Outer Space Papercut Scene in Procreate

Paper art has always been one of my favorite artforms, and now - thanks to the magic of Procreate - it's easier than ever to make your own! You don't have to worry about getting papercuts on your fingers, spilling glue everywhere, or any messy cleanup - nice! Today I'm going to walk you through step-by-step how to create your own 3D papercut space scene on your iPad.

You can watch the video tutorial HERE.

The basic info to create these effects is listed below, but for a step-by-step walkthrough, I recommend watching the video tutorial. 😉

You can download the 3D Rocket HERE.

You can learn more about my DigiQuill course HERE.

You can get your Free 30-day trial of Skillshare HERE.

Papercut layout:

• Add the background color (dark blue)

• Draw the half circles using Quickshape, adjusting the Arc if needed, then fill in with color drop (decide how many layers you want - I have 3, using lighter shades of blue each time)

• Add the Cloud layers (draw by hand, 1 or 2 layers in white/very light gray)

• Add the Stars layer (draw by hand/using Quickshape and either leave rounded edges or use smaller eraser to create pointed edges - I used bright Yellow for my stars) - arrange them with a space in the middle for the Rocket

• Import the Rocket PNG file and place in the middle as the top layer

3D process (don’t need to do this for the Rocket graphic that you imported ):

• Duplicate each layer twice and group (stay organized!)

• Bottom layer of each group - Adjustments > HSB and turn brightness down to None (we're turning these black)

• Middle layer of each group - Adjustments > HSB and increase brightness to 65-85% (lighter colors don't need to increase as much)

• Use transform tool to move highlights & shadows as a group using multi-select

• Shadow layers get Gaussian blur (adjustments) and opacity adjustment individually

Paper texture:

• Option 1 - overall texture

  • Add new layer at very top

  • Import file (paper texture available here - or make sure it’s grayscale with high contrast)

  • Make sure it covers the whole canvas

  • Blend mode to overlay

• Option 2 - different textures for each group/element

  • Same process as above, but add texture to each group and make the layer a Clipping mask

  • Takes more time and layers, but more realistic and varied effects are possible