The concept art workflow at a glance
- Thumbnails — tiny, fast idea sketches.
- Silhouettes & shapes — readable forms before detail.
- Value blocking — light and dark in greyscale.
- Color — establish palette and mood.
- Rendering & detail — refine the strongest idea.
Work big-to-small. The biggest mistake is detailing too early, before the composition reads.
1. Thumbnails
Fill one canvas with 6–12 small thumbnails. Keep them rough — you're testing composition and idea, not drawing finished art. A simple round or pencil brush is all you need here.
2. Silhouettes and shapes
Block characters or environments as solid silhouettes. If a design reads as a black shape, it'll read in full color. Shape and stamp brushes speed this up massively — see the stamp brushes category for instant forms.
3. Value blocking
Switch to greyscale and establish 3–4 values (light, midtone, shadow, accent). Textured blocking brushes help you cover ground fast without going flat. The texture brushes are useful for rough blocking.
4. Color and mood
Add color on a layer set to a blend mode (Color or Overlay) over your values, then paint on top. Lean on painting brushes for natural mixing and a blender to smooth transitions.
5. Rendering and detail
Pick the strongest thumbnail and push it: refine edges, add focal detail, and keep texture where the eye should land. For environments, foliage and terrain brushes save hours — browse nature brushes.
Which brushes to keep on hand
You don't need hundreds — a shape/silhouette set, a texture blocker, a soft painter, a blender, and foliage/detail brushes cover most concept work. We break down the picks in best Procreate brushes for concept art, and you can grab free sets on the free brushsets page.
A tip that separates pros from beginners
Spend more time on thumbnails and values than on detail. A strong silhouette and clear value read will carry a piece even with simple rendering — the reverse is never true.