EZ Character + Procreate: AI Reference to Hand-Painted Illustration Pipeline

Why this combination

Procreate is the dominant digital painting app for iPad illustrators, and children's book, comic, and concept artists rely on it for final painted output. The bottleneck for multi-page or multi-panel work is maintaining character identity across paintings. EZ Character generates the locked reference set. Pin it in Procreate's Reference window and paint each illustration against the same canonical character. The result is hand-painted illustration quality with AI-locked character consistency.

Step-by-step workflow

1. 1

   Generate the multi-angle character reference

   Upload your character to EZ Character. Generate the full 8-angle turntable plus an expression sheet at the highest resolution.

2. 2

   Export and transfer to iPad

   Download the reference set as PNGs. AirDrop, iCloud, or email them to your iPad.

3. 3

   Open Procreate and pin references

   Open your canvas. Tap the wrench icon > Canvas > Reference. Load your EZ Character front view as the primary reference. Pin the Reference window so it stays visible while you paint.

4. 4

   Paint against the reference

   For each illustration, load the EZ Character angle closest to your composition's camera angle. Paint over or use as reference — the character identity is locked.

5. 5

   Switch references per scene

   Each new spread or panel gets a different angle from the same locked set. Front for cover, ¾ for action, profile for dialogue. Same character, every painting.

Pro tips

• Load the full reference set into Procreate's Photo Library as an album for quick access
• Use Procreate's split-screen with the reference open in Files alongside your painting canvas
• Generate references at 2× your canvas resolution for zoom-in detail work
• Export the expression sheet separately — it is the most-referenced asset during painting