Making Wavy Borders in Procreate

I love using Procreate. It’s easy to use, and honestly,  it feels like the next best thing to painting on paper (without the mess). I also love layouts with curved borders. Elly wrote this post (with an awesome template giveaway!) about how to make beautiful vector borders in Photoshop. While Procreate doesn’t currently support making curves this way, it’s really easy to create a wavy, layered border with brushes. Keep reading for a link to a free template, as well as a Procreate brush set so you can make your own.

Created using Chere Kaye Designs Falling Slowly Bundle

Let’s get started! You can turn on the Drawing Guide if it helps you create wavy lines.  From the Actions menu, choose Canvas > Drawing Guide ON, then Edit Drawing Guide.

I choose a vivid color for contrast, and raise Opacity and Thickness. I tap to type in 600 px for the grid size, and tap Done.

I start with a plain, round brush. I open Brush settings (double tap on the brush), and crank up the Streamline to the max, and dial down the Spacing to the minimum. This gives the brush a smooth, syrup-y flow. I made the brush size 100%.

Now, starting about the middle of the page, I draw a swoosh top to bottom, starting off the edge of the page. To fill the wave, drag the color swatch to the area to the left of the wavy line. Drag right/left across the screen to increase/decrease fill tolerance.

Next, I’ll add a drop shadow. Swipe left in the layers panel to duplicate the layer.

With the the lower layer active, open the Adjustments Menu, and choose Hue / Saturation / Brightness, apply to the whole Layer, and bring the Brightness way down, maybe 18%.

Next, also from the Adjustments Menu, choose Gaussian Blur, and slide right or left across the screen to increase/decrease the shadow.

Change the blend mode of the shadow to Multiply or Linear Burn, and reduce the opacity to 50-75%. Read this post for a few tips on how to create  uneven, wavy shadows in Procreate.

Now, I’ll group the wave and shadow layers. Select multiple layers by swiping right across each one, then choosing Group.

Next, I’ll duplicate the group and recolor the new wave layer.

To offset the wave layer, I tap the Move tool. I suggest turning ON Snapping before moving the layers to help keep them aligned on the canvas.

Quick Tip: Be aware that once you move a layer, Procreate crops it within the bounds of the layout. Don’t panic if you move it too far and crop something you don’t mean to — just two-finger tap to undo.

Elly created a nice dotted line in her template. To do that, I choose a hard, round brush, adjusting the Spacing and brush size to suit. I draw a dotted line that follows the contours of the edge, then create a shadow layer.

Now I can move groups and position the layers on the page as I like.

My layout features Chere Kaye Designs’ beautiful Falling Slowly Bundle.

I’ve created a template set you can use, with .Procreate and  .PSD formats, as well as .PNG layers. I’ve also included a little Procreate .brushset file so you can try your hand at making your own! You can download it HERE. Happy scrapping!