For those who asked. I say it every time, but you don’t need fancy brushes to make digital art if you don’t want to use them or can’t afford them. To further my point, I’ve included a list of completely free brush packs at the end of this post.
| ✏ Sketches & Linework |
I don't so much do linework as I do clean sketches, all one layer, à l'ancienne. So, I like my brushes to have a natural, textured look.
My go-to are Kyle T Webster's pencil brushes (free with PS);
For something with more bite and less texture, I've been using one of Deharme's sketch brushes from this set;
If I want to go all out and do full linework (new layer, broad strokes...), I use this Matt Rhodes imitation brush (free).
| 🖌 Colour & Painting |
My painting brushes change all the time, but the sets below have become staples.
For a more illustrative style, I use a combination of Marc Brunet’s Advanced Painter’s Brushes and Piotr Jabłoński’s brushes.
For semi-realistic work, I use Istebrak’s Dry Oil Brushes and Deharme’s Figure Painting Set (my current favourites).
| ✒ Free Packs & Recommendations |
Below are four free brush packs that I’ve used in the past and can highly recommend, all of which are similar to those I currently work with (squared or angled blendable brushes). They also come with special effect brushes (splatters, foliage, smoke...).
From left to right, top to bottom, least to most complex:
Ahmed Aldoori’s Brushes;
Noah Bradley’s tool presets (which can be set to brushes);
Charlie Bowater’s brush pack;
Greg Rutkowski’s brushes
For sets I haven’t used extensively but have heard good things about:
Deharme free brush pack ;
Brushes by Loish.
As a little bonus, if you don’t feel comfortable using advanced brushes but still want a textured look, you can download these free paper textures to play with, by S3PTIC-SHOCK on Deviant Art. Put them on overlay, multiply or divide over your painting for a little kick of texture.
Remember earlier this week when my internet went out? I passed the time by making this thing no one asked for.
(All one layer, pencil brush with opacity on for optimal shading. I recommend trying this out with a reference at first to understand the overlapping of shapes better.)
can you explain what studies are? what to do, how to do it and stuff? do you just take a picture and.. Well study it?
I use “study” as an umbrella term for any drawings done as practice, often with a specific reference. It’s not so much about the finished piece as it is the process and learning that took place. Therefore, studies can be anything from deconstructing and understanding a piece of anatomy, to recreating a piece of existing art (master study, photo study), to speedpainting. It depends on what I want to improve on.
Of those I do most often…
For a photostudy, I’ll try to recreate the study material as closely as possible, taking notes as I go on what I instinctively do wrong (values too dark or colours over-saturated, wrong proportions…) or differently (process and brush strokes if applicable).
For gesture drawing, I’ll give myself 30 seconds to capture a pose, focusing on action lines and shapes. If it’s figure drawing, I’ll bump the time up to 60 seconds and aim for accuracy. Both in 30 minute sessions, after which I take notes on how I did.
For speedpaints, I’ll set myself a time limit and try to thumbnail a painting. Most often environments. You aren’t getting any of them because they are still embarrassingly bad, but I’m working on it.
As I’ve said before, I try to be in a constant state of learning, but I don’t sit down to do studies everyday. The only thing I do religiously are morning sketches. One A5 page each morning, no time limit, no expectations, with or without reference. This is less to study and more to prep the brain and engage my creativity.
Other than that, there’s the obvious ‘sit down in front of book and take notes’, but that’s only when things get really dire.
On where to find studies and others you can do, most of the ones I’ve learnt about have been through word of mouth, since I don’t have any formal training. I’ve heard of people doing timed character designs, form studies, wireframe studies, technique or style borrowing, iterative drawing– and the list goes on and on–all of which I have little to know experience in and can’t weigh in on.
I was in the middle of sketching Bal when I caught your ask. I am neither qualified, nor experienced enough to teach anything painting related, but that’s never stopped me before.
I’m working with the freehand lasso tool, and a soft brush from this set, but any standard Photoshop airbrush with pen opacity works.
The technique is good for all sorts, but here I used it for form shadow on his arm, and cast shadow on his face. If you’ve done pencil drawing before, using the lasso tool is the equivalent of using a second sheet of paper to create sharp edges.
For form shadow, I encase the volume I want to render with the lasso tool, lining up the edge of my selection with the edge of the shape. I then gently run my brush over that edge, gradually working inwards, making the shadow wrap around the cylinder that is his arm (since the light isn’t hitting it).
For cast shadow, I cut out the shape of the shadow being cast, do one quick sweep to cover the area, then go back in where the shadow begins (since cast shadows taper off at the bottom).
how did you begin learning art properly? I don't even know where to start. I have basics but it's so difficult and messy and overwhelming for me
I don’t know about “properly”, but I’ll try my best to explain it.
Everyone learns in their own way, but sitting down and doing studies for hours on end has never worked for me… which is probably why it took five years for me to try and learn anything.
What I started doing was learning through my drawings. The method boils down to drawing until a problem comes up, figuring out what the problem is, then dealing with it straight away by finding appropriate media (videos, books, online art lessons). I’ll watch/read/listen my way through a lesson, maybe throw in a few sketches for good measure, then use what I’ve learned in my next drawing.
Say I realise I can’t render hair. Instead of flapping about for the next ten drawings until I forget I can’t render hair and things go back to their terrible normal, I’ll watch a tutorial on how to paint it, then make sure to apply what I’ve learned in whatever drawing comes next.
Absorb, apply. It all folds back into the fundamentals in the end, except I don’t get bored learning and am consistently making things and doing what I love.
Of course, you can always seek that knowledge out beforehand, though I’ve found that’s a great way to suck all of the fun out of art. It’s always going to feel messy, because you can always improve. But you don’t need to feel overwhelmed. You don’t have to know everything or be the best at everything. You just have to know enough to draw what you want, how you want.
There is value to be found in every single drawing. Sometimes it’s in technique, sometimes it’s in story, sometimes it’s in emotion... Sometimes in it’s in that one mistake that ruined everything and the things you learnt from it.
On social media, any one of those things can be recognised, or none of them can. Because art is subjective, and your audience may not measure value in the same way that you do.
On tumblr in particular, there is a huge focus on content that is relatable. People enjoy media that speaks to them and to the things that they are interested in. It’s why fandoms exist and why fanworks are so popular.
The harsh truth is that no one can be forced to consume media that they aren’t interested in. If people can’t find reason to support a creator, namely because their content doesn’t speak to them, they are completely within their right -no matter how much love the artist has poured into their work (or how great it would be if we did all support each other).
Since creator and consumer don’t owe each other anything right off the bat, it’’s important to stop relying on that relationship when it comes to making art. Of course, the creator could always adapt their content to fit their audience, but that’s an attitude that could become quite unhealthy.
So instead, you should work towards realising that what you’re creating is valuable and precious and unique -no matter how much attention it did or didn’t get.
I don’t care if you started yesterday, if you think your art is bad, if your last post got two likes and the only reblog was from yourself -the very act of creating is so inherently beautiful and you should be proud of yourself. You don’t need validation or permission to keep drawing. But if you really want it, then know that I’m proud of you, that your grind motivates me to work, and that you have my and everyone else’s blessing to go and create the things that only you can.
hey! first of all: congratulations on your art, i just found your blog and it's already one of my favourites, oh my god, everything is just stunning! second: i'm sorry if someone asked this before, but i didn't find it in your ask tags; you said you are mostly self-taught, and i wondered: where did you start? do you have any advice for someone who is just beginning to teach themselves how to draw? thanks ^^
I started the wrong way, which is why is took me so long to improve. I would draw without direction, a few times a year, and had convinced myself that I didn’t need the basics, that my “intuition” (ahem) and “talent” (AHEM) were all I needed to improve over time.
I only started improving once I realised that the first was inconsistent, and the second was nonexistent.
From my experience, learning to draw is done in two ways: through theory and through practice. The two go hand in hand, and ignoring either one slows improvement.
Theory is easy to disregard, but doing so is harmful in the long term. Behind every masterpiece is knowledge, not magic. This knowledge comes through studying the fundamentals: form, light, perspective, proportion and composition, extending to anatomy, colour and movement. It’s learning to understand what you’re drawing, and how to communicate it, without even picking up a pencil.
Practice is exactly what you think it is: drawing, in all forms. Whether you’re doing studies, or sketches, or creating finished pieces, it’s applying those fundamentals in order to create… Sometimes it’s finding those fundamentals through your mistakes. As much as I like to stress the technical side of drawing, intuition has a part to play too, and can lead you to learning, whether you realise it or not.
For the record, you don’t need fundamentals to draw. And you don’t need to draw to understand fundamentals. But only by combining the two will you acquire the tools needed to properly communicate whatever drawing is in your head.
As for smaller pieces of advice…
Be patient and consistent. You can learn so many wonderful things by listening to an art talk once a day, or spending fifteen minutes every morning sketching. You can’t learn everything at once, nor do you need to. Just make sure that you’re feeding your skills a little bit each day.
Even small pieces of information can drastically change your art. Simple things, like learning to use a cool light when using a warm shadow, what rim light is, that there are three joints in the finger, the rule of thirds … Take, what, a minute each to learn? I mean, the day I spent 20 minutes watching a video on colour theory, changed my art forever. Those minutes all add up, and are all small victories.
What’s also really helped me, and which is often overlooked, is indulging the philosophy behind art. I’ve watched just as many tutorials on proportion and anatomy, as I’ve listened to podcasts on inspiration and artist health. Thinking about art and moulding your mindset to suit whatever it is you’re working towards is crucial to being a happy artist.
Feed off of creative media: other artists’ work, books, film, video games, music… I’ve always believed that art has its own energy to be used and shared. Allow yourself to find it in other people’s creations and to give some back whenever you can.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to just draw. Draw as much as you can, even if it’s only a little, and no matter how bad you think it is. It’s all mileage, so it all has value.
(I’ve left some resources under the cut, that I’ve referred to in the past and continue to use. Long story short, the internet is your best friend.)
Good luck with everything! I wish you all the best ♥
Most of what I’ve learned has indeed come from the internet (no surprise there). Art books are wonderful, but expensive -and with the internet at your fingertips, I’d argue that you don’t even need them.
There are a few Youtube channels which are absolute goldmines for any budding artists (links included below).
Sycra would be my top pick, as he covers a lot of the fundamentals and is a real joy to listen to. To start, I would recommend his videos on Fundamentals, Art Advice for beginners, Iterative Drawing and Artist’s Block.
There are a few other channels I love too.
Istebrak has some great content for digital painters, although much of what she teaches can be applied to other forms of drawing. I’d recommend her videos on Line Art, “Why Your Drawings Suck” and Masterpieces. Her channel is set up in a way that she teaches different things as she goes, through a class-like system, and every video can teach you something new.
I’ll also add the channels of Ahmed Aldoori, Marc Brunet and Proko to the list.
Hey, I hoped you could help me. I have a big problem while drawing faces. I can't draw both sides similar. The other eye or brow is always totally diffrent and it's frustrating. Do you know any tutorials or methods that might help? Thank you so much for taking your time to read this.
Hello! Sorry for taking a while to get back to you. I’ve been quite busy and really wanted to take my time to answer this properly, rather than just rushing an answer out for you.
Symmetry in faces is something that I struggled with for a long time. Even now, it’s rare for me to draw a face and have it be perfect on the first try. Before anything, I should note that most faces aren’t really symmetrical, and that faces that are too similar on both sides often fall into the dreaded uncanny valley.
The first tip I have for you is to zoom out. Even if you are drawing on paper, give yourself some distance between your eye and the page. This helps you get a better understanding of what the face actually looks like, rather than that one line on that one eye that you’ve zoomed 600% in on. Next, I’d recommend getting in the habit of flipping your image, to check for mistakes. As you draw, your eye gets used to what you’ve been putting down, and can trick you into thinking that things are in proportion, when they aren’t. By flipping the image, you are giving your eye a chance to see the drawing as if for the first time again… So all mistakes will be easier to spot. This can easily be done in any digital art program. When drawing traditionally, you can hold your drawing backwards in front of a window, to see what it looks like flipped. Don’t be afraid to use the tools at your disposal. I’ve never seen it as cheating, and I don’t believe that you should either. If you’re working on paper, get a ruler and trace out the line on which you want the eyes to sit, or even map out the proportions of the face. If you’re working digitally, you can do the same thing with a line tool, or do the ol’ “copy and paste” method if you’re really struggling… Although that can often lead to strange looking faces (as noted above). Lastly, I’d simply advise learning the proportions of the face and how to break them down. If you know where features should be in relation to other features, you’re more likely to place them correctly. When it comes to my style, I like to start the eyes where the nostrils end and have the corner of the mouth line up with the center of the eye. Of course, this changes depending on the character. But as a general rule of thumb, it’s not bad for drawing *attractive* faces.
If anything is unclear, just let me know and I’ll go over it again :)
