How To Create A 2021 Vision Board Using Procreate

First things first - you need a word. If you are not in the practice of choosing a word of the year, you should be. For me, my word of the year is an intention that I set, that rules every day, week, months and ultimately year. It's not lip service - something that you choose on January 1st and then forget about. And that's why I find creating a vision board so important, because I can look at it visually each day and remind myself of my intentions for growth during the year.

How do I choose my word of the year? I usually start thinking about it in mid August to be honest. I have a lot of random things I might be thinking about and I start to list them all down. I try to see if there is a common thread. Am I listening to podcasts on certain topics, reading articles and books, or just generally is something peaking my interest.

This year a couple of words were coming up consistently for me and they were awareness and presence. Instead of just blindly going through life I wanted to live with intention, practice purpose and live awake and aware of what was happening.

As I started to explore more, I eventually landed on ‘high vibe.’ Not that Awareness or presence didn’t work. But high vibe meant I could incorporate even more. From high vibe food, to movement to presence and meditation and even being high vibe in my work.

Once you’ve chosen a word, the next step is to start brainstorming around that word. What does it mean to you to live out that word. Visualise the kind of things you want to be doing to live out your word. I arrange everything into a mindmap, but a list works great as well. As things come up, I arrange them into topics. But there’s no rules here.

Once you’ve got some words and visuals around how to outwork your word, It's time to load up the google image search and find images and quotes that match and resonate with you. I tend to use a combination of Google Images, Pinterest, and Unsplash.com to find things to suit. Download them all to a new album on your iPad called 2021.

Now you have everything you need it's time to get it into Procreate and start creating.

Open Procreate and click the + button to create a new canvas, I choose Screen Size (2732x2048), this fits on my iPad screen. But you can really choose whatever size you would like.

Next, I use WordSwag to create the design for my word which will go in the centre. You can always use Procreate to do some fancy handwriting script, but I'm no good at that, so I tend to use WordSwag to create any fonts I need and then export them as a png (no background).

Once I have my Word in the middle of the page, then I open up my photos app in a slide over window and start dragging and dropping the photos in. My style is to cut around the photo, so to create that you select the arrow key at the top left of the page, then the little squiggle key next to it. Then you can just draw around the photo to the area you want to cut. Then swipe down with three fingers on the screen, tap cut & paste. This will cut the selected area out and paste it as a new layer. Tap the layer menu on the right, swipe right on the layer that has the old cut out and click delete. Repeat this step for all the photos and quotes that you want to bring in. Don't worry too much about placement or size at this point. Once all the images are in, now you can start to re-arrange and re-size to fit. A note about Procreate - Procreate uses layers to select what you want to move around.

So, open up the layers menu on the left hand side. Choose the image you want to move or resize. Then click the arrow button on the right. You'll see a dotted line come up around the image. From here you can resize, move or rotate so it's in the placement that you want. As you start to place images some will need to be above or below others, you can drag and drop layers in the layer menu - the ones at the top of the menu are above, ones at the bottom.

Once you have all your images placed, you'll still have a bit of white space, this is where you can start to experiment with the Procreate brushes to create some cool background effects. The key here is to create a new layer for each brush you apply. That way if you don't like it, you can just delete that layer.

So, click the layer menu and tap the + button. You'll get a blank layer. Then click on the brush menu. I have quite a few brushes that I have bought for embellishments, but some of my fav free ones for backgrounds are:

This part is trial and error, it took my some time to know the brushes that I like and worked well. Experiment with changing the colour of the brush and the transparency to get the effect you would like.

I could tinker with my Vision Board for hours (and in fact have), but the key is knowing when to stop. Add that last touch and then export it and insert it as your wallpaper or into your notion dashboard or take it to the printer and get it printed. Here is the final version of what's sitting on my iPad Wallpaper screen right now...

I really hope this step by step walkthrough has helped and inspired you to create a vision board for 2021 using Procreate. Remember, the process should be fun, as well as build your skills in using Procreate - so grab your favourite drink and take some time to do it.

Hit me up on Twitter or Instagram with your finished vision boards - I'd love to see them.

Ev x

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