Do Art Brushes REALLY Matter?
I’m sure we’ve all asked this question before somewhere along the way:
Do the art materials you use REALLY matter?
In this post, I took a deep dive into finding out whether or not your art supplies matter——if it actually makes a difference in the growth of your art.
Specifically, I’m talking about digital art brushes. There is a lot of controversy over whether or not it makes that much of a difference, so I’m going to try to clear a few things up for you.
And now, let’s talk about brushes.
Brushes
In some ways, brushes may help you a lot, but in others it might not matter very much.
Some artists create an entire illustration using only one brush. But at times, you may need to use special brushes for things.
So, when do brushes matter?
Well, let’s say you’re in the middle of drawing an illustration that involves a rough cloth. You might want to use a textured brush to make this easier. Another way that a brush might come in handy is if you need a quick way to draw grass——then you might use a grass brush for this.
But…
Does it make that much of a difference?
To figure this out, we can take a look at an illustration where a textured brush was used and then the same one where a textured brush was not used.
Image credits: Samdoesarts Default vs Custom Brushes
Above we have the illustration made without fancy brushes. It’s still a decent artwork, and the entire thing was made using two brushes: a sketching brush and a round paint brush.
Image credits: Samdoesarts Default vs Custom Brushes
Now we have the illustration made with the help of specialized brushes. It’s largely the same, just with a few extra textures and effects.
So to conclude, I think it’s safe to say that some brushes can be good for making things slightly easier and faster (if used right). However, a brush will not instantly make you good at art. Your art is unique only to you, and an expensive brush won’t change that; nor will it cause you to improve at a considerably faster rate.
So, in short, feel free to use brushes for easy ways to add texture and other decorations, but they do not matter very much.
Tips to Use Brushes the RIGHT Way
Don’t overuse textured or other fancy brushes; use them sparsely and in spaced-out areas in your artwork.
Know when and when not to use these kinds of brushes. Over time you’ll probably automatically develop the ability to do that, but for now, you might consider trying to create the effect you want without fancy brushes and then make it again (on a new layer) with the fancy brushes. Then, just keep the version you like the most!
Before you consider getting brushes that cost money, make sure that the brushes are the ones you’re looking for and that you can use them in the drawing software you use.
You don’t always need to spend money to get these brushes. Some software comes with lots of pre-made brushes for all kinds of uses, such as Procreate, and if the software does not already come with brushes you can find many for free on online websites.
Updates
I’m accepting people’s original characters again! To submit your character to me, you can either make a community post on YouTube with the tag @chongart, you can send the character to my email, drawingwithchong@gmail.com, or you can choose to fill out the form using this link: Let me Draw your OC!
The video on me drawing your original charaters will be uploaded on my YouTube channel next Sunday.