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Getting The Most out of Your Photoshop Brushes – Exploring The Low Pressure Range

http://grutbrushes.wistia.com/medias/lpubpnx945?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=1020

Sometimes people ask me which brush I used to do the shading in this painting and when I tell them it’s the ‘Ocean Liner‘ brush they usually don’t believe me and I really don’t blame them because this is the stroke most people get when they use the ocean liner brush:

Brush stroke with average pressure applied
Photoshop Brush stroke with average pressure applied

The fact is that most Photoshop brushes have a wide range of looks that you can get simply by varying the pressure of your stylus and sometimes you can find some of the most interesting effects at the very low end of the pressure scale.

By charging the brush size slightly from 20 to 45 pixels and stroking ever so lightly, and lifting my stylus between strokes (this part is important!) I can begin to build up this nice texture.

[baslider name=”lowstyluspressure”]

Now I probably wouldn’t set out to create this with this brush but the point is to not accept your brushes at face value. Experiment and investigate how they behave at the very lowest stylus pressure ranges and you may discover that they, like you, have hidden talents.

 

 

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Free Photoshop Brush of the Week #49 “Re Cc” Pencil

Sketching in Photoshop with the free Photoshop brush of the week #49 a hard carbon pencil

This week’s free GrutBrush is the “Re Cc” pencil. It’s a hard Photoshop pencil with an intermittent line reminiscent of the marks you get when scratching with a hard point through carbon paper (thus the CC in the name) You can get it all this week on the free Photoshop brush page or in the brush shop.

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Free Photoshop Brush of the Week #48 ‘Rag Blather’

Painted in Photoshop with the 'Rag Blather' Natural Media brush
Painted in Photoshop with the ‘Rag Blather’ Natural Media brush

This was sketched in Photoshop with this week’s brush of the week ‘Rag Blather‘ which is available for free all week in the brush shop or on the free brush of the week page.

 

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Sketchercising with a Still Life

Still Life drawn in Photoshop with the "Rich Roast" Photoshop brush

Because I usually draw from my head, when I do try to draw from life I have a bad habit of drawing what I think should be there rather than what actually is. Here I’m doing a sketch trying to take the good advice of ‘drawing what I see’ not what I think I see. I think I am about a third of the way there but it’s hard to resist drawing it as I imagine it, which usually has little bearing on reality. This was drawn in Photoshop with this week’s free charcoal brush which is still up here until feb 14th grutbrushes.com/freebrush

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Free Photoshop Brush of the Week #47 – Rich Roast Photoshop Charcoal Brush

Photoshop charcoal drawing done with the Rich Roast Photoshop charcoal brush

This week’s free brush is “Rich Roast” a Photoshop Charcoal brush with a wide and fairly evenly ramping tonal range from light to almost fully opaque. Get it for free all week on the free brush of the week page or in the brush shop until Monday when as always, there will be a new brush.  grutbrushes.com/freebrush

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Friday Night Paint Sketching

Painted with the Lift Slipper Natural Media Photoshop Brush
Painting with the ‘Lift Slipper’ Natural Media Photoshop Brush

Working on a new brush. Originally it was more of a charcoal but I like the crumpled newspaper in paint look that it gives when grossly enlarged. This also gives a slight hint of some of the cracked oil brushes I’ve been experimenting with.

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Impasto Painting in Photoshop – Quick Tips 01

Here are a few quick tips to get you going with the Photoshop Impasto brushes

I will be doing a series of tutorials on how to use the GrutBrushes Photoshop Impasto brushes but this short video above shows a few brief tips.

To summarise:
– Vary your stylus pressure and use short strokes for a more organic look
– Use a flatter Photoshop brush to block in large areas
– Press softly on your stylus to blend or soften texture
– Push harder when you want more texture
– Use alt/option to pick colours from your painting

Brush Strokes and animated previews

Photoshop Impasto painting with GrutBrushes
Photoshop Impasto painting with GrutBrushes
Impasto Brushes from Impastos 01

(Mouseover or tap the icons below to watch the Photoshop brushes drawing ‘live’!)

'Gravel Plough' Photoshop Impasto brush
‘Gravel Plough’ Photoshop Impasto brush
'Granite Sack' Photoshop Impasto brush

‘Granite Sack’ Photoshop Impasto brush
'Horse Main' Photoshop Impasto paint

‘Horse Main’ Photoshop Impasto brush
'Imp Giganto' Photoshop Impasto paint

‘Imp Giganto’ Photoshop Impasto brush
'Gypsum Slate' Photoshop Impasto brush

‘Gypsum Slate’ Photoshop Impasto brush
'Venal Weasel' Photoshop Impasto oil paint

‘Venal Weasel’ Photoshop Impasto oil brush
'Venal Weasel' Photoshop Impasto oil paint

‘Venal Weasel’ Photoshop Impasto oil brush
'Cliff Quarry' Photoshop Impasto oil paint

‘Cliff Quarry’ Photoshop Impasto oil brush
'Tenor Wake' Photoshop Impasto oil paint

”Tenor Wake’ Photoshop Impasto oil brush
'Jee Beach' Photoshop Impasto oil paint

‘Jee Beach’ Photoshop Impasto oil brush
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Free Photoshop Brush of the Week #45

Free Brush of the Week 45 - Photoshop Oil Impasto Brush

This week’s free Photoshop brush of the week (#45) is ‘Stump Trough‘ an oil impasto brush. This is a bonus brush from Impastos 01 the new set of 10 Photoshop impasto oil brushes. But try this one first to see if you want the rest which are all available to Art Brushes Complete members to download right now (from the brush shop, the portal page, or from your account page) It’s available to download for free through Sunday.

This is all native Photoshop by the way, all the oil paint texture comes from the brush itself, there are no layer effects or post processing of any kind.

Here’s a Photoshop painting that uses about 8 of the impasto brushes (this also has no layer effects or filters)

Photoshop oil impasto painting
Photoshop oil impasto painting

 

These are actual brush strokes of the 10 brushes in Impastos 01:

Photoshop Impasto painting with GrutBrushes
Photoshop Impasto painting with GrutBrushes

 

 

Want more? Impastos 01 Photoshop Brush Set

Photoshop Impasto oil Paint
Photoshop Impasto oil Paint

10 Photoshop Impasto oil brushes for digital artists.  Realistic pressure responsive Photoshop oil paint brushes that simulate the look of traditional oils without the use of layer effects or any post processing.

Painting with the Photoshop Oil Impasto brushes
Painting with the Oil Impasto Photoshop brushes
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Photoshop Impasto Brushes 01 Set selection complete

Photoshop oil Impasto Brushes collection set

Photoshop Impastos 01 is almost here. I chose the final brush tonight (Lalo Salsa) so that makes 10 brushes selected for the first oil Impastos collection, available this weekend. It’s been a long time coming so thanks for your patience but I wanted to wait until there was a nice selection of brushes that represented a good balance of weights, blends and textures. I think this first set will cover most digital oil painters’ needs from blended backgrounds to the deep, sharp troughs of a loaded camel hair brush. Many of these have been available in the brush shop as singles for a while already and those of you who are Members will already have many of these as well as a few other Impastos that are extra additions not even covered by this collection.  Just another benefit of being a member: first access to new brushes before there’s even a notion of them being a part of a set.

This will be the first set of its kind anywhere that I am aware of.  Keep in mind that these impasto brushes have depth and texture built into them, there are no layer effects or any post processing applied to the brush strokes you see here. I’ve even restrained myself from applying any canvas layer overlays in order to show you the pure unadultarated brush strokes. If you haven’t tried any of my Photoshop impasto brushes yet you will get a chance to on Monday as next week’s free Photoshop brush of the week will be an oil impasto, and it will likely be a brand new one not even seen here. There’s one I’m working on that’s along the same lines as Imp Giganto that I’m keen to share next week.

Maybe this one:

little-sailboat-photoshop-oil-impasto-painting-with-the-deep-trough-GrutBrush

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