No doubt, Procreate is something special when you talk about visual art on hand-held devices. It is only for advanced and the latest iPad devices. But artists around the world who use Windows or other operating systems also want to enjoy creating on Procreate. To cater to that demand of talented and extraordinary artists worldwide, we bring you the ultimate list of Procreate alternatives for Windows. Try any of the following without a second thought and produce stunning illustrations, cartoons, video game characters, etc., that your audience craves.
Procreate: A Powerful App For Visual Artists
Procreate is a complete visual arts solution that enables you to create rich paintings, expressive sketches, beautiful animations, and gorgeous illustrations. Instead of packing your entire art studio, you can simply install the Procreate app on your compatible iPad device. That is it! Now you have everything you need for art during vacation or while traveling. Procreate has all you need, like brushes, graphite pencils, paint, painting palette, masking tape, sponges, brayer, stencils, you name it. But all of these are in digital form. Here are the reasons why Procreate is a robust virtual art studio and every novice, and expert artist craves it:
Enriched Library of Paint Brushes
For painterly textures, you need real paintbrushes. Procreate’s brushes library consists of real-like paintbrushes like inks, pencils, charcoal, shape, wet mix, grain, and more.
Colors That You Can Dream of
It comes with an easy-to-use color wheel so that you can create color combinations that artists can only dream of. Its color tools are Color Dynamics, Color History, Color Harmony, and Color Companion. By using all these, you stay more on the drawing canvas rather than mixing colors for trial and error.
High-Speed and Complex Touch Moves
You can use your fingers or an Apple Pencil to draw anything you like. It comes with multiple touch-sensitive points. Hence, you can perform the same thing you do in a real art studio like mixing colors with fingers, using pencils for sharp lines, finger-based texture drawing, and more.
Stroke Stabilization
The graphics engine of Procreate can draw lines, shapes, and textures by sensing pressure, gestures, and more. Also, the engine stabilizes all the strokes so that you get exactly what you want, absolutely zero color smearing.
3D Model Painting
Import 3D models to Procreate and transform them into stunning 3D illustrations by adding textures, colors, etc.
Page Assist
You can activate the Page Artists mode to transform the Procreate app into an open storyboard. Page Artists is perfect for film directors, comic creators, storyboard creators, or just to visualize all the ideas on one big canvas.
Graphics Processing Performance
Its Valkyrie graphics engine utilizes the M1 chip to the fullest to offer smooth graphics rendering, 120 FPS speed of drawing, etc.
Digital Artistic Superpowers
It also packs state-of-the-art and next-generation artistic features like QuickShape, Drawing Assist, ColorDrop, StreamLine, collaborative art, etc.
Special FX
It also lets you add special FX to your artistic work. For example, Bloom, Perspective Blur, Finishing Filters, etc., make your art gorgeous.
Platform Limitations of Procreate
Procreate by Savage Interactive is only available for iPad devices of the following models:
iPad Pro 12.9-inch up to 5th geniPad Pro 11-inch up to 3rd geniPad Air up to 5th geniPad Pro 10.5-inchiPad mini up to 6th gen
Apart from the above models, some other iPad devices are also compatible. If your device’s App Store shows this app with a Get button, you can use the app. But, the app performs fantastic on iPads with an Apple M1 chip, 8-core GPU, 8-core CPU, Apple Neural Engine, and 8GB RAM. For Windows, Android, and Linux users, this app is yet not available. However, some try to use emulators on non-supported operating systems to run Procreate. Since emulators are third-party and unofficial apps, it is not clear whether these apps are good for novel and unique visual art ideas. There may be security breaches that steal your concept or art. Also, you are an artist, not a software cracker. Your task is to invest yourself in creativity. If you invest too much time in complex emulator tools, it might not be fruitful at all.
Web Apps Considered as Procreate for Windows
Find below some outstanding apps that you can use in place of Procreate:
Adobe Fresco
While Procreate is only for high-performance iPads, Adobe Fresco supports a variety of devices. For example, you can buy it once and use the tool on multiple operating systems like Windows, iOS, and iPadOS. Its key art studio features are:
Live brushes for natural paintingsRaster and vector brushesThe digital art studio is suitable for animators, sketchers, artists, illustrators, etc.Thousands of creative paintbrushes from master Kyle T. Webster and Adobe PhotoshopArtboard modifications allow you to use watercolor and oil colors on the same canvasSmudge and swirl effects on your arts and illustratorsVirtual color thickness to visualize 3D textures with height and depthCloud-based artboard enables you to start drawing on iPhone and end on Windows PC or the vice versa
Currently, the app is available for a 30-day trial period. After the trial, you can pay $9.99/month to continue creating jaw-dropping artwork, animations, and illustrations.
Sketchbook
Sketchbook takes your creativity to the next level with its features to draw quick sketches and finish the artwork. You can easily name it to procreate for Windows considering all the professional features. Users get a large collection of customizable brushes, rulers, guides, and stroke tools with which they can achieve the decided precision and style. With the layers and blend modes of this tool, you can get the flexibility needed to explore various domains of drawings and colors. Sketchbook comes with a clean interface that offers you the feeling of drawing on paper. Users get complete control over tools like brushes and pens as they can be used smoothly. When not needed, you can also hide the tools and palettes from the app interface and concentrate on your artwork.
Inkscape
Are you looking for an open-source application that will work like Procreate for Windows? If yes, Inkscape is a great choice for both professional and amateur artists, illustrators, and web designers. For drawing, it provides you with pencil, pen, and calligraphy tools for straight lines, curves, freehand drawing, and calligraphy strokes. Shape tools are another useful feature of this application that lets you add any shape to your work. Other things you can do with this software include scaling, rotating, Z-order operations, object grouping, alignment, and layers. For coloring, you can utilize the color picker tool for color selection, pattern fill, gradient editor, path marker, and many more. Inkscape is also compatible with all outline fonts installed on your system so you can include multi-line text in your artwork. Moreover, this app lets you create and edit SVG files while it supports PNG, OpenDocument Drawing, DXF, sk1, PDF, and EPS for exporting artwork.
Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is another Procreate for Windows app for illustration and photo editing that can be used on Windows, Mac, and iPad. It is an award-winning professional software ideal for graphic designers. With it, you can create concept art, logos, icons, UI designs, print projects, and mock-ups that are best-in-class. Artists who want to have a smooth blend of 2D and vector design tools. While working on it, you can pan and zoom the work at 60fps to see it in detail. Artists can preview all transformations and curve edits before finally saving them. Blend mode previews are also available in real-time on this tool. Effects, live gradients, and adjustments are some other vital features of Affinity Designer. It also supports seamless management of thousands of objects without lagging. Even when you are working on a complex design, you can keep it organized with color tagging and layer groups.
Concepts App
Yet another professional sketching app with realistic creativity is Concepts App. It is a visual ideation tool for everyone who needs:
Quick sketching to visualize artistic conceptsCreate storyboards for film or comicsPlan creative graphics onlineCollaborate on visual content creation
Some of the notable features of this digital art studio are:
Advanced transformsCustom brushesIn-house library of objects and brushes free from royalties Repetitive art workflow via drag and drop gestures
So far, it is the most compatible app since it supports most of the popular device ecosystems. For example, you can get the app for Android, iOS, Windows, and Samsung devices. Therefore, if you run a small or medium gig of distributed creative professionals, then this is the perfect business app for visual arts. You can simply buy as many licenses as you want without worrying about device compatibility.
Krita
Creative art virtual studio apps are costly investments. If you are a trainee artist or struggling to make a name in the visual art space without much monetary backup, you can try out Krita. It is an open-source app with commercial and personal usage licenses. Some key features that you get from Krita are:
Customizable panels and dockers within the artboardMore than 100 professional brushesBrush stabilizers for individuals with shaky handsVector tools and texts for fast creation of comic panelsBrush engines for custom brushesSeamless and unlimited patterns or texturesImport creative tools from other artists on the same platform
Krita is the product of the KDE community that develops open-source computer software for the entire world. It has set up the Krita Foundation to manage fundraising for all the developmental works at Krita.
Corel Painter
Corel Painter is a dependable and professional-grade tool for digital artwork. Thanks to its realistic brushes, superior blending, and art tools, you can draw, paint, or illustrate with an unmatched proficiency. On this platform, you get world-class photo-art tools for blank canvas painting. With the help of its digital art brushes and Natural-Media emulation, you can convert your imagination into reality. Also, this app lets you customize brushes, textures, patterns, and palettes according to your choice. Features like brush control, canvas control, color mixing, and customization make it a one-of-a-kind tool. Though it is a subscription-based tool, you can opt for a 15-day free trial. Moreover, new subscribers get 285 free brushes along with Creative Photo Bundle.
Clip Studio Paint
Yet another all-platform virtual art studio that you can refer to as Procreate for Windows, is Clip Studio Paint. It is available for Windows, macOS, iPadOS, iOS, Samsung Galaxy, Android, and Chromebook. The app is suitable for the following types of artwork:
Concept art and paintingCharacter drawing and artIllustrating characters, patterns, abstract themes, etc.Webtoons, Comics, Manga, etc.Animated content
It lets you sync your work on various devices so that you can capture your artistic thoughts on a virtual canvas whenever you want. You may start drawing from your Android or iPhone while commuting. When you reach home or office, you can pick up from where you left on your Macbook, Chromebook, or Windows PC. You can start with the $49.99 plan, Clip Studio Paint Pro, for tasks like illustration, character art, and concept art. However, get Clip Studio Paint EX if you want to feel its full power of visual arts.
Artrage Vitae
Artrage Vitae is the top choice of artists who want to create realistic natural paintings. This application functions as the digital studio of an artist that contains the complete collection of necessary drawing tools. Here, you can blend thick oils to create natural color gradients. On the other hand, artists preferring pencil sketches can utilize features such as pencils and shades of this tool. Moreover, one can use it to make watercolor paintings with delicate strokes. Whether you are an amateur or professional, you can choose this app without any worries. This software is available for $79.99 on Microsoft Store.
Final Words
So far, you have gone through some awesome tools suitable for your Windows workstation on which you do regular sketching and illustrations. If you are hoping to inject Procreate-like performance and creativity into your visual arts projects, you should try any of the above tools. After using them, you will also say that these visual art tools are as good as Procreate for Windows. You may also be interested in 3D animation design software to become a professional designer and animator.
