The gist with layers is that they give you the ability to build your artwork in different pieces or layers.

If you're familiar with Adobe Creative Suite, you probably have a basic knowledge of how layers function. We won't dive into that too much in this tutorial, but I'll go over some of my tips for non-destructive editing in future blog posts. There are also ways of nondestructive editing that I think are much more straightforward and safer than the eraser. There are many other tools in the app that allow you to undo mistakes. Generally, I don't recommend using the eraser as an editing tool though. Click on that icon to choose an eraser type if you want to erase anything on your canvas. The next icon in the row is the eraser tool. It's a black rectangle with a plus sign on it.

To create a custom canvas, tap the black icon at the top right of the canvas menu. If you find that you need more layers, you can always start with a smaller size. The only downside to this is that a larger canvas means you get fewer layers to work with. I want to make sure that the integrity of the piece stays intact when I scale up to large sizes like that, so I like to work with big canvases in Procreate. Most of my artwork needs to be at a very high resolution so I can include it on large-scale products like tapestries and bedding. I personally like to create custom canvases when I'm working in Procreate. If I'm doing any kind of thumbnail sketch or anything that won't be exported as a final piece, I usually just work with a screen-size canvas. If you want to get started quickly and play around in Procreate, you can easily get started by selecting 'Screen Size.' This is exactly what it sounds like - a canvas that is exactly the size of your screen! It's great for doodles and learning the ropes of Procreate. Procreate comes with a few default options for your canvas size.

Drawing ideas on procreate