Digital Mountain Landscape Painting in Procreate for Beginners

Key points

• Build the scene one layer at a time: each mountain range gets its own layer, so each can be moved or adjusted later. 5:00
• Use Alpha Lock to paint only inside an existing shape, such as the mist on each hill, so paint never spills onto the background. 10:07
• Use a clipping mask for texture that must stay inside the moon, and keep it editable so its opacity and position can be changed afterwards. 15:34
• When drawing a moon, hold the pen until the stroke snaps to a shape, then resize it with Uniform scaling so it does not turn into an egg shape. 13:13
• The video's canvas is 2300 by 3000 pixels, and its key settings include a 45 percent Gaussian blur for the gradient, 60 percent opacity for the mist and a 43 bloom size for the moon glow. 0:43

Terms

• Alpha lock — Locks a layer's transparency so painting only affects the existing shape. 10:01
• Clipping mask — A layer clipped to the one below so painting only shows on that layer's shape. 15:34
• Gaussian blur — An adjustment that softens edges and smooths gradients. 4:24
• Bloom — An adjustment that adds a soft glowing light effect. 14:44
• Colour drop threshold — Setting that controls whether a fill spills past the shape's edge. 6:10
• Snapping — Aligns moved objects to the canvas centre, shown by an orange line. 9:20

What you need

• iPad with Procreate — Procreate app on an iPad, with a pressure-sensitive pen.
• Colour palette — The downloadable colour palette linked in the video description.

Steps

• 1. Create a custom canvas: Tap plus, open the custom folder, enter 2300 by 3000 px, set RGB and sRGB, name it and tap Create. 0:31
• 2. Fill the background blue: Drag the first palette colour onto the canvas to fill layer one. 2:14
• 3. Blend the sky gradient: Airbrush the second and third colours onto the sky, then apply Gaussian blur and set it to about 45. 2:21
• 4. Draw and fill the first mountain range: Use the mono-line brush for a wobbly line, then drag colour in and set colour drop threshold to just before spilling. 5:21
• 5. Add mist with alpha lock: Tap the layer, enable alpha lock, then glaze soft airbrush over the lower area of each mountain. 9:53
• 6. Draw the moon: Make a circle, hold to snap it to a perfect ellipse then circle, fill it, and move it using uniform scaling. 13:01
• 7. Add bloom glow: Duplicate the moon, apply Bloom from the adjustments menu, and set size and burn. 14:12
• 8. Texture the moon with clipping mask: Create a new layer above the moon, turn on clipping mask, paint with rusted decay, then lower its opacity. 15:21
• 9. Customise the star brush: In Brush Studio, raise stroke spacing and jitter, then stroke stars with more pressure for brighter ones. 17:17
• 10. Create shooting stars: Place bright dots, then smudge outward with the light brush to form tails. 18:59

Small things worth a second look

• Size brush preview — A Size 15% brush preview shows a soft white round brush tip used for mist.
• Transform mode options — Freeform, Uniform, Distort and Warp transform modes appear, with Uniform highlighted as the choice for keeping proportions.
• Glimmer star preview — Brush Studio preview shows scattered glowing star dots produced by the Glimmer brush.

Questions to check yourself