How To Lasso In Procreate: Freehand Selection Guide

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What the lasso tool is in Procreate

The lasso tool in Procreate is the Freehand selection mode, which lives inside the Selection tool, the ribbon icon in the top menu bar. When you want to isolate a specific part of your artwork to edit, move, or transform it without touching the rest, this is the tool you reach for. It’s called "Freehand" because you literally draw the selection shape yourself, unlike the Automatic or Rectangle modes that guess at edges or snap to geometric forms. The Lasso Tool offers different modes including Freehand, Automatic, Rectangle, and Ellipse. The Magnetic mode in the Lasso Tool automatically snaps to the edges of your artwork.

The Freehand mode is the most flexible selection method in Procreate because it puts the entire shape in your control. You can trace around a character’s hair strand by strand, outline a leaf with its jagged edges, or circle a splash of water with all its irregular curves. Once you commit the selection, everything outside it becomes protected by semi-transparent moving diagonal lines, so you can paint, smudge, erase, or transform without ever worrying about bleeding into the rest of your canvas. The tool is officially documented as "Freehand" under the Selection menu, but every working artist calls it the lasso because that’s exactly what it feels like, a digital rope you throw around whatever you want to grab.

How to lasso in Procreate step by step

To lasso in Procreate, you start by tapping the Selection button in the top menu bar, it’s the ribbon icon that looks like a curled ribbon or a piece of tape. This opens the Selection toolbar at the bottom of your canvas, where you’ll choose Freehand from the options. From there, you draw around the area you want to select, using your finger or Apple Pencil, and then finalize the selection by tapping the gray circle that appears at your starting point.

Tap the Selection button (ribbon icon) in the top menu bar. This activates the Selection tool and brings up the toolbar at the bottom of the canvas.
Tap "Freehand" in the Selection toolbar. This is the lasso mode, it lets you draw a custom, irregular shape around any part of your artwork.
Draw your selection with your finger or Apple Pencil. Trace around the area you want to isolate, just like you would with a physical lasso. You can draw in one continuous motion or use short strokes for more control.
Lift your finger or Apple Pencil and continue drawing if you need to. Procreate lets you pause mid-selection, lift off the screen, and then start drawing again from where you left off, the selection line stays active until you finalize it.
Finalize the selection by tapping the gray circle that appears at the starting point of your line. This closes the selection loop and commits it. Alternatively, tap any other tool in the toolbar, and Procreate will commit the selection and exit selection mode automatically.

Everything outside those lines is protected, you can edit, paint, or transform the inside without affecting anything else.

Making polygonal and combined selections

While the Freehand lasso is great for organic shapes, you don’t have to settle for wobbly lines when you need straight edges. To make a polygonal selection, one with sharp corners and straight sides, tap on the canvas to place corner nodes. Each tap drops a point, and Procreate connects the dots with straight lines. This is perfect for selecting buildings, geometric shapes, or any element with defined angles. You can tap your way around a rectangular sign, a triangular flag, or a hexagonal gem, and the selection will snap to those precise points.

The real power comes when you combine both methods in a single selection. You can draw a freehand curve around a rounded object, then switch to tapping for the straight edges of a box it sits on. For example, imagine selecting a character who stands on a rectangular platform: you’d freehand the curve of their shoulders and head, then tap four times to create the straight lines of the platform beneath them. The selection tool doesn’t force you to choose one style, it lets you blend them fluidly, so you can create complex shapes that would be impossible with a single technique. Just remember that while you’re drawing, you can lift your finger or Apple Pencil at any point and continue from where you left off, which gives you unlimited flexibility to navigate tricky corners or switch between drawing and tapping as you go.

How to deselect or cancel a selection

To cancel an active selection and return to your artwork, simply tap the Selection button in the top menu bar again. This removes the selection entirely, leaving you with a clean canvas and no active boundaries. If you’ve just finished drawing the selection but haven’t committed it yet, you can also cancel it by tapping the Selection button before finalizing, this discards the in-progress selection and exits Freehand mode.

When a selection is active, the unselected area is covered by semi-transparent moving diagonal lines. These lines are your visual cue that the selection is live and that the protected area is off-limits to editing. If you ever look at your canvas and see those diagonal lines, you know you’re still in selection mode. To start fresh with a new selection, you don’t need to cancel first, just tap the Selection button, choose Freehand again, and draw a new shape. The old selection will be replaced the moment you begin drawing the new one. If you’ve made a mistake while drawing the selection itself, you can undo your last action with a two-finger tap and redo with a three-finger tap, so you can fix errors without canceling the entire selection.

Editing and transforming your selection

Once you’ve committed a selection, the real work begins. With an active selection, you can paint, smudge, erase, fill, or transform the selected content, and none of it will affect the unselected areas. This is the core benefit of using the lasso tool: it gives you surgical precision over exactly which pixels you’re editing. You can grab a brush and paint only inside the selection, use the eraser to clean up edges without touching the background, or apply a fill color to the selected area in a single tap.

Beyond painting and erasing, the selection opens up a full suite of transformation tools. You can move the selected content by tapping and dragging it to a new location on the canvas. You can resize it by pinching with two fingers or using the transform handles. You can rotate it by twisting with two fingers, or flip it horizontally or vertically using the Transform menu. You can also adjust the opacity of the selected content, which is useful for creating shadows, highlights, or subtle overlays. And if you want to get creative, you can apply effects to just the selection, think blurs, sharpening, or color adjustments, without affecting the rest of your artwork.

The selection also works with Procreate’s layer system, which is one of the most powerful ways to use it. Selections are applied to your currently active layer or set of layers, so you can select content on one layer, switch to another layer, and paint or edit there while keeping the selection boundary intact. This is how you isolate a character on one layer, then add shadows on a separate layer without ever leaving the selection. You can also use the selection to copy and paste content to a new layer, duplicate it, or delete it entirely, all while keeping the rest of your artwork untouched.

Tips for precise lasso selections

Getting a clean, accurate lasso selection takes practice, but Procreate gives you several tools to make it easier. While you’re drawing a selection, you can still use navigation gestures to zoom in, pan around, and rotate the canvas. This is crucial for detailed work, zoom in to trace a tiny curve, pan over to the next section, and rotate the canvas to get a comfortable angle for your hand. The selection stays active while you navigate, so you can zoom in and out mid-selection without losing your place.

If you make a mistake while drawing, don’t panic. You can undo your last action with a two-finger tap, which removes the last stroke you drew, and redo with a three-finger tap. This works while you’re still in Freehand mode, so you can refine your selection stroke by stroke without canceling and starting over. Just be careful not to tap too many times, each two-finger tap undoes one stroke, so you can step backward through your drawing history if you need to. Procreate offers a feature called 'Smart Selection' which helps in refining your freehand selection by detecting and correcting irregularities.

Layer awareness is another key to precision. Remember that selections apply to the currently active layer or set of layers. If you’re trying to select content that spans multiple layers, you’ll need to either merge those layers first or use a different selection method. Conversely, if you want to edit only one layer, make sure that layer is active before you start drawing your selection. This prevents accidental edits to content you didn’t mean to touch.

Finally, you can adjust the visibility of the selection mask in the Settings menu. The selection mask is the semi-transparent overlay that shows you which areas are selected and which are protected. If you find the diagonal lines distracting, you can reduce their opacity or turn them off entirely, so you can see your artwork clearly while you work. This is especially useful when you’re doing fine detail work and need to see the exact edges of your selection against your artwork. Combined with the ability to zoom, pan, and rotate while selecting, these settings give you complete control over your lasso selections, making it easy to isolate even the most intricate parts of your artwork. And when you’re ready to move beyond basic selections, you can combine the lasso with other Procreate tools, layers and file management features to build complex compositions with total precision.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add to or subtract from an existing lasso selection?

Yes, Procreate lets you refine a committed selection by using the Add and Remove options in the Selection toolbar. Tap Add to draw additional areas into the selection, or tap Remove to erase parts of it, both work with the same Freehand drawing method.

Why does my lasso selection keep closing on its own?

Your selection closes automatically when you tap the gray circle at the starting point, but if it’s closing unexpectedly, you’re likely tapping that circle by accident. To avoid this, keep your finger or Apple Pencil moving in a continuous line and avoid lifting and re-tapping near the start point unless you intend to finish.

Can I use the lasso tool on a group of layers at once?

Yes, selections apply to the active layer or set of layers you have selected. If you have a group of layers active, the lasso selection will apply to all of them, letting you edit or transform content across multiple layers simultaneously.

How do I feather the edges of my lasso selection?

After you’ve committed a selection, look for the Feather option in the Selection toolbar. Dragging the feather slider softens the edges of your selection, which is useful for creating smooth transitions when painting, filling, or applying effects to the selected area.

What’s the difference between the lasso and the automatic selection tool?

The lasso (Freehand) requires you to draw the selection shape manually, giving you complete control over the boundaries. The Automatic tool, by contrast, selects areas of similar color with a single tap, which is faster for blocks of solid color but less precise for complex or irregular shapes.