Revisiting My First Project in Procreate

Hello, creative friends!

Let’s take a journey from baby to toddler and beyond with a creative revisit. I’ve found that it is helpful in my creative process to spend time with and reimagine my past works. By viewing it with fresh eyes and a new perspective, I not only gather an appreciation for how I am evolving as an artist, but it gives me a creative challenge and allows me to breathe new life into old work. 

The Original

In April 2020, I embarked on a new creative adventure by trying my hand at Procreate on my iPad with the Apple Pencil. As someone who has never felt particularly skilled at drawing, the task of learning both the new tools and the software was daunting. To keep things simple, my first project was this cute little baby.

At the time, I felt like a baby myself when it came to drawing – inexperienced, unsure, and full of potential. I was taking my first steps into a new world of creativity, which was both exciting and intimidating.

The Revisit

Three years later, I thought it would be a fun challenge to revisit that initial project. This time, I expanded the concept to include not only the baby but also his progression as a toddler and a small child. I maintained the playful hair swoop and the same color palette to pay homage to the original piece.

Reflecting on my creative journey over the past three years, it’s gratifying to see how my skills and confidence have developed. This exercise has been an excellent reminder that growth and improvement come with time, practice, and a willingness to embrace new challenges. Like the baby in my drawings, I’m excited to see how my artistic abilities continue to evolve and mature.

I’m proud of how this creative revisit turned out. 

A Technical Look

Now let’s get a little more technical. Want to know a secret? I mainly use three brushes in Procreate: the 6B pencil, the round brush, and the baskerville brush. While the original baby drawing used the 6B pencil, the new version features the baskerville brush for the outline and the round brush for the paint.

I love Procreate’s built-in stats. In addition to stats, Procreate keeps track of your work and creates a timelapse of the process. I hope you enjoy seeing how much my process has changed.

Let’s take a look at some of the details. The original design was created in April 2020. I made 160 strokes, and it took 23 minutes to create. The revisit was made in May of 2023. I made 431 strokes, and it took 53 minutes to complete.

As you can tell, I am also using a different aspect ratio. I currently create on a 3000 x 3000-pixel canvas at 300 dpi. This allows me to create a high-quality version for print or social media while still being able to utilize multiple layers. Procreate maxes out at 55 layers with these settings. The original artwork was created on a 2732 x 2048-pixel canvas at 132 dpi. While this gives me 91 layers to work with, the quality isn’t great. For web, you can get by with a 72dpi canvas, but if you want to print or create stickers with your creation, you need 300dpi. This is also the standard video depth. When in doubt, I stick to the 300 dpi range. This allows you to do other things with the work and also leaves you with plenty of layers to work with. Anything above that range can bog down the system and make it hard to work with.