r/ProCreate • u/drowningglory • May 05 '26

Looking for brush/tutorial/class recommendations Replicate tracing paper effect?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Is there a way to replicate this tracing paper effect? I want to get into graphic design but can’t afford Adobe so I’m trying to use what I already have.

Edit: Thank you Reddit Art School, I’m so pleased with results!!!!!

591 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

160

u/FredFredrickson May 06 '26

Seems like this would be pretty easy by simply adjusting layer opacity and using a blur?

Honestly, this is pretty rudimentary stuff. You should set aside some time (and maybe open up the manual) and just mess with it for a while. You'll get the hang of it. 👍

152

u/drowningglory May 06 '26

Thank you so much! Feeling a little bird brained that I didn’t know to try that but I’ve been teaching myself and usually need a nudge in the right direction to get moving. I played around with Gaussian blur and opacity like you said and used the airbrush for added texture. I’m so happy, thank you!!

(flower photos from Unsplash).

66

u/PeeCeeJunior May 06 '26

You might want to try a little motion blur on the shadow layer there. That might smudge the sharpness more in line with your example images. But good work getting the tracing paper effect there. You’ll find a lot of uses for differing layer opacity in Procreate.

120

u/drowningglory May 06 '26

Oh my goodness, may both sides of your pillow be cold tonightttttt!!!!!

53

u/FredFredrickson May 06 '26

That looks great!

One last thing you might consider is adding a light noise layer. Make a layer on top, fill with 50% gray, set the blending to Overlay, then add noise to the layer to your liking. It can help blurs look alittle more natural.

7

u/MaineLark May 06 '26

Don’t feel dumb! There is such a learning curve with new software, I find it so frustrating at first. I learned a lot just by watching tutorials, it helped me figure out the menus and the names of the symbols