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Using an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Procreate to Render an X-Wing Fighter

Spencer Nugent's two-part digital sketching tutorial

By Rain Noe - December 18, 2015

in Star Wars | Sketching

We’ve saved Spencer Nugent’s most ID-licious Star Wars illustration for last. Here Nugent shows you not only how to sketch up an X-Wing Fighter, but also how to render it in color—all done on the iPad Pro, using an Apple Pencil and the sexy Procreate program.

In Part 1 we see some of Procreate's tricks, from perspective assist to quickly fade-able layer opacity and how it handles palm rejection. On the drawing front, Nugent demonstrates using line weight to emphasize directionality/motion in a vehicle and offers some of his signature tips, all while using the custom digital brush he's created (The "Spencil!").

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In Part 2 we get a look at some of Procreate’s brushes and the magic of digital: A variety of layer tricks, the back-and-forth dance between them and a fast, cheater-y way to pull in backgrounds. On the rendering front Nugent goes from roughing out the values to adding the all-important color and highlights, then pulls the original linework back in to add some definition.

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Daniel Tsorin

8 years ago

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nice work Spencer :)
i haven't used this setup before, as i use a typical big friendly desktop wacom. do you use a textured screen film by any chance, just to simulate paper grain, or is it a more natural feel to interface directly to the glass?

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designer lament

8 years ago

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The sketch is barely acceptable and the rendering is atrocious.
Do you people have no standards or do you genuinely think this is good work.

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Christina Droira

9 years ago

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These videos/tutorials are awesome. Spencer, I'm curious to know which do you prefer... iPad pro or wacom ? I'm sure it might be hard to definitively pick one over the other but would be great to hear your overall opinion on pros/cons for each. thanks so much!

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- George Coffin
  
  Christina Droira
  
  9 years ago
  
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  Check his youtube channel out, it's great. There's a super in depth video comparing the ipad pro, surface, and wacom.
  
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  - Christina Droira
    
    George Coffin
    
    9 years ago
    
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    Thanks George!
    
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- claas Kuhnen
  
  Christina Droira
  
  8 years ago
  
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  The Wacom Companion or SurfacePro have the advantage to run Desktop apps. But the problem or question is if desktop apps on such a tiny screen is really a good idea.
  
  Another very important and even more important factor is the drawing tool. The SurfacePro pen is weak in my feeling. It does not offer tilt well, has pressure issues and in general is ok for note taking - not for drawing. The Wacom one obviously is good - but say hello to the typical Wacom parallax effect: where you stylus is is not where you will paint.
  
  The Pencil however edge to edge offers perfect draw positioning. If you go with ProCreate you can also ghost without drawing and have a stroke preview. I find the iOS apps lacking features compared to desktop apps, however if you are only interested into sketching I honestly have to say with the iPadPro you get a better pen, better battery time, better mobile OS gestures in the drawing app and all that for actually less money.
  
  Then get DuetDisplay and you can use the iPad as a second display including gestures and pen pressure with Win or Mac with nearly zero drawing lag!
  
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