To cartoonize a photo in Procreate, insert the photo on its own layer, lower its opacity, lock it, and trace over it on new layers with simplified, exaggerated linework. Then add flat colors on separate layers underneath the ink, followed by Multiply shading and a few highlights. The result comes from drawing choices you make yourself. Once you have a finished still, you can export it and use it as a style reference in a motion pipeline.

What You Need Before You Start

You need an iPad with Procreate, a stylus (Apple Pencil is the usual choice), and a photo with a clear subject. Reference choice matters more than most tutorials admit. Photos with distinctive features, such as an unusual profile, a strong hairstyle, a recognizable pose, or a clear expression, give you more to simplify and exaggerate. A generic, evenly lit face gives you less to work with, and the cartoon often comes out bland.

Pick a photo with readable lighting. Hard directional light shows you where the shadow shapes fall, which makes the shading pass much easier. Flat, overcast shots work too, but you'll invent more of the shadow design yourself.

Step 1: Set Up the Canvas

Create a custom canvas large enough to zoom into without losing detail. Something around 3000 × 3000 px works for a square piece, and 3000 × 4000 px at 300 DPI suits a portrait. If the still is going into a video comp, match your canvas to your delivery aspect ratio, such as 3840 × 2160 or 1920 × 1080, so you aren't cropping or rescaling later.

Plan for a modest layer stack: photo, sketch, ink, flats, shadows, highlights, and a few spare layers.

Step 2: Import and Prepare the Photo

Open the Actions menu (the wrench icon), choose Add, then Insert a Photo. Position and scale the photo with the Transform tool, and zoom in on the part of the subject you want to draw. You don't have to trace the whole figure. A head-and-shoulders crop is a good starting scope.

Then do two things:

1. Lower the photo layer's opacity. Tap the "N" next to the layer's checkbox and drag the slider until the photo is faint. You want to see landmarks without being pulled into copying every detail.
2. Lock the layer. Swipe the layer left and tap Lock so you can't accidentally paint on your reference.

Create a new layer above the photo for your sketch.

Step 3: Simplify and Exaggerate Before You Ink

Tracing line for line gives you a traced photo, not a cartoon. The cartoon look comes from deliberate edits to the reference:

• Simplify the silhouette. Hair edges, clothing wrinkles, and skin texture contain far more information than a cartoon needs. Replace busy contours with a few confident curves.
• Exaggerate the defining features. Find what makes the person recognizable, such as a strong jaw, a long nose, or a particular eye shape, and push it. Make curves longer, shorter, rounder, or flatter than the photo shows.
• Break the head into sections. Treat the head shape, nose, eyes, brows, and mouth as separate forms you can adjust independently.
• Make several passes. Sketch two or three versions on separate layers. The first rarely works, and that is normal.

Use a light-colored pencil or a textured sketch brush at this stage. Rough construction lines are fine because you'll hide this layer before the final ink.

Step 4: Ink the Outlines

Create a new layer above the sketch for linework. The Inking set has good options, including Studio Pen for crisp, consistent lines. Raise the brush's stabilization setting in the brush settings to smooth shaky strokes.

Some practical guidance:

• Use a dark color other than pure black. A dark brown or deep blue-gray often looks better than black and is easier to adapt to a palette later.
• Close your shapes. Gaps in the outline cause fill leaks when you color-drop. Connect lines at the corners of the eyes, the jaw, and where hair meets the forehead.
• Vary line weight. Slightly thicker lines on outer contours and shadow sides, thinner lines on interior details, give the drawing depth without adding any shading.
• Ink in sections on separate layers if needed. Putting hair on its own layer makes it easy to redo without disturbing the face.

Hide the photo and sketch layers occasionally to check that the linework reads on its own.

Step 5: Block In Flat Colors

Create new layers beneath the ink for flat color. A clean structure looks like this:

• Skin
• Hair
• Clothing
• Eyes and mouth details
• Background

Pick colors directly from the photo with the Color Picker (tap and hold), then adjust them. Cartoon palettes usually look better slightly more saturated and with fewer hue shifts than a photo. Fill each shape with ColorDrop. If the fill doesn't reach the edges, tidy the gaps in the line layer. Keeping each major element on its own layer will pay off when you need to recolor or animate parts.

Step 6: Add Shading and Highlights

Use clipping masks so shading stays inside each shape. Create a new layer above the skin layer, tap it, and choose Clipping Mask. Set the blend mode to Multiply and paint shadow shapes with a desaturated purple or warm brown. Don't use plain gray, which dulls the color.

For a cartoon look, aim for hard-edged shadow shapes rather than soft gradients. Follow the lighting from your reference, but simplify it to one or two shadow tones. Add a separate layer for highlights, using a small number of crisp shapes on the cheeks, nose, lips, and hair.

If you want a cel-shaded look, keep every shadow edge decisive. If you want something more painterly, use a soft brush sparingly on a single layer.

Step 7: Clean Up and Check the Result

Hide the photo layer and review the drawing at full size and at thumbnail size. Check these things:

• Stray marks outside the outline
• Gaps between fill and line
• Eyes that look unintentionally asymmetrical
• Shadow shapes that contradict each other
• Color contrast against the background

Add finishing touches such as a subtle background shape, a color adjustment layer, or a texture overlay if you want a printed-comic feel.

Tips for Better Results

• Work from a reference you have the right to use. Use your own photos or ones with a clear license, especially for client work.
• Keep the photo layer low but visible during coloring. It helps with color picking.
• Name your layers. It matters if the file moves to another artist or into compositing.
• Save versions. Duplicate the file before major changes so you can compare variants.

Exporting for a Video or Compositing Pipeline

If the artwork is heading into After Effects, Nuke, or any compositing app, export deliberately. Keeping the ink, flats, and shading as separate elements gives you more control for motion work, so you can animate or adjust them independently. Consider whether the background will change before you export.

If your goal is a cartoonized video rather than a single illustration, hand-tracing every frame is rarely practical.

Carrying the Style Into Motion With Styleframe

A finished Procreate illustration is a strong style reference. Styleframe is an AI video and motion tool that can pick up where Procreate stops. You can use your hand-drawn cartoon as the look target for a video clip instead of describing the style in a text prompt, so the style comes from your drawing rather than a model's default.

You keep your compositing, color, and finishing steps in the tools you already use, and the AI step becomes one controllable stage rather than a replacement for the pipeline.

As with any AI-assisted stage, results depend on the strength and consistency of your references, and you should expect to iterate and review the output frame by frame.

Quick Recap

1. Create a canvas that matches your final use.
2. Insert the photo, lower its opacity, and lock it.
3. Sketch with deliberate simplification and exaggeration.
4. Ink clean, closed outlines on their own layer.
5. Block flat colors on separate layers beneath the ink.
6. Add Multiply shading and a few highlights with clipping masks.
7. Clean up, check at thumbnail size, and export.

The method is manual, but that is its strength: every shape is a decision, and the resulting file is something you can reuse as a reference, an animation asset, or the starting point for a stylized video.

To cartoonize a photo in Procreate, insert the photo on its own layer, lower its opacity, lock it, and trace over it on new layers with simplified, exaggerated linework. Then add flat colors on separate layers underneath the ink, followed by Multiply shading and a few highlights. The result comes from drawing choices you make yourself. Once you have a finished still, you can export it and use it as a style reference in a motion pipeline.

What You Need Before You Start

You need an iPad with Procreate, a stylus (Apple Pencil is the usual choice), and a photo with a clear subject. Reference choice matters more than most tutorials admit. Photos with distinctive features, such as an unusual profile, a strong hairstyle, a recognizable pose, or a clear expression, give you more to simplify and exaggerate. A generic, evenly lit face gives you less to work with, and the cartoon often comes out bland.

Pick a photo with readable lighting. Hard directional light shows you where the shadow shapes fall, which makes the shading pass much easier. Flat, overcast shots work too, but you'll invent more of the shadow design yourself.

Step 1: Set Up the Canvas

Create a custom canvas large enough to zoom into without losing detail. Something around 3000 × 3000 px works for a square piece, and 3000 × 4000 px at 300 DPI suits a portrait. If the still is going into a video comp, match your canvas to your delivery aspect ratio, such as 3840 × 2160 or 1920 × 1080, so you aren't cropping or rescaling later.

Plan for a modest layer stack: photo, sketch, ink, flats, shadows, highlights, and a few spare layers.

Step 2: Import and Prepare the Photo

Open the Actions menu (the wrench icon), choose Add, then Insert a Photo. Position and scale the photo with the Transform tool, and zoom in on the part of the subject you want to draw. You don't have to trace the whole figure. A head-and-shoulders crop is a good starting scope.

Then do two things:

1. Lower the photo layer's opacity. Tap the "N" next to the layer's checkbox and drag the slider until the photo is faint. You want to see landmarks without being pulled into copying every detail.
2. Lock the layer. Swipe the layer left and tap Lock so you can't accidentally paint on your reference.

Create a new layer above the photo for your sketch.

Step 3: Simplify and Exaggerate Before You Ink

Tracing line for line gives you a traced photo, not a cartoon. The cartoon look comes from deliberate edits to the reference:

• Simplify the silhouette. Hair edges, clothing wrinkles, and skin texture contain far more information than a cartoon needs. Replace busy contours with a few confident curves.
• Exaggerate the defining features. Find what makes the person recognizable, such as a strong jaw, a long nose, or a particular eye shape, and push it. Make curves longer, shorter, rounder, or flatter than the photo shows.
• Break the head into sections. Treat the head shape, nose, eyes, brows, and mouth as separate forms you can adjust independently.
• Make several passes. Sketch two or three versions on separate layers. The first rarely works, and that is normal.

Use a light-colored pencil or a textured sketch brush at this stage. Rough construction lines are fine because you'll hide this layer before the final ink.

Step 4: Ink the Outlines

Create a new layer above the sketch for linework. The Inking set has good options, including Studio Pen for crisp, consistent lines. Raise the brush's stabilization setting in the brush settings to smooth shaky strokes.

Some practical guidance:

• Use a dark color other than pure black. A dark brown or deep blue-gray often looks better than black and is easier to adapt to a palette later.
• Close your shapes. Gaps in the outline cause fill leaks when you color-drop. Connect lines at the corners of the eyes, the jaw, and where hair meets the forehead.
• Vary line weight. Slightly thicker lines on outer contours and shadow sides, thinner lines on interior details, give the drawing depth without adding any shading.
• Ink in sections on separate layers if needed. Putting hair on its own layer makes it easy to redo without disturbing the face.

Hide the photo and sketch layers occasionally to check that the linework reads on its own.

Step 5: Block In Flat Colors

Create new layers beneath the ink for flat color. A clean structure looks like this:

• Skin
• Hair
• Clothing
• Eyes and mouth details
• Background

Pick colors directly from the photo with the Color Picker (tap and hold), then adjust them. Cartoon palettes usually look better slightly more saturated and with fewer hue shifts than a photo. Fill each shape with ColorDrop. If the fill doesn't reach the edges, tidy the gaps in the line layer. Keeping each major element on its own layer will pay off when you need to recolor or animate parts.

Step 6: Add Shading and Highlights

Use clipping masks so shading stays inside each shape. Create a new layer above the skin layer, tap it, and choose Clipping Mask. Set the blend mode to Multiply and paint shadow shapes with a desaturated purple or warm brown. Don't use plain gray, which dulls the color.

For a cartoon look, aim for hard-edged shadow shapes rather than soft gradients. Follow the lighting from your reference, but simplify it to one or two shadow tones. Add a separate layer for highlights, using a small number of crisp shapes on the cheeks, nose, lips, and hair.

If you want a cel-shaded look, keep every shadow edge decisive. If you want something more painterly, use a soft brush sparingly on a single layer.

Step 7: Clean Up and Check the Result

Hide the photo layer and review the drawing at full size and at thumbnail size. Check these things:

• Stray marks outside the outline
• Gaps between fill and line
• Eyes that look unintentionally asymmetrical
• Shadow shapes that contradict each other
• Color contrast against the background

Add finishing touches such as a subtle background shape, a color adjustment layer, or a texture overlay if you want a printed-comic feel.

Tips for Better Results

• Work from a reference you have the right to use. Use your own photos or ones with a clear license, especially for client work.
• Keep the photo layer low but visible during coloring. It helps with color picking.
• Name your layers. It matters if the file moves to another artist or into compositing.
• Save versions. Duplicate the file before major changes so you can compare variants.

Exporting for a Video or Compositing Pipeline

If the artwork is heading into After Effects, Nuke, or any compositing app, export deliberately. Keeping the ink, flats, and shading as separate elements gives you more control for motion work, so you can animate or adjust them independently. Consider whether the background will change before you export.

If your goal is a cartoonized video rather than a single illustration, hand-tracing every frame is rarely practical.

Carrying the Style Into Motion With Styleframe

A finished Procreate illustration is a strong style reference. Styleframe is an AI video and motion tool that can pick up where Procreate stops. You can use your hand-drawn cartoon as the look target for a video clip instead of describing the style in a text prompt, so the style comes from your drawing rather than a model's default.

You keep your compositing, color, and finishing steps in the tools you already use, and the AI step becomes one controllable stage rather than a replacement for the pipeline.

As with any AI-assisted stage, results depend on the strength and consistency of your references, and you should expect to iterate and review the output frame by frame.

Quick Recap

1. Create a canvas that matches your final use.
2. Insert the photo, lower its opacity, and lock it.
3. Sketch with deliberate simplification and exaggeration.
4. Ink clean, closed outlines on their own layer.
5. Block flat colors on separate layers beneath the ink.
6. Add Multiply shading and a few highlights with clipping masks.
7. Clean up, check at thumbnail size, and export.

The method is manual, but that is its strength: every shape is a decision, and the resulting file is something you can reuse as a reference, an animation asset, or the starting point for a stylized video.