The selection tools are very useful in quickly making changes in selected areas of your artwork. It will help speed up your workflow, especially when you use the right type of selection tool. Since my previous tutorial on the selection tools in the Procreate app, there has been an update and there are some slight changes and new features for the selection tools, which I will address in this tutorial.
In this tutorial, I will be showing you examples of how the selection tools can be used. I’ve recorded the actions so they will be easier to understand. I’ve made a tutorial on the Procreate 4.2 Selections tools here. If just reading isn’t good enough for you, hopefully, this more visual tutorial will be more of use to you.
Automatic
The automatic selection selects areas with similar colour pixels. Here I taped the star, circle and triangle to select them. When I tapped on the square, only part of the square is selected because there is a gradient on the square. When this happens and you want to select a bigger area, you can increase the selection threshold by taping on the area and hold it, then slide to the right to increase the threshold, a bar will appear just below the menu icons which will show you the threshold percentage. As you can see in the video above, as the threshold increases, more of the square is selected. Similarly, by sliding to the left, the threshold decreases and less area will be selected. Also, make sure that you start your sliding from the area that you want to select.
Freehand
The freehand option lets you draw out the selection area by hand. You will notice that there’s a grey circle at the start of your selection. To complete a selection, you can tap on the circle at the start of the selection or you can tap on another tool’s icon and the selection will automatically complete for you with a straight line between the start point and your endpoint.
Rectangle
As you can see in the above video, this option creates rectangular selections.
Ellipse
As you can see in the above video, this option creates oval selections. To create a perfect circle selection, first, start by dragging one finger on the canvas, then add on another finger and you will see the selection turn from oval to a perfect circle. Remove both of your fingers at the same time to complete the circle selection.
Add
This lets you combine multiple selections made separately. Just keep selecting.
Remove
This lets you remove selected areas. Same as how you select, you make a selection, the area where your selection and the already selected area overlap will be deselected.
Invert
This option inverts the selection area so the previously unselected areas are now selected and the previously selected areas are now unselected.
Copy & paste
Used to be named as ‘Duplicate’. First, make a selection of area you want to copy, then, tap on the ‘copy & paste’ option. Check your layers, you will see a new layer with the selected area pasted there.
Feather
This affects the sharpness of the edges of the selection, the higher the amount of feathering, the more blurry the edges of selections.
Save and load
This is a new feature that’s added from the update that allows you to save your selections and use them later on when you need them again. Once you’ve made a selection, tap on save & load, a box should pop up, tap on the + sign at the top right of the popup box, you will now see your selection saved. To load a saved selection, simply tap on the saved selection in the pop up box. To delete a saved selection, simply swipe left on the saved selection you want to delete.
Clear
Clears all your selections. Another way to clear all your selections is to exit the selection mode, you can do so by tapping on the selection icon on the top menu to exit. Once you’ve exited, all your selections will be cleared.
I hope the tutorial has been helpful and that you’ve learnt something new from it. When you purchase something from an affiliate link that I’ve provided, I get a small amount of commission(at no extra cost to you) which helps me continue writing tutorials like this one.
If you’re interested, please check out my artworks here! Commissions are available here too! I also have prints, buttons etc of my artwork on my Etsy store!
Try out the Apple Pencil to bring your creative process to the next level on the Procreate App!
These artist gloves for digital painting are a must for me when I paint on the iPad, when I don’t wear the gloves, sometimes the Procreate app sense my palm resting on the screen as 2 fingers tapping and holding and start undoing! Or sometimes it starts colour picking. I’ve tried the different palm support options but I still get the problem sometimes. If you’re having these kinds of problems as well, the gloves may be your solution, it makes you feel and look more professional too!
You may also be interested in:
- Procreate 4.2 Tutorial – Introduction
- Procreate 4.2 Tutorial – Gallery Interface
- Procreate 4.2 Tutorial – Gestures and Customisation
- Procreate 4.2 Tutorial – Colour Interface
- Procreate 4.2 Tutorial – Layers Interface
- Procreate 4.2 Tutorial – Brush, Smudge and Erase Tools
