Sketchbook Paint Brushes
Sketchbook Paint Brushes
Free Brushes Every Week
April 4, 2016, 8:51 am
You can extensively tweak brushes and create brush sets that are highly tailored to the way you work, but some people who use SketchBook don't know how easy it is to import and export custom brush sets. Maybe you want to share a brush set you've created with a friend, or maybe you downloaded a cool brush set you found online. (Or maybe your brush sets are so damn good that you'd like to sell them — see the end of this post).
To help encourage our users to get the most out of our app, we're going to start sharing a new brush set every week right here on our blog. Some of these free brushes have been created by us as we've expanded our own personal brush library, but some of them will be from talented professional artists we admire. To kick things off, we've got a free brush set from Calum Alexander Watt, a storyboarder, concept artist, and illustrator who makes amazing character art like this:
How do I install these free brushes?
If you're a SketchBook Pro user and are using the most recent version of SketchBook (version 8), you can simply download the CAW Set and double click this.skbrushes file. That's it. The entire brush set will automatically install. If you're married to an older version of SketchBook, you can install brushes directly inside the app. Check these instruction on our support site if you need help getting any brushes into the app. Once you've installed it, you'll see it in your Brush Library:
Got a brush set to share?
Nothing says, "Let's be drawing buddies" like dropping a favorite set of custom brushes on a friend. You can export a single brush or an entire set by choosing the Export Brush Set option from the Brush Library's marking menu:
Want to sell custom brush sets? We're big fans of Creative Market (full disclosure: they are also part of Autodesk), and we've begun seeing people sell custom brush sets for SketchBook in their marketplace. If you're especially good at creating brushes, set up a shop on Creative Market, set your price, and make some money off of your creativity.
About the artist
Love Calum's work as much as we do? Check out more of his work on his website or watch this excellent tutorial video he made that shows his process using SketchBook on a Cintiq.
The post Free Brushes Every Week appeared first on Sketchbook Blog.
New Free Brush of the Week: Kyle's Custom Wheels
April 11, 2016, 3:11 pm
Each Monday, we're releasing a free brush set in SketchBook. Some of these brushes will be from professional artists whose work we admire, but we also have a few folks here in house who make some pretty great art of their own. So this week, let's share one of those.
Our own Kyle Runciman created a set of custom brushes that help him with something he does nearly every day: drawing cars. One of the more difficult parts of drawing cars is replicating wheel sets again and again. With this brush set, Kyle can lay down the basics of a wheel and make it his own.
Download the Kyle's Custom Wheel Set brush set and install it in SketchBook.
How to install a free brush
It's surprisingly easy. If you're a SketchBook Pro user and are using the most recent version of SketchBook (version 8), double click the .skbrushes file, and the set will automatically install. If you use an older version of SketchBook, it's as easy as using a menu option. Check out Kyle's instructions if you need help.
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Free Brush Set of the Week: Mohammad's Expressive Brushes
April 18, 2016, 9:57 am
Each Monday, we post a free brush set for SketchBook users here on the SketchBook blog. We know from talking to people in person and online that the artists who use our app are always interested in free brush sets. You can, of course, make your own brushes, but sometimes it's nice to have a whole set that's focused on one particular style of drawing that you can just install and start using.
This week, we're focused on traditional painting brush strokes. Our intern Mohammad Qureshi has been working on some great tutorials around topics like Plein Air Painting in SketchBook. We love this focus on traditional forms of drawing and painting. It made us want to get outdoors and paint with some sunshine. This week, Mohammad has a whole new tutorial for us about expressive digital painting, and for that tutorial he created a new brush set that contains 14 brushes (including some great smudge brushes). We thought it was such a good set — especially for painters who focus on traditional work — that we should give it away as a free weekly set.
Ready to start drawing with these? Download Mohammad's Expressive Brush Set and install it in SketchBook.
Installing these free brush sets in SketchBook Pro
If you're a SketchBook Pro user and are using the most recent version of SketchBook (version 8), just double click the .skbrushes file. It will automatically install. If you use an older version of SketchBook, you'll just need to access a menu option. Check out Kyle's Guide to Custom Brushes to see how it's done.
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Free Brush Set of the Week: Skullz
April 25, 2016, 8:27 am
Do you have trouble drawing skulls? We might have something just for you. It's time for another free brush set for SketchBook Pro users (There's a new one every week).
You can make a brush out of just about anything. You can tweak an existing brush until it has a stroke that you love. But brushes don't just have to look like paintbrushes. You can take a piece of something you've drawn or upload an image and make that into something like a stamp. If you needed to add a zillion scales on a fish you certainly wouldn't want to draw all of them by hand, so you make a brush and use that to paint on a pattern.
For this week's brush set, we asked our fearless colleague Kyle Runciman to come up with something neat. And he got a little creepy on us. Skulls. Or, as we decided to call the set, "Skullz." They're pretty useful even if you're not into the grotesque — and very easy to pop into SketchBook Pro and try out. Just download the Skullz Brush Set and double click on the .skbrushes file that ends up on your computer. The latest version of SketchBook Pro will open and install it. (If you use an older version of SketchBook, you'll need to access a menu option.)
These are very nice skulls, and they work great as background elements for all kinds of images. They also work as a starting point for a naturalistic drawing, as Kyle so ably demonstrates in this video on the SketchBook Pro YouTube channel. Nice elephant, Kyle!
Tips for making your own brush icons
You can take things you've drawn and make them into brushes just like we did with these skulls. In fact, give it a try! Once you do, you may want to make custom icons. A few quick tips to consider when making your own icons:
- Make your images or selections square. If you choose an aspect ratio that isn't 1:1, your icon will stretch. Not good.
- Have your image be transparent. While it's not completely necessary to do it this way, it will look a lot better — and more uniform — in your toolset.
- The higher the resolution, the better. Your image needs to be at least 80×80 pixels. Too small will be too blurry.
The post Free Brush Set of the Week: Skullz appeared first on Sketchbook Blog.
Free Brush Set: Shaun Mullen's Environmental Textures
May 2, 2016, 10:13 am
We've been giving away free brushes every week in the past month, and we're going to keep on doing it. Don't even think about trying to stop us. This time around, we wanted to showcase a custom brush set by one of our favorite artists, Shaun Mullen.
Shaun creates a lot of art on his iPad, and he's a master at imagining massive landscapes on planets that look like they're either crumbling into destruction or just emerging into creation. With strong color chops and a real painterly style, Shaun creates luscious environments with lone wanderers who seem like they're just as enraptured by their surroundings as the viewer. It's beautiful work, and we're lucky to have him share a set of custom brushes that he uses to create artwork like this:
A collection of some our favorite epic environments from Shaun's DeviantArt page.
Download the free set
These brushes are geared toward creating the details of these epic environments. Try the tufts of grass. You can scatter them around in different colors and shades. Build rock formations with brushes that change their orientation each time you click. Use other brushes to quickly draw mountains and the misty cloud formations that surround them. Add some painterly effects to your drawing with included smudge brushes. Or customize these brushes to fit your own style. Download Mullen Environmental Textures and install it by double clicking on the .skbrushes file. (Need help? Read this.)
Not a SketchBook Pro member?
If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can always download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days.
More from Shaun
As you can see, Shaun is good at creating hazy, misty skies. He's just as good at creating smoke. Awhile back, we asked him to create a tutorial around his smoke skills. Check out his SketchBook Pro Smoke Tutorial if you need a primer on making dreamy smoke curls.
The post Free Brush Set: Shaun Mullen's Environmental Textures appeared first on Sketchbook Blog.
Andrew Pawley's Dark Vibes: Get the GalaXafreaks Brush Set
May 9, 2016, 2:37 pm
GalaXafreaks: Dark Vibes is a five issue miniseries from the fevered mind of Andrew Pawley. Initially conceived as a Kickstarter campaign, the series has been rebooted for a second round. Dark Vibes is a 32-page, full-color, psychedelic, science-fiction freakout extravaganza that features characters who transcend reality and travel through and across multidimensional spacetime. It follows the adventures ofMeeko the Darkling, an unsuspecting heroine who is thrust into an intergalactic stellar story that's beyond her comprehension.What is Meeko's connection to the origins of her planet? What is her relationship with the cosmic giant Captain Yeah!? What evil plans are Fuzz Muff and the Dark Vibe Underlords hatching?You can grab copies atGalaXafreaks.com and find out how it all unfolds. Or, sign up for Andrew's mailing list and he'll send you two free PDF comics.
Download the GalaXafreaks Brush Set
What really stands out about this project is how each issue has a laminated cover and is printed on high-quality paper stock. It really shows off the extremely colorful artwork and shows a commitment to quality that is all-too-rare. Like many Kickstarter-backed art campaigns, it's clearly a labor of love. We're fortunate to be able to share some of Andrew's creative doodles in this GalaXafreaks Brush Set. You can use it to lay down giant iconic doodles, but you can also create interesting patterns with crazy eyeballs. Or litter the background by brushing on the neat shapes that he's created. If you like comic art with lots of weirdness — or have always wanted to give drawing something like this a shot — download the brushes and start doodling. Pro tip: One of the tools that Andrew uses incredibly well to create this kind of art is the symmetry tool. Try that in conjunction with these brushes when making your own trippindicular creatures.
Are you a SketchBook Pro member?
Being able to share and install detailed custom brush sets is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. Once you've downloaded the set, just double click on the .skbrushes file and it will automatically install. If you're not a Pro member, download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days from directly within the desktop app. No credit card required so you can try things out without any pressure.
More about Andrew Pawley
Andrew Pawley fell into this dimension somewhere on the south coast of England and has since disguised himself as a comics creator. A childhood and adolescent education from 2000 AD and R.Crumb informs his fantastical and anarchic approach toward his creative endeavors. He has previously drawn and written four issues of the original GalaXafreaks series. Issues #1 and #2 of this series are available to download for free as hi-res PDFs when you sign up to the GalaXafreaks mailing list. Check out this video he made using SketchBook Pro for some tips on how he uses these brushes to create mind-bending illustrations:
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Drawing with Chalk: a Free Brush Set
May 23, 2016, 11:03 am
Not too long ago, a SketchBook Pro user shouted out to us on Twitter. She was looking for a particular type of brush that wasn't in the app: chalk. SketchBook has a lot of different brushes that mimic real-world tools, but @BryannaDraws was spot on. We didn't have it. We needed some chalk brushes in there — and pronto.
Our community manager, Renée set to work immediately, adjusting the details of a few different types of brushes to create a brand-new set of Chalks. This pack has a range of different types of chalk: Brand New Chalk, Sideways Chalk, Build Up Chalk, Grainy Chalk (two kinds), Streaky Chalk, Melted Chalk, and Waxy Chalk. While we were making those, our team of brush-making brainstormers decided that a chalks set needed something to be considered truly complete: an eraser. We all fondly remembered pounding chalky erasers together in grade school to produce clouds of white smoke. We also remember smearing the chalk by using the face or the edge of those dirty erasers. Thinking about that reminded us that chalk erasers weren't always smudgy and dirty. Sometimes — rarely — the eraser was brand new or newly cleaned. Those squeaky clean erasers added a totally different type of look. You could lay down tons of sideways chalk on a chalkboard as a big spot of color and then use the clean eraser to add negative space. So, we made sure to include both types of erasers in the set. You'll find both a Clean Eraser and Dirty Eraser to round out it.
Ready to take your own trip down memory lane? Download the Chalks brush set and start getting your proverbial fingers dirty. Once you've downloaded it, double click the .skbrushes file to install it in the desktop app.
Pro tip: an even chalkier look
For some inspiration, check out the cappuccino drawing video Renée made as part of the process of creating this pack. Notice how at the end of the video she adds a textured image as a separate layer. That's a real pro tip right there. It will make your chalk drawing even chalkier. It's a great technique if you want to make a chalk drawing look like it's not drawn on a chalkboard but instead drawn on asphalt. Look for a special tutorial all about adding texture with layers and blending modes tomorrow right here on the blog.
Go Pro
Not a SketchBook Pro member? You'll need a Pro subscription to customize and share brush sets. Take advantage of a free 15-day trial that doesn't require a credit card by signing in directly in the desktop app. If you give it a try, you should definitely dig in and install some of the other free brush sets we've released lately.
The post Drawing with Chalk: a Free Brush Set appeared first on Sketchbook Blog.
Sent from Shanghai: Free Acrylic Brush Set
May 30, 2016, 12:07 pm
This week's free brush set was created by Yang Shen, a member of the Autodesk Shanghai team who hails from the beautiful small town of Suzhou, China. He is known for creating traditional style paintings on a digital platform and made this brush set for those looking to expand their library of traditional brushes in SketchBook Pro. We had a chance to pick Yang Shen's brain about his style of art, his background, and his influences. Read on to learn more and don't forget to download the free Shanghai Acrylic Brush Set. Double click the .skbrushes file to install.
How did you get started with art?
I was probably influenced by my mom from when she taught painting and music at an elementary school. My earliest memory of painting was in grade two when my teacher took senior students to a garage to paint a bike. Because my classmates and I were not able to draw well at that time, the teacher asked us to take off our shoes and draw them in the classroom. That was my first artwork, and my painting life started from that day. From there, I attended a school for the elderly every weekend for six years learning to sketch and color and even to learn about traditional art. Take calligraphy for instance; the understanding of calligraphy impacts me a lot when using and thinking about fonts.
Before joining Autodesk, I used to be a digital artist for games and participated in projects for advertising, toys, commercial illustration, film, and TV. With production experience in different industries, I am now a QA Analyst at Autodesk. I started using SketchBook on iPod Touch and iPhone 3G in 2010. I then drew a lot on iPad 1, enough to do live demos for exhibitions and commercial activities. I got to know the SketchBook team when they held their first local activity in China. After that, I kept working on mobile devices and attended every SketchBook event that I could. I got involved in SketchBook's development by sharing my painting experience and usability testing for new features and officially joined the big family as a result.
"Art imitating life"
People say "art imitates life," and everybody's life is unique. The things people see, hear, read, and feel are all different. This doesn't only apply to artists. Each one of us expresses emotions in a different way. Brushes, lines, and colors are the channels that artists use to express themselves, and we need time to express ourselves. But feelings can slip away in an instant. Therefore, I choose the quickest way of capturing a touching moment — photography. I've taken many pictures to immortalize moments in my life. We hold the hidden feelings connected to our own photographs that may appear as plain images to others. To me, my paintings are only finished when the feelings I've put into it have been reborn in a different way. Only then is art really imitating life.
Acrylics vs. watercolours
In traditional painting, acrylics and watercolour are diametrically opposed when it comes to the process and ways of thinking. Acrylics is stacked layers, starting from the dark zone and then adding highlights. On the other hand, watercolour is to get the sfumato effect from the white paper; transparent and pure. Personally, I enjoy both styles of painting. I believe that when using software it isn't enough to simulate the look of the painting style. The process and way of thinking are important as well. It is efficient and clean making digital paintings compared to the traditional process of using messy materials, but following the same process of creating the art will help traditional artists draw on digital platforms. The feeling of working the old way needs to still be there even when using software to draw or paint.
Who are your main influences?
So many good artists have influenced my growth. I have two great teachers. The first is Ahua. He is a famous conceptual artist involved in a lot of big games and film projects. Another is Zhuzhu, a very well-known commercial illustrator artist. I gained a lot of knowledge and truths about life from them. The points I've learned from them required a certain amount of time to digest and absorb. I still have a long way to go to develop my own painting skills and style.
More from Yang Shen
If you'd like to see more work from Yang Shen, take a look at his DeviantArt page. Want to download the Shanghai Acrylic Brush Set, but you're not a SketchBook Pro member? Try our 15-day trial for free!
The post Sent from Shanghai: Free Acrylic Brush Set appeared first on Sketchbook Blog.
Painting with Coffee: A Free Brush Set
June 6, 2016, 12:17 pm
If you haven't heard already, we've been giving out free brush sets every Monday! This week, we wanted to get messy with coffee… minus the mess. Download the Painting With Coffee brushes and give them a whirl, perhaps while enjoying a nice cup of coffee (the smell really rounds out the experience). Once downloaded, double click the .skbrushes file to install.
The inspiration for this brush set comes from the work of artists like Maria A. Aristidou, who has perfected the use of coffee as a medium for painting. Now you, too, can paint with coffee (without potentially staining your desk). Check out more of Maria's work on her Instagram feed @ma_aris as well as her Facebook Page for some additional inspiration. If you like Star Wars or Game of Thrones, you're in for a treat.
One of the many beautiful pop culture drawings made with coffee as the medium from the Instagram feed of @ma_aris
Tips for painting with coffee
If you want your work to look like a genuine coffee art piece like the beautiful Mother of Dragons above, you may want to keep the following pointers in mind:
- Try using a textured background. Most coffee artists use watercolour paper for their creations so that's a great place to start. You can also experiment with painting on different "surfaces" such as reproductions of a napkin, paper bag, or a nice wood pattern. The best part is when you do this digitally you can easily try different textures on your painting after you've completed it by creating a lot of different textured layers and then settle on what you think works best. Head over to our Adding Photo Texture to Your Artwork with Blending Modes tutorial if you need to brush up on your blending modes.
- White space is your friend! Because you can't use coffee as a highlight in real life, coffee artists utilize white space to bring out the lightest accents in their paintings. Of course, it can be difficult and tedious to plan ahead for this when painting on paper. Luckily, we have the luxury of the eraser tool at our fingertips to go in and fix things up or add more highlights afterwards.
- Be loose. Let the brushes do their work. Try to only modify the size and opacity. Use the "Hairline Espresso" brush to build colours with multiple strokes. If you don't allow for imperfections, it will feel too digital. Choose a variety of browns (both warm and cool) and use the Multiply blending mode to add more intensity. Don't forget to use the splatter and coffee stain tools we've provided you with to complete the look.
A doe-eyed coffee girl made with the SketchBook Coffee Brush Set by our community manager Renée.
Additional cups of inspiration
Maria may be the best coffee painter out there, but she's not the only one. Artist Giulia Bernardelli combines coffee and chocolate sketches with a camera to create unique photos with a fun and lighthearted spirit. Michael Aaron Williams puts his coffee drawings on top of 100-year-old vintage ledger paper. Elena Efremova uses her morning coffee drinking time to draw cats. Yes, cats. If you are ready to try coffee as a medium and need some inspiration, check out Pinterest for some excellent examples of coffee painting subjects and techniques.
Coffee artists often incorporate cups and spills to further the motif — and some even paint on interesting mediums.
Not a SketchBook Pro member?
If you want to take advantage of our weekly complimentary brush sets, try a free 15-day trial for the SketchBook Pro desktop app. You don't even have to provide your credit card information to try it out. We promise.
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Kyle's Guide to Custom Brushes (Plus Kyle's Personal Brush Set)
November 5, 2012, 10:09 am
In this latest installment from Kyle Runciman, he delivers an in-depth walkthrough that shows you how to customize brushes in SketchBook Pro for Mac and Windows.
"The brushes that ship with SketchBook Pro are great. You can do almost anything with them. However, you can create an immense library of Custom Brushes for different purposes. The only standard brushes I regularly use in my workflow are the Erasers, Flood Fill, Solid Paint Brush and the Airbrush. All of the Pencils and Pens I use are tweaked to my style."
This tutorial was created using SketchBook Pro 6 on Windows, but is equally applicable for Mac and the Mac App Store edition. Want to have a guide handy for the future? Download Kyle's Custom Brush PDF Tutorial.
You can also download Kyle's Personal Brush Set the ZIP file (147KB). Simply import it directly into your Brush Library.
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Free Brush Set: Fine Art Pencils
June 13, 2016, 8:39 am
For this week's free brush set we're bringing you a fan favourite from the tablet app. We've pulled it out of that app and are offering it up for use in the desktop app. Anyone familiar with these pencil brushes will likely tell you they are their go-to favourites for sketching. The great thing about the Fine Art pencil brushes is the diverse range of uses you can get out of them. You can use these brushes to make a realistic looking pencil sketch, use them to build a textured base for a painting, or simply create some amazing shading.
These brushes truly simulate the feel of an actual pencil. Use your tablet and pen exactly how you would use a pencil on paper. Use the pen on an angle to get a broader stroke and adjust the pressure you're using to get a lighter or darker shade.
Download the fifteen-piece Fine Art Pencil Set and sketch 'til you drop! Read on if you want some tips on how you can jazz up your pencil sketches and find some inspiration.
Tips for drawing in pencil
If you want to play around with the colours and contrast to give your drawing a little kick, add a colour layer on top of your sketch. Try the different blending modes like Overlay, Multiply, or Colour Burn and see what looks best with your drawing. Try using a background colour that is similar to an actual sketchbook, such as light brown or grey. If you want to make a certain part of a drawing pop, use a single colour accent in areas you want emphasized (e.g., as you would the irises in the eyes of a portrait).
It's okay to be messy when attempting to create a realistic pencil drawing. In fact, it's encouraged. If you're going to be using a smudge tool, lower the opacity so that you can still see bits of the pencil strokes when blending. When erasing pencil strokes in real life, the pencil doesn't completely rub off. Try using the soft eraser instead of the regular one to leave a hint of your mistakes if you want that more realistic look. Also remember that pencils are not 100% black. Either keep the pressure on the lighter side or use a dark grey to achieve the proper colours.
For inspiration, take a look at some pencil art favourites on DeviantArt, as well as the many amazing creations and tutorials featured on Pinterest.
How to Install and Use Desktop Brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you're using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
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Abstract Texture Brush Set by Keith Cowan
June 20, 2016, 4:40 am
Another week, another brush set. This week's free brush set was made by Keith Cowan, a Texas native who uses SketchBook Pro to create astonishingly detailed abstract and surreal pieces. The sixteen-piece brush set includes a wide range of textured brushes adaptable to any style of painting. Download Keith's Abstract Brushes to your desktop and double click the .skbrushes file to install. If you're as impressed with Keith's art as we are, read on to learn more about his background and work process.
An astonishingly complex work in progress by Keith Cowan shows just how much work goes into his drawings.
As you'll notice in some of the art we're sharing here, Keith focuses a lot on lines and shading. But if you look really closely, you'll see that the shading is often done with textured brushes. Sometimes the shading follows the light source, but sometimes it does its own thing, which helps give his work that surreal look. It's a look that says something's not quite normal here. His brush set is largely composed of these textured brushes. Try this technique out and see if it works in your own process.
About Keith Cowan
A firm believer in lack of planning, Cowan's method of creating art consists of simply drawing or painting whatever pops into his head and letting it develop as he goes forward. He has a tendency to stay within the realm of the surreal which, when combined with the element of spontaneity, results in highly unique and striking art. He makes a lot of extremely detailed black and white pieces which can take over a hundred hours to complete. But he's also a fan of using colour, which he says he intends to explore more for the remainder of this year.
When it comes to the tools of the trade, Cowan uses a variety of platforms: the always flexible iPad Pro, a desktop computer accompanied by a Wacom Cintiq 27 QHD Touch, and the traditional go-to Koh-I-Noor technical pen. As an avid user of the SketchBook Pro app, these days he creates more digital art than traditional. A quick Google search will show you that Cowan is very active in the online art community. He is admin of the Facebook group The Mobile Artists Collective and is involved in a number of other online forums and websites. In his spare time, he also does beta testing for SketchBook (both on desktop and iOS). Take a look at his Facebook Page and Deviant Art page if you'd like to see more of his work.
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you're using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
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Monday's Free Set: Watercolor Brushes
May 16, 2016, 8:41 am
Another week, another free brush set. Each week we let our SketchBook Pro members know how much we love them by curating a special set of brushes just for them. Last week we handed out a crazy freaky GalaXafreaks set courtesy of Andrew Pawley. (Thank you!) This week we thought we'd go a little more traditional. This time around we've got a really excellent Watercolor Brush Set that will help you both lay down transparent color and blend it effectively to create watercolor paintings. If you've done watercolor before, you'll appreciate that this brush set has a few unique blending brushes. In addition to Fine Tip, Broad Stroke, Medium Tip Rough, Fine Tip Light, Round Tip, Fan Tip Broad, and Square Tip brushes, it has three great blending brushes: Fine Tip Blender, Broad Stroke Blender, and Bristle Blender. All told, that's 10 great watercolor brushes to get you going. And, of course, you can customize these even further. Want to try something radical with your brushes? Just duplicate them and go crazy with things like blending modes. If you end up not liking your experiments, you can always delete them. Whatever you do, don't settle for just the basics — make all the tools in the app work for you.
Ready to get started? Download the Watercolor Brush Set and double click the .skbrushes file to install it.
Are you Pro?
SketchBook Pro members have a lot of extra options, including deep customization and sharing of things like brush sets. If you're not a Pro member, you may be happy to know there is a free 15-day trial that doesn't require a credit card. You can give this and all the other free brush sets a try and see if it helps you make better art.
You might also like…
If you like this brush set, you might also want to grab Mohammed's Expressive Brush Set. It's not specifically for watercolors, but it was designed to be used for plein-air (outdoor) painting. If you are a mixed media type of person who likes to lay down splashes of watercolor and then ink on top of it, you'll probably like Mohammed's brushes. They are perhaps the most downloaded free brush set we've offered… so far. Check back on our blog every Monday for a new brush set. Collect them all!
The post Monday's Free Set: Watercolor Brushes appeared first on SketchBook Blog.
Renée's Painting Power Tools: Free Brush Set
June 27, 2016, 6:36 am
This week's free brush set comes from the coveted brush library of our very own resident artist Renée. Renée has been busy creating the majority of the free brush sets you've likely downloaded in the past, as well as a good chunk of the art you see featured on this blog. If you're not already aware, she broadcasts live painting sessions every Wednesday and Friday on Twitch. Check the schedule on the SketchBook Pro Twitch channel for exact times and to watch past broadcasts.
The 10-piece brush set we're offering this week includes three amazing blending brushes to perfectly merge your colors. Download Renée's Painting Power Tools and be sure to follow the tutorial below to get the best possible use out of them. They have great characteristics and some cracking good names like Bleeding Watercolor, Wet Frayed Bristles, Salty Watercolor, Crackle Blender, and Spiky Blender — among others.
Using blending brushes
The first step, of course, is to lay down some flat colors (as shown below). Then, choose one of the "blending tools" in the brush set. Try the three "blender" brushes with different textures. Make sure the blending tool is large and set to a very low opacity of around 1-10%.
Before we can start blending, we need to "color pick" along the edge of where the two colors meet (somewhere in the middle). Use a shortcut (ALT on Mac, CTRL on Windows) when picking colors to make your life a little easier.
Run the brush lightly along the edge of where the two colors meet. See how the blending brush creates a new third color? Now you can re-pick a color from one side and continue to blend your solid colors.
Rinse and repeat! Keep color picking each new color and continue to use the blending brushes at a low opacity to blend until you can't see any harsh edges.
For your convenience, we've provided you with the process in motion below. Feel free to play around with different colors and the different brushes in the set. You'll find that you can get quite a different result when using a variation of textures and opacities.
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you're using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
The post Renée's Painting Power Tools: Free Brush Set appeared first on SketchBook Blog.
Free Brush Set: Dashes & Lines
July 4, 2016, 8:16 am
For this week's free brush set, we thought we'd bring you something a little bit different. I'm sure most of us sketch lines and dashes manually within our works of art and haven't thought twice about trying a different or easier method. But today's the day that all changes! Download our Dashes and Lines Brush Set now, and if you're still confused as to how you can benefit from these brushes, keep reading.
These brushes can be of great use when creating an interesting look for a background or banner (such as the one used at the top of this post). You can easily create textures and patterns using the two "Diagonals" brushes in the set (Diagonals and Diagonals Thick), as well as add texture with the hatching-based line forms like Waveform Hash and Fat Hatching. These brushes are really handy when creating shading. You can also use these brushes to emulate textures such as cloth or burlap, as you can see in this drawing of a treasure map:
Of course, you don't have to use these brushes to make any sort of complex painting. These tools are great to achieve simple tasks and give you a highly polished and professional finished product. As the GIF below shows, you can use it to make a path on a map. You can also create simple cutting marks on a project. It's a handy tool to have at your reach if the need ever comes up and it can save a lot of time from having to do it manually.
If you're someone who thrives in the comfort of low-opacity, feathered-brush painting, let this be the week you get out of that comfort zone. The dashes and lines brush set will help you create art with solid and blunt lines. After you've completed your sketch, you can stylize it by playing around with the colors. You can lock the layer on which you made your sketch and paint over all of the line work with whatever colors you want. Make a gradient like the example shown in the banner. Overlay a texture or pattern. Go nuts! This method looks amazing with the absence of feathered strokes and you'll get a bold and striking end result. Best part is, the varying colors can hide any problem areas or mistakes you may have made.
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you're using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
The post Free Brush Set: Dashes & Lines appeared first on SketchBook Blog.
Messy Brushes: Free Brush Set of the Week
July 11, 2016, 7:17 am
Welcome back! If you follow this blog you know that every Monday we have a new free brush set. We've got quite a treat for you this week. A brush set everyone should have in their library, our Messy Brushes are essential tools to get that perfect messily painted look — messy on purpose, of course. If this is a style you've admired from afar but haven't had the guts to try, today's the day! If you're a beginner and want to learn a bit about messy techniques, keep reading. If you're already familiar with this style, then you can get some great inspiration below.
Painting with Messy Brushes
Being able to paint with these messy brushes and with a messy technique is a great skill to have. The more you do it, the better you'll get, and the faster you'll begin to turn your ideas into physical manifestations. This style of painting is great if you want to quickly get some inspiration down without spending hours and hours trying to perfect every aspect of your drawings. Plus, it looks really, really cool.
With anything in life, practice makes perfect (or close enough). Go with your gut feeling and keep building up textures and colors wherever you think appropriate. If you're new to this style, try painting an object from real life or even recreate work from others you admire. It may be frustrating at first to try to create something from your imagination so this is a good place to start. Your technique will eventually improve and you'll be able to create amazing visuals such as the one shown below. What's great about messy painting is you don't have to think about including every single detail, you can get your message across using only a few strokes. Who needs to paint every single leaf on a tree when you can quickly paint the entire tree with the illusion of there being thousands of leaves?
Princess Mononoke digital painting by Muju
Making a great mess with brush strokes
Notice the brush strokes if we zoom in to the painting below. Take a look at the hand holding onto the fur. It doesn't quite look like a hand close up, does it? But when you zoom out to view the image as a whole (above), it makes perfect sense. Use neater detail where necessary, but sparingly. The cleanest part of the painting is the face, and it stands out beautifully against the more chaotic surroundings. Be loose with your strokes. Don't try to make everything perfect. You want there to be raw emotion and a sense of movement within your paintings, something that is uniquely achievable with messy brushes and strokes. When it comes to blending, don't make anything smooth. Use the strokes to create color gradients, but don't go in afterward to fix things with a blending brush. For this type of painting you want rough textures. For the backdrop, the Messy Airbrush and Messy Watercolor brushes in the set are perfect for creating rough textures.
If seeing this painting rekindled your love affair with Princess Mononoke, take a look at some of Muju's other work on his DeviantArt page. Also be sure to check out his gorgeous selection of available prints for purchase.
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you're using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
The post Messy Brushes: Free Brush Set of the Week appeared first on SketchBook Blog.
Sumi-e Brush Set: Free Brush Mondays
July 18, 2016, 8:14 am
This week's free brush set was inspired by sumi-e (also known as ink-wash painting), a style of East Asian art. Sumi-e first appeared in China as far back as the seventh century during the Tang Dynasty, but it also has strong roots in countries such as Japan and Korea. This nine-piece brush set contains all you need to recreate this beautiful style of art (or make some killer calligraphy). There are also a number of brushes in this set that will come in handy for any type of painting you'll be doing. Download the Sumi-e Brush Set and keep reading to get some tips as well as knowledge about the history of this amazing style of art.
About Sumi-e
There are two very important points to remember about sumi-e. The first is that the paintings are made to capture the feeling or "spirit" of the subject as opposed to making a perfect photographic copy. The second is to do more with less. Sumi-e artists studied for many years only practicing making brush strokes. In this style of art, every stroke must present the maximum amount of information possible, omitting all unnecessary details. One brush stroke could be used to create the entire head and body of a bird by adjusting pressure and twisting the brush in the perfect manner. This left absolutely no room for mistakes for traditional sumi-e artists. It was considered a highly prestigious form of art practised only by the highly educated and skillful members of society. Today we have the luxury of using programs such as SketchBook to quickly erase any mistakes or make adjustments, so you won't be needing years of training to get the hang of it.
The Four Gentlemen
"The Four Gentlemen" refers to the four most painted subjects that sumi-e students are required to practice making during their years of training: the Orchid (Spring), Bamboo (Summer), Plum Blossom (Winter), and Chrysanthemum (Autumn). These four subjects represent the four seasons and include all of the basic strokes these artists must learn. While these four paintings are the first to be taught as a foundation for learning brush strokes, they are usually the last to be mastered.
Orchid: represents spring. It is said to be most associated with feminine qualities and is the embodiment of love and beauty. Orchid paintings are also meant to show happiness and celebration for the coming of spring.
Bamboo: represents summer. The bamboo paintings also depict masculine qualities in East Asian society such as integrity and strength and are meant to show perfect balance. This is the most painted subject in East Asia.
Plum Tree: represents winter. There is a beautiful contrast between the solid dark branches and the soft, delicate flowers. The plum/cherry blossom is meant to evoke feelings of purity and hope as it's able to blossom during the cold winter months.
Chrysanthemum: represents autumn. There is a sense of strength within the chrysanthemum paintings as it is a plant that remains sturdy even with the changing of the seasons.
Tips for Sumi-e Painting
As mentioned above, less is more. Let the texture of the brushes do the work; don't fight the natural feel and messiness of the brushes. Use the synthetic brushes in this set (Mixed Hair Brush, Taper Brush) to push the ink around as much as possible — don't DRAW as much as SMEAR into place. If you really want to go in the route of traditional sumi-e, use the fewest number of strokes possible to get your message across. Remember that the image represents a feeling and doesn't have to be realistically detailed.
When it comes to color, try sticking to black with maybe one accent color (blue or pink can be seen in a lot of traditional pieces). Don't use color unless it serves a very necessary purpose. Use light and dark tones to convey contrast and create depth within the image.
Use a textured background. Sumi-e artists painted primarily on rice paper so find a rice paper texture to place as your background layer. You can also put the texture layer on top of your painting and play around with the blending modes to see what looks the most aesthetically pleasing.
If you're in need of some inspiration, there are some amazing examples on Pinterest that you can check out. If you're someone who is perhaps inspired by video games, Ōkami was completely modelled after the style of sumi-e. Wherever you get your inspiration from, remember to let your emotions flow through the image to make it your own. Happy painting!
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you're using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
The post Sumi-e Brush Set: Free Brush Mondays appeared first on SketchBook Blog.
Free Brush Set of the Week: Splatz!
July 25, 2016, 8:46 am
Welcome back! We know Mondays can be rough, which is why we're bringing you another beautiful free brush set. This week you'll be getting Splatz! It's a handy set of brushes consisting of splatters and speckled textures to perfect your messy creations. We actually created these brushes using real ink splatters and SketchBook's Scan Sketch feature. As an added bonus, we have a tutorial for using SketchBook's Scan Sketch to create your own custom brushes. Download the Splatz Brush Set now and keep reading to take advantage of this amazing feature.
Custom Splatz tutorial using Scan Sketch
Before we begin, keep in mind that this tutorial doesn't exclusively apply to creating splatter brushes. You can use Scan Sketch to create custom brushes of any kind from physical art that you believe could potentially be a useful brush. Materials we're going to use:
- Copic ink
- Clear acrylic plastic
- Watercolor paper
- Scan Sketch
This tutorial is for SketchBook Pro power users. You'll need both a mobile version (to capture images with your smartphone) and a desktop version of SketchBook (to create custom brushes). Scan Sketch is available on all versions of the mobile SketchBook app. If you're not sure what Scan Sketch even is, here's a short video to show you how handy it can be — especially when it comes to line art.
We're going to start off by making ink splats on white paper. Using the Copic ink, drip the ink on different materials for different splats. As an example, the ink soaks into watercolor paper, but not on acrylic. The type of medium can make the overall shape change for the splat. Try holding the ink at different heights to get different effects, and try different motions of your hand as the ink falls.
Now it's time to scan. This is where the white background comes in handy. Open your gallery in mobile sketchbook and press the + to select Scan Sketch.
Simply hover over the splats and press the big round button to capture.
As you can see, Scan Sketch knocks out the white background, so the splat is transparent.
Export the PSD to your favorite cloud solution (you can use anything you like – iCloud, Dropbox, Box). Then open the file on desktop and create the brushes. If you already know how to create your own custom brushes on SketchBook Pro, feel free to stop reading at this point. If not, continue on.
Custom brush shape tutorial
For your convenience, we have recently uploaded a Custom Brush Shape Tutorial for SketchBook Pro to our YouTube channel. The tutorial below is a breakdown of that same video so you can learn from whichever medium you're comfortable with.
Since there are drips all over, we might want to isolate just one for our brush with a little bit of spatter. Select a drip you like using the lasso tool. Once you have made your selection, hit CTRL+C to copy it, and CTRL+V (CMD on Mac) to paste it on a new layer. You can resize the drip immediately if you'd like while we are in the quick transform tool. If you like the drip the way it is, hit the "x" button to exit transform mode. In the layer panel, use the eye icon to hide the other splats so you can focus just on the one drip you want for your brush.
In the Brush Library window, select 'make a new brush' from the menu. Feel free to choose any type you'd like.
Double click on the new brush you just made, and in the advanced tab scroll to the 'Texture' section.
Press the 'Capture' button to be in capture mode. Hover over your drip, with a brush big enough to circle the whole thing, and click to capture it.
Once you've captured your drip, or whatever else you might have scanned, have fun editing the parameters of the brush to make it your own!
Of course, you can use this method to create an infinite number of unique brushes and stamps for your artwork. The sky is the limit, enjoy!
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you're using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
The post Free Brush Set of the Week: Splatz! appeared first on SketchBook Blog.
Rough Primitives: Free Brush Set
August 1, 2016, 7:10 am
Anyone who's ever had to take an art class has been there: drawing and shading basic shapes such as the classic sphere, cone, and cube. Maybe not everyone's most exciting choice of subject to sketch, but did you know that basic shapes make for some amazing shading brushes? This week we're bringing you a set of very useful tools that take things back to the fundamentals of art. The set includes a number of brushes that can help you create some shading and textures useful for any kind of painting. There are also several stamp brushes ideal for anything unique and decorative. Download the Rough Primitives Brush Set and take a look for yourself! Check out the tips and tricks below to help you along the way.
Shading with primitive shapes
We thought we'd take this opportunity to practice shading basic shapes and perhaps improve your shading techniques. We sometimes forget that everyday objects, and even the human body, is made up of basic shapes. By practicing how to draw and shade "primitive" shapes (cones, cubes, spheres, etc.) you can learn to shade pretty much everything correctly. If you like, you can download the Primitive Shapes.tif file you see below to open up in SketchBook and practice directly on the cone, sphere, and cube with your new brush set.
When shading actual objects, it's sometimes harder to determine exactly how to shade to create a sense of depth. You have to use your judgment to figure out if something has a hard edge (like the cube) or a softer edge (like the sphere or cone). For example, an article of clothing could have a wrinkle that appears to have a hard edge with sharp contrast to make the fold pop out. But it could also have a subtle shade that's a soft gradient without a distinct cut off. And if you really want a photorealistic look, keep in mind elements such as bounce light (light that's reflected off of another surface) and how certain objects such as food absorb light in different ways (like the subtle glow of a raspberry). Artistic choices like these take time to master; never be afraid to reference real life examples or do a quick search on the internet to figure out what route you should take.
Pay attention to the light source we've provided for you. If you want more of a challenge for this exercise, change the position of the light source or even use some complex shapes or objects to shade from different angles. Like everything in the world of art, keep practicing and eventually it will be second nature to quickly figure out exactly where to shade and where to add light.
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you're using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
The post Rough Primitives: Free Brush Set appeared first on SketchBook Blog.
Oil Paints: Free Brush Set
August 8, 2016, 8:11 am
It's Monday again and you know what that means! That's right, more free brush sets. This week you're getting the amazing eight-piece Oil Paints Brush Set, a great addition to your growing library of brushes for SketchBook Pro. Now you can create beautiful oil paintings without having to wait for the paint to dry. Of course, you don't have to be doing traditional style painting to get use out of these brushes. They're perfect for building textures and especially blending for any type of painting. If you want to go down the route of old-school oil painting, keep reading for some useful tips. As always, click the banner or link above to download the .skbrushes file to your desktop and double-click to install.
Oil painting isn't about blending
With oil painting, it's common to go with thick layers of paint as opposed to thin. So don't be afraid to make bold strokes that stand out. It can also be helpful to lay down all of your base colors to start and add short strokes for detail. Many oil painters used a pallet knife to build up shadows of make objects more three-dimensional, so it's okay to have areas where there are bold lines or sharp edges. Blending isn't a bad thing, but the techniques used in oil painting will create contrast in brush strokes. You don't actually want your colors to be smoothed together too much.
Stay loose
This is yet another style of painting where you need to be loose with your brush strokes. Try to blend as little as possible. You want to be able to see the texture of the brushes. Instead of creating gradients, keep adjusting tones with the brush puck to create shading and light (you can click and drag up and down on the paint puck to adjust the tone of whatever color you're currently using). If you really want a traditional look, put in a canvas texture on the top layer and play around with the blending modes until you find one that looks authentic.
As always, these are just guidelines to help you along the way. You'll figure out what methods and techniques work best for you and the visual aesthetic you're going for by practicing and regularly creating art. If you want some more examples and inspiration, check out Pinterest for some amazing digital oil paintings and tutorials. Enjoy the brushes and feel free to share your creations with us on Twitter or on Facebook. through our social media links below!
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you're using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven't tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
The post Oil Paints: Free Brush Set appeared first on SketchBook Blog.
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