Intro
Welcome back! Hope you all are doing well. I want to spend a little time talking about procreate. It’s a relatively old app (it launched very early in the app store’s life), but has slowly built up its abilities over the past few years. I actually purchased the app when it first launched and it was $5! It’s really nice to see the app and developers really come into their own. Recently, procreate 5 was launched, and I figured this was a great time to talk about this wonderful and powerful program. Just to be transparent, no this is not sponsored in anyway. These are my words and opinions about the app.
Pro’s Create
The thing I like most about procreate is that it’s a real art program for artists. No half measures or anything like that. This is a program made for people who like drawing. The tools, versatility and capabilities of the program show that it was made with artists in mind. Another important facet of procreate is the design language. While it uses a lot of gestures for shortcuts, and takes a little while to get acclimated to it, it is well worth the time investment. The program has a very intuitive workflow, including exporting, using layers and effects, making selections and so on. It’s strength is in its simplicity and that’s what allows it to punch above its weight. It’s not a perfect interface, mind you- there are issues, but it’s honestly nit picky to mention them when it does so much so well, and at a time when there wasn’t an established design language for art programs.
Another thing about procreate that makes it great is the update history. The app has gotten updated consistently since it’s first release. These aren’t minor changes either. For example, version 5 of the app introduced major and game changing additions in the form of animation tools. In a way, the program is turning into the iPad version of TVPaint. While a smart move for sure, I certainly wasn’t expecting such an update, and to put icing on the cake, it was free! That’s the other thing, I’ve only had to buy procreate once (I did buy it for iPhone later, but without a good stylus there’s not much of a point in using it for me). In a sea of apps that have subscriptions and do whatever they can to remove you as owner of the program you’re purchasing, the procreate team kept things traditional. There’s a one time purchase with free updates, and you’re good. I can’t really emphasize how rare this is these days, especially coming from a time when ownership was important, especially if you’re spending so much of your hard earned money. The team is building some of the best good will in the art community that I’ve seen, and they deserve all the success in the world for being more than fair with their product.
Procreate is not a perfect product, but nothing is. That said, it’s probably the closest to a perfect drawing app on iPad as you can get. Nothing comes close. With all that said, I’d love it if the developers fixed the batter drain and fixed some of the weirder UI choices (making selections can be a little confusing, plus the menu and sub-menus are a littler weird to navigate). These are very minor gripes, and it’s nothing that I can’t understand, but just nitpicks. Again, this just goes to show just how good procreate is, that all I can think of are nitpicks for the program (I have some user requests too, but that’s probably better for another blog).
Outro
When Procreate came out, I knew it was a great program that had a ton of potential, but it was hampered by the hardware. The hardware just wasn’t mature enough. The stylus selection for the iPads were not great until the Apple Pencil came out. Now, it’s a program that can do (or will be able to with a little more time), some serious lifting for artists and animators alike. It’s rare to see something grow into its potential so seamlessly in todays world, but I’ve been seriously impressed by the procreate team. They should be proud that they created something so special. That said, thanks for reading! If you haven’t downloaded it, please do! It’s an awesome app.
