Q and A: Basic Photoshop Brushes

You could view this blog entry on my site as well: thousandskies.com/blog/2012/11…

Once in a while people will ask me what kind of brush that I used in photoshop. I kept meaning to make this kind of post so I could explain it better. So if you guys have anymore question about photoshop I will be glad to answer it and make another Q&A post.

1. WHAT TYPE OF BRUSH DO YOU USE, IS IT BASIC BRUSH OR A CHALK TYPE BRUSH?
+ Ink Brush: static.squarespace.com/static/… The first brush I used is Hard Round brush and I started with 9 Pixels in size. Make sure under the Window> Brushes> Shape Dynamics> Size Jitter's Control is under Pen Pressure. This brush is useful for inking and blocking basic colors.

+ Sketching/Blending Brush: static.squarespace.com/static/…
The 2nd brush is the same with the 1st brush but I added more pressure under the "Other Dynamics." So make sure that the Opacity Jitter and the Flow Jitter are under Pen Pressure. I used this brush for sketching and occasional blending (ex: painting clouds)

+ Chalk Brush: static.squarespace.com/static/…
The 3rd brush is the Chalk brush. This is the main brush that I used for most of my paintings, Just make sure to have the Other Dynamics > Opacity Jitter and the Flow Jitter under Pen Pressure to get that smooth blending.

After creating each brush, I will save it by going to Window> Brush Presets> create new brush. I usually deleted all the default brushes that are on that brush preset and just kept all the ones I created.  This is my current brush presets that I used on photoshop: thousandskies.com/s/ethe_slate… , feel free to download and load them to your brush preset window, there's a small menu on that window that lets you "Load Brushes..."

2. NORMALLY FOR COLOURING, FOR EXAMPLE COLOURING THE FUR OF AN ANIMAL OR COLOURING LEAVES, WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF COLOUR DO YOU USE?
It's really depending on what kind of lighting that I want to achieve in the painting, but as the rule of thumbs I will always go for 3 shades of colors: light, mid tones, shadow. Below is the step by step basic painting that I always do. Not really a tutorial but you could see how I worked. static.squarespace.com/static/…

3. WHAT KIND OF GRAPHICS TABLET DID YOU USE?
I'm currently using Wacom Intuos 3. But when I first started digital painting, I used graphire tablet although I don't think wacom makes graphire anymore (?) bamboo tablet is replacing graphire. I think as a beginner graphire or bamboo tablet will be a good introduction to digital painting and they are more affordable too.


Elda The a.k.a ethe
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