Procreate Brushes Are My New Addiction
Intro
Welcome readers!
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. As the thoughts ruminated, I realized how integral procreate has been to my current pipeline. The iPad, and this program completely upended my previous pipeline, and in doing so has spoiled me. Now I love the flexibility of digital drawing and animation anywhere I feel like. Since I’ve made these purchases, I’ve been drawing a lot more. In the process of making all of this art, I have also bought a lot of procreate brushes.
I think I might have a problem.
When I was younger, I would buy extravagant mechanical pencils. I loved them. It was such a trait, I had a teacher tell me I had a fetish. After all of these years, I feel this habit has resurfaced but in the context of procreate brushes. To be completely fair to myself, I do love working in new styles, and these brushes easily open up a door for me to be creative without ripping my hair off and learning new mediums. It’s also cheaper. yes I am justifying this habit. Leave me a lone
I Have A Problem
One of the reasons I’ve dived into the brushes so much is because the landscape for them is so great these days. When I used to make my art in photoshop, the landscape wasn’t that great. There were the Kyle T. Webster brushes, which were and still are great, but that was about it. But because the brush creation engine is fairly intuitive in procreate, it has lead to so many really awesome tools.
This actively keeps me engaged and making art in the program. The level of variety and scale some of these brush designers have is staggering to me. I feel like there is so much more life in work now because of these tools these artists spend so much time carefully crafting.
Experimenting Keeps Me Interested In Making Art.
As I’ve mentioned, these brushes keep me engaged with using the program. I think at this point in my life, I’ve made art and animation for so long, that sometimes I need an extra push to start the process. There are just so many of these brushes, that I can create alternate and fun styles really easily. This is something I’ve always done, but I can be more flexible and free in doing so now.
Another important factor is that this experimentation allows me to push my creative abilities even further. This makes for better and more interesting art because I’m more consciously engaged in maximizing the utility of the tools. The ease of use of the brushes let me also put new spins on old concepts. Remixes, more or less. It’s so fun to use, that I find being creative a bit more organic and improvisational. Which I believe is the key.
What Are The Brushes?
So some of the brushes I use, I inherited from friends and they’re from a larger brush pack. I just took what I needed to though. The bulk of the brushes I use I have bought directly from the suppliers/artists though. Here’s a list:
Grid Builder + Letter Builder (by Stefan Kunz)
The Dry brushpack(by retrosupply)
Beat tones, Dead Subtle, Distress press, Fast Grit, Lithotone, the rusty nib (by True Grit)
Watercolor set (by Maxpack)
I haven’t had much time to use the watercolor set. It’s top on my list to experiment with once I find the time, but I have been loving everything else. I can recommend all of these brushes for purchase (not sponsored). The true grit ones especially are cool, and they usually pack tons of brushes in their packs.
Outro
That’s more or less where I’m at with this. I know it’s a bit of a silly thing to write a blog about, but tools are important and the value of procreate brushes can’t be understated. These tools have helped cement a fluid and experimental pipeline and are critical assets. They allow me to create better and more beautiful art, and more quickly. If you have the chance, check out some of the brushes from the recommended list.
Thanks for indulging me in my weird hobby.