Procreate Tutorial: Difference Between Stamps and Drawing

Procreate Stamp Tutorial

What Are Procreate Stamps?

Stamps are brush sets on Procreate that have pre-drawn design elements. You can find stamp sets for just about anything you want to draw, from elements of nature like clouds and leaves, to geometric patterns. There are many sets created specifically for tattoo designs.

You can find and download stamps online. Etsy and Creative Market have a lot of good options. You can even save new stamps from your own designs.

What Are the Benefits of Stamps?

Procreate stamps can make drawing tattoo designs easier, especially if you’re new to drawing or learning a new style. Here’s how you can use stamps in your work to develop your skills and work faster.

Learning to Draw

One of the most productive ways to use stamps is to teach yourself to draw different designs and styles. If you are unsure of how to draw a feather, for example, you can download a stamp set with many different types of feathers.

You can work on your ability to draw feathers by replicating the stamps until you feel comfortable drawing them on your own. You can then begin to stylize your feather designs and make them your own.

Speeding Up the Drawing Process

When a design element requires a lot of small details or precise work, drawing it by hand can take a long time. If you need a complex piece as part of a larger design, a stamp may be helpful for that one piece. You can still create original work in your own style while using stamps as a tool.

Putting Design Ideas Down on Paper

If inspiration strikes you suddenly, you may want to use stamps to quickly create a rough sample. Later, you can go back and draw the design yourself, or add stylistic elements.

What Are Some Helpful Stamp Sets to Have?

Your stamp choice will depend on the style of tattoos you want to create. Below are a few types of stamps we like and recommend.

Rope

Rope can take a long time to draw, especially if the design includes a lot of it. Rope stamp sets on Procreate aren’t perfect (you may need to erase some lines), but they will save you a lot of time. You can use a rope stamp just like a regular brush– your brush strokes will look like a rope rather than simple lines.

Watches

Watches and clock designs require a lot of small, precise details that can be frustrating to draw and eat up a lot of time. With watch stamps, you can select the design you’d like to work with, tap the screen once with your pencil to put the watch on your paper, and give yourself a great starting point.

With these stamps, you can add your own design elements and customize them however you like. For example, you could draw flowers around the edges and add the watch hands to show the desired time, and you’ll have an original tattoo design that looks great without taking hours to draw.

Flowers

There are two ways to use flower stamps: as an element of a larger design, or as a tool to help you improve your own art.

Using Flower Stamps as Part of a Design

Some types of flowers, like Japanese cherry blossoms, have a very distinct appearance. It’s difficult to stylize these flowers while making them recognizable. For flowers like this, stamps can be useful as part of your design.

You can add a cherry blossom stamp or two to a design while still creating original work. This way, you won’t spend an unnecessary amount of time drawing the flowers.

It is still important to be able to draw these kinds of flowers. The more designs you feel comfortable drawing, the more you improve as an artist.

Using Flower Stamps to Improve Your Drawing Skills

There are many types of flowers, like poppies and roses, that can have widely varied shapes and sizes. You can add bits of your own style to these flowers.

You may still want to use stamps for these kinds of flowers to help you learn to draw them on your own. For example, to learn to draw a rose, you could take the following steps:

Script

If you struggle with lettering or script, stamps can be useful. You can use these sets to teach yourself how to draw and write in different lettering styles. We like the stamp sets by BJ Betts.

What Are the Benefits of Drawing a Design Yourself?

Stamps have their place, but being able to draw your own designs is still important. When you are able to draw quality designs on your own, you will be able to develop your style and create beautiful, original tattoos. 

Basically, stamps are a great tool, but you don’t want them to become a crutch.

Improving Your Technique

You can use stamps to improve your drawing, but eventually you will need to draw on your own. You don’t want to have to rely on stamps for all your designs. The best way to improve is simply to practice.

Developing Your Own Style

If you want to stand out from other artists, you need to develop your own style. Once you’ve learned how to draw a certain design, it’s up to you to create the stylistic elements that make it yours.

Producing Original Work

You can buy stamps for commercial use and use them in your tattoos if you want– in fact, you could create tattoos almost entirely from stamps. 

However, the best way to make a name for yourself as an artist is to produce your own art. Many tattoo artists are familiar with the most popular stamp sets and will recognize them if those stamps continually appear in your work.

Prepare for a Tattooing Career with the Artist Accelerator Program

Learning the differences between tattoo styles is an important step in your journey, but it can also be pretty eye-opening to how difficult tattooing can be. Without the right knowledge, it’s impossible to level up your skills and become a professional tattoo artist. 

However, finding the straightforward information you need to progress is difficult. And with so much out there online, it’s hard to avoid picking up bad habits from incorrect and outdated resources.

This is one of the biggest struggles new tattooers face, and too many talented artists have given up their goal of getting into tattooing because of the years it would take to unlearn their bad habits. 

That’s why aspiring artists are learning to tattoo with the Artist Accelerator Program’s structured course. As a student, you learn every step of the tattooing process from professional artists with the experience and advice you need to build your skills and create incredible tattoos. 

With the Artist Accelerator, you can stop wasting time searching through incorrect information. You just get the clear, easy-to-understand lessons you need to start improving fast… along with support and personalized feedback from professional artists in our online Mastermind group.

Over 2500 students have already gone through the course, with many of them opening up their own studios. If you want to join them and learn the skills you need to start tattooing full-time faster…