Newsletter: October 2026

Monthly newsletter · October 2026

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Hi Everyone,

Happy October! Spooky season is officially here and with that I have some Halloween themed freebies for you this month: A boo-tiful colour palette and 2 brushes to add to your collection.

As most of you know, I've been recovering from surgery since early September so I've been taking a bit of time off social media. I'm still doing my best to reply to everyone but the best way to contact me is always email, that way I won't miss it.

I've been working hard on bringing you a concise pattern course as a follow up to my beginners course, and I hope to have that finished before the next newsletter is out. If so, you'll hear from me some time during October.

For those of you who have purchased my 'Procreate Made Simple' course, thank you so much. It really means the world! I'd love to hear some feedback, good and bad, so I can make any improvements if necessary or clarify areas that may not be as clear as they need to be.

As always, thanks for all of your support and I'll talk to you next month, if not before!

Ruth

Free downloads

And now, this month's three freebies

How I made this

I put a video up on my socials this week showing how I colour the pumpkins in. Here are the same steps written down, so you can follow along at your own pace.

1. Stamp the brush onto an empty layer.
2. Turn on Reference for that layer. This lets you colour on separate layers while still using these lines as your guide.
3. Add a new layer and drag it underneath the stamp.
4. Fill every section of one pumpkin with white.
5. Add another new layer and do the same for the second pumpkin, then one more layer for the third.
6. Add one more layer and fill all the stems.
7. Turn on Alpha Lock on each of those layers.
8. Colour each pumpkin and stem, one layer at a time.
9. Above each base layer, add a new layer, turn on Clipping Mask, and set the blend mode to Soft Light.
10. On those layers, paint black where you want shadow and white where you want the highlights.
11. Soften it all together with Gaussian Blur.
12. Add one last layer, drag it right to the bottom, and set that one to Soft Light too.
13. Paint the shadow under the pumpkins in black. Soft Light turns it into a shade that suits whatever background colour you have used.

🎃 Pumpkin Trio Brush

One stamp, three pumpkins, ready to colour however you like. Tap it down and you have the line work done, so you can go straight to the fun part. The step by step above walks you through exactly how I coloured mine.

Download Brush

🖌️ Inkwell Brush

A slightly grainy ink brush for filling in your line work. It builds as you layer it, so you get that inked, printed look instead of a flat block of colour.

Download Brush

🎨 Gourd Patch Colour Palette

Download Palette

To add these to Procreate: download the file, tap on it in your Files app, and it should open directly in Procreate. If it doesn't, open Procreate, go to Brushes (or Palettes), and tap the + icon to import manually. One thing worth knowing: an imported palette lands at the very bottom of your palettes list, so scroll all the way down if you can't see it.

Community

Come and show me what you make

If you make anything with the brushes, I'd really like to see it. The Facebook group is the easiest place to share, and it's a great spot to see what everyone else is making too.

Enjoy the freebies, and I'll see you on November 1st. 🎃

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