Digital Marbling on Procreate

This article is part of the Draw with Walter Series and it covers the topic on making digital marbling on Procreate.

Paper marbling has a rich history in various parts of the world. This technique also reminds me of epoxy floorings.

Tutorials

Fluid Art Tutorial 1 by Karin Newport on YouTube

• Brushes: Custom brushes for sale

• Techniques:

  • Using IPL Wet Marble brush, add big strokes to the canvas. This will serves as the base of the artwork
  • Use Liquify tool (Push) at size: 39%, max for the rest. Max momentum is key for the fluid effect
  • Add another few strokes of IPL Wet Marble with smaller strokes, lighter colour on the same layer
  • Liquify
  • Add other colours and follow the same steps. Experiment with other Liquify settings
  • Add some Liquify (crystals) to make the lines wiggle a little
  • Adding texture; add a white layer above; set noise to 60%; set layer settings as color burn
  • Intensify the darks; add a new layer; set to overlay; using the IPL Sandstorm brush, darken the dark areas
  • Emphasizing the highlights, add a new layer with normal blend mode; use IPL Sandstorm brush, highlight the light spots
  • Add gold glitter edges, add a new layer, using the IPL Gold Glitter brushes, add some gold glitter to the edges
  • (Optional) Drag and drop colors to change the shades. Or play with hue / saturation / curves settings

Fluid Art Tutorial 2 by Karin Newport on YouTube

• A follow-up from the first tutorial
• The steps are mostly the same. Instead of using gold glitter brushes, we can add a stock gold texture
• Drag and drop a constrasting color to the edges
• Using clipping mask, we can add gold textures to the edges

Digital Marbling by Rich Armstrong on Skillshare

• Link
• An interesting course as it covers 3 different styles: Zebra, Moody, Inky
• Zebra Techniques:
  • Brushes: Painting - Normal
  • Add wiggly lines and Liquify
• Moody Techniques:
  • Brushes: Painting - Oriental; lowest dilution
  • Add big strokes with lowest dilution
  • Add highlights in smaller strokes with about 50% dilution
  • Liquify
  • Smudge with your finger with the Artistic - Stucco brush
• Inky Techniques:
  • Brushes: Spray Paint - Fat Nozzle, Airbrushing - Soft Brush
  • Use Fat Nozzle to add strokes as your base of your canvas. Vary your pressure to create depth.
  • Liquify
• Interestingly, some of these default brushes are missing from my Procreate app. Fortunately, Rich has added them in the course notes.

Digital Alcohol Ink Painting by Alaina Jensen

• Brushes: Custom brushes for sale
• IMO, her techniques are more intentional than other the other teachers. Her alcohol ink brushset is also highly rated among the Procreate community as the alcohol ink texture from the brushes is very unique.