texture image.

Step 4: In the Layers panel, make sure your texture layer is above the artwork layer(s) you want it to apply to. Tap on the N to open the Blend Mode menu, and change it from Normal to Multiply.

You should now see your paper texture showing up on top of your artwork! Here‘s what my sketch looks like before and after applying the antique paper:

Pretty cool, right? But we‘re just getting started. Let‘s talk about how to customize that texture to perfection.

Refining Your Paper Texture

The basic method above is a great start, but there are lots of ways to finesse your paper texture for maximum impact. Here are some of my favorite techniques:

Opacity

Once you have your texture layer set to Multiply, you can use the Opacity slider to control how intense the effect is. Slide it to the left to let more of your original colors show through, or crank it up to the right for heavy texture. I usually find a happy medium around 50-70%.

Combining Textures

You don‘t have to settle for just one paper texture! Feel free to mix and match different textures on different layers to create the exact look you want. For example, you could use a smooth paper for the background and a rougher one for foreground details. Experiment with different blend modes like Soft Light and Overlay for more subtle effects.

Layer Masks

Want to erase or fade out the paper texture in certain areas of your art? Use a layer mask! Tap your texture layer and choose Mask. Now you can paint black onto the mask to "erase" the texture wherever you want. Use a soft brush with a low opacity to gently fade it. This is great for keeping the texture heavy in the background while letting important details and highlights shine through.

Hue/Saturation/Brightness

If your paper texture is clashing with your color palette, you can easily adjust it. With your texture layer selected, go to the Adjustments menu (magic wand icon) > Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Play with the sliders to shift the color, fade out the texture, or punch up the contrast until it harmonizes perfectly with your art.

Noise & Grain

For an extra touch of tactile realism, I love adding subtle noise or grain on top of my paper textures. Go to the Adjustments menu again and choose Noise. Add just a tiny bit of Gaussian or Blue noise at a small scale (4-8%), and watch your texture come alive! It mimics the natural grain of real paper.

Tips for Using Paper Textures

Over the years, I‘ve discovered some best practices for getting the most out of paper textures in Procreate. Here are my top tips:

1. Use high-quality textures. Choose textures that are high-resolution, crisp and clean. Blurry, pixelated textures won‘t look good no matter what you do.
2. Match the texture to the style. Think about what type of paper best suits the mood and style of your piece. Smooth hot press for a clean editorial illustration, rough cold press for a gritty charcoal drawing, handmade paper for a organic collage, etc.
3. Switch up the scale. Don‘t be afraid to shrink or enlarge your texture using the Transform tool. Zoom way in for a bold, macro look or scale it down for a more subtle effect.
4. Use them in moderation. Like any special effect, paper textures can be overused. If they distract from your art more than enhance it, dial it back. Sometimes just a touch of texture is all you need.

Saving & Exporting with Textures

When you‘ve got your paper textures just right, it‘s important to know the best way to save and export your file so you don‘t lose the effect.

First, I recommend keeping your texture layers as separate layers (not merged down) until the very end, so you can go back and tweak them whenever needed. When you‘re ready to call it done, duplicate the file and flatten the duplicate. Keep the layered version as your master copy.

When exporting your finished art, make sure the paper textures are appearing correctly in the preview before you finalize it. If it looks blurry or pixelated, try increasing the resolution or scale the texture down and re-export.

I like to embed my paper textures directly into the artwork rather than keeping them on a removable layer. That way I know they‘ll always show up when printing my art or viewing it in other programs. To do that, just merge all your visible layers before exporting.

Examples & Inspiration

To get your creative juices flowing, here are some beautiful examples of art made with paper textures in Procreate. See how much depth, character and realism the textures add?

Inked illustration by Bryn Barnard

Botanical sketch by Eli Reutskaya

Collage art by Cat Coquillette

Aren‘t those stunning? I hope this guide has inspired you to start playing with paper textures in your own digital art. It really is such a fun and simple way to level up your work.

Remember, there are no hard and fast rules – feel free to experiment and break the mold to find what works for you. The possibilities are limitless!

If you have any questions or want to share your own paper texture tips, drop a comment below. I‘d love to see what you create. Now go get texturing!