Robert Rios

Austin, Texas

Freelance illustrator and letterer. Drawing in Procreate since 2013, BFA in Studio Art from UT Austin. Practical guides on brushes, layers, color and export.

More about Robert Rios

Colors from a coastal image form a palette for a painted landscape.

Make a Procreate Color Palette from a Photo or File

Create swatches from a photo or JPG/PNG file, rename the palette, set it active and save a shareable copy before deleting it.

City sketch thumbnails grouped into a Gallery Stack.

Organize Procreate Gallery Stacks Without Losing Track of Artwork

Create and rename Gallery Stacks, add artwork after the blue-flash cue, and move canvases back out. Keep organization separate from a verified backup.

An isometric room corner follows parallel grid directions beside a freehand leafy detail.

Use the Isometric Guide in Procreate Without Locking Every Layer

Build three meeting faces with the Isometric Guide. Move or rotate the grid and assist only the layers that need its directions.

A circular painted selection with a crisp edge on one side and a soft transition on the other.

Feather a Selection in Procreate Without Losing the Edge

Soften the selection boundary with Feather, compare it with 0%, and distinguish clearing a selection from undoing the edit already applied.

A corner bookstore with two sets of edges converging toward separate horizon points.

Set Up a Perspective Guide in Procreate

Choose one point for a straight corridor, two for a corner, or three for converging verticals. Position the guide and assist the intended layer only.

A moth wing and its reflected outline across a vertical symmetry axis.

Procreate Symmetry Not Working on a New Layer? Check Drawing Assist

Check the Assisted tag for missing mirrors, the guide controls for a missing axis, and Mirror or Rotational mode for unexpected repetition.

A blue fox artist at a wooden desk choosing a brush on an iPad showing two columns of stroke previews, with jars of real brushes and a swatch tag beside it, under the title Procreate Brushes.

Procreate Brushes: What's Built In and Where to Get More

Procreate ships two brush libraries: 18 Procreate Library sets added in 5.4 and 18 Classic sets. Free extras come from Procreate's Legacy page and Folio Resources; single paid sets cost a median of $19 across 69 sets from five shops, and unlimited plans run $199 a year.

A blue fox artist at a wooden desk sketching on an iPhone with one fingertip, an iPad and a brush jar beside it, under the title Procreate Pocket.

Procreate Pocket: What Pocket 5 Does on iPhone and Where It Stops

Procreate Pocket is the $5.99 iPhone version of Procreate, sold separately from the iPad app. Pocket 5 matches iPad brush settings and adds 150-plus brushes and Page Assist, but it has no 3D Painting, no documented Apple Pencil support yet, and ratings 0.5 to 0.7 stars below the iPad app.

A blue fox artist at a wooden desk holding a stylus over a tablet sketch of a house and tree, with brush, layer and color icons nearby, under the title How to Use Procreate.

How to Use Procreate: Interface, Gestures and a Four-Part Plan

Start a canvas in the Gallery, learn the three zones of the interface and the gestures that replace most buttons, then export and keep a .procreate copy. Procreate's own Beginners Series adds up to 69 minutes of video and 2.5 to 3.5 hours of lessons, split here into four sittings.

A blue fox animator at a wooden desk drawing a bouncing ball across a row of flipbook frames on a tablet, with a timeline of colored tracks below, under the title Procreate Dreams.

Procreate Dreams Review: What It Does, What's New and Who It's For

Procreate Dreams is a separate $12.99 iPad app that animates with Flipbooks, keyframes and live Performing, with sound and video on the same timeline. Here is what Dreams 2 and 2.1 changed, how four review scores land, the track limit for each iPad and who should buy it.

Painted blue fox on a wooden desk between a tablet showing a landscape painting and a closed silver laptop, under the headline Procreate for Mac.

Procreate for Mac and Procreate 6: Release Date and What's Confirmed

Procreate for Mac and Procreate 6 aren't out. The goal is 2027, with no date or beta yet and no Intel support. I'd stay on iPad and watch for the beta call.

Painted blue fox at a wooden desk drawing on a propped tablet with a stylus, beside a small open toolbox with a spanner and screwdriver, under the headline Procreate on iPadOS 27.

Procreate and iPadOS 27: Known Issues, Fixes and Whether to Update

Procreate works on iPadOS 27. Two problems remain: Pencil strokes that never land, fixed by turning off Zoom, and large-canvas crashes that iPadOS 27.0.1 resolved. I'd back up the gallery before updating.