Procreate Overlay Reference: Build Your Own (2026)
If you’re trying to sketch from reference images in Procreate and get proportions right, you’ve probably searched for some kind of overlay trick or reference companion app. Here’s a faster route: build a small tool that does exactly what you need, in a few minutes, using Auto.
Why search for an app when you can build the tool
Most searches for “procreate overlay reference image” turn up tutorials on layer opacity tricks, or roundups of third-party apps that let you trace over a reference photo. Those work, but they’re built for everyone, which means you’re stuck adapting your process to their layout, their gesture controls, their storage limits. Nobody built it specifically for the way you sketch.
Auto flips that. You describe what you want — a way to sketch directly on top of a reference image and check proportions side by side — snap a photo if it helps explain the idea, and Auto builds a Frame: a small personal app made around your exact request. No app store, no subscription for a generic art tool, no settling.
Building a sketch-vs-reference overlay in Auto
Here’s the shape of it if you wanted to build your own version:
- Describe the core need. Something like: a place to compare a sketch against its photo reference, so proportions are easy to check.
- Ask for storage. You’ll want a library of every reference and sketch you’ve uploaded, not just a one-off comparison.
- Ask for selection and overlay. Pick a reference image and a sketch, then view them stacked in one canvas.
- Ask for gesture control. The active image should move and scale independently — two-finger scroll to reposition, pinch to resize — so you can slide your sketch over the reference and instantly see where the proportions drift.
Auto takes that description and builds the actual working app around it. You’re not configuring settings inside someone else’s tool — you’re specifying the tool.
How someone built theirs
One Auto user started with a simple, direct prompt: build a Frame to compare sketches against their photo reference so proportions are easy to check, with a storage area for every image uploaded, the ability to select a reference and a sketch, and an overlay view where the active image can be moved and scaled with two-finger gestures.
Auto built a first version — and like most real builds, it wasn’t perfect on the first pass. The build came back with a handful of TypeScript errors: touch-event types that didn’t quite match, a selection prop that wasn’t wired up right, a couple of function calls with the wrong argument count. The user pasted the error log back in and asked Auto to fix it. That’s a normal part of building something real — you describe, it builds, you flag what’s broken, it fixes it.
The result is now a working Frame called Sketch Compare — proof that this kind of tool doesn’t need to be downloaded from somewhere; it can be made.
FAQ
Can I sketch directly on top of a reference image this way? Yes — that’s the point of an overlay-style Frame. You layer your sketch over the reference and adjust position and scale until you can judge proportions accurately.
Do I need design or coding skills to build this? No. You describe what you want in plain language, and Auto builds the working app. Fixing bugs is just describing what went wrong.
What if I want something more specific later, like grid overlays or opacity sliders? Since it’s your own Frame, you can ask Auto to add those features whenever you need them — it grows with your workflow instead of staying fixed at version one.
Is this the same as using Procreate’s built-in reference tools? It’s a companion, not a replacement. Procreate handles the drawing; your Frame handles proportion-checking on your own terms.