Nicolai Grut

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Nicolai — Leave a comment

Inky Leaks Tests – Photoshop Splatter brushes coming along

I’m still working hard testing the splatter, spray and inky messes that will be included in the Inky Leaks Photoshop splatter and spray brushes and tools collection. Here’s one of the test blotters from the lab. If you look closely you can see the smears from a couple of mixer brushes in there as well as a finger print smudge tool. The collection is coming along well and I still expect to release it on August 30th but you can still pre-order it until it is released at considerable discount (The price climbs up a bit every week)

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Nicolai — Leave a comment

Free Photoshop Brush of the Week #74

Painted with the Dust Ruffian Photoshop Gouache brush

Photoshop Gouache Brush strokes painted with the 'Dust Ruffian' brush — Photoshop Gouache Brush strokes painted with the ‘Dust Ruffian’ brush

I really love painting with this week’s free GrutBrush. It’s sloppy, has a ton of personality, wild edges but very controllable opacity and is chock full of texture (even though the brush itself has no texture bitmap – it’s all in the brush tip) Get it for free all week on the free Photoshop brush of the week page

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Nicolai — 2 Comments

Free Photoshop Brush of the Week #71 – “Flue Blow”

Drawn with the free Photoshop brush of the week "Flue Blow" — Drawn with the free Photoshop brush of the week for July 25th “Flue Blow”

This week’s free Photoshop brush is a big broad brush that covers your image in a fast flowing cloud of debris. Like a broken sack of coal this brush is capable of a light dusting, but with a little more stylus pressure it will release a thick billowing dust cover. Get it for free all week on the free Photoshop brush of the week page

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Nicolai — Leave a comment

Free Photoshop Brush of the Week #70

Painting in Photoshop with the Pensive Linny ink Brush

Closeup of brush strokes painted with this week’s free Photoshop brush, the ‘Pensive Linny’ ink brush, a highly responsive and controllable ink brush with a well defined paper edge bleed texture. This one is somewhat different from most of the ink brushes in that the bleeding ink into paper effect on the edges of the brush stroke into the paper is inherent in the brush itself.

Posted on July 11, 2016January 23, 2019 by Nicolai — Leave a comment

Free Photoshop Brush of the Week #69

Drawn with the Humble Bee Photoshop crayon brush — Drawn with the Humble Bee Photoshop brush

Drawn with this week’s free GrutBrush, the “Humble Bee” natural media brush. It’s a thick saw-tooth edged opaque brush with a free flowing thick wet ink appearance, with a very slight width variation but when used with a lighter touch as I’ve done here it can have a bit of a crayonlike appearance. The background texture was created by scaling the brush to an absurdly large size. You can get the brush as always on the free brush of the week page

Posted on July 10, 2016 by Nicolai — Leave a comment

How to Save Sets of GrutBrushes in the Photoshop Plugin

With version 1.2.1 of the GrutBrushes Photoshop plugin you can now save custom sets of brushes so that they don’t all have to be in one big set. In this short video I show you how to create a new set and how to modify which Photoshop brushes it contains.

If you have the GrutBrushes plugin already, you can download the latest one from your account page. If you don’t have it yet, the GrutBrushes Photoshop plugin is free for Photoshop CC 214/15 and you can get it here.

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Nicolai — Leave a comment

Free GrutBrush of the Week #68 – “Rug Thunder” Natural Media Brush

Painting done with Rug Run Photoshop brush — Sketching with the Rug Thunder Photoshop brush

This week’s free Photoshop brush is Rug Thunder, a brush with a large grungy covering of brittle sticky paint, starts at about 50% textured coverage with low pressure but will fill to completely opaque with repeated strokes. Get it for free until July 14th when there will be a new free Photoshop brush.

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Nicolai — Leave a comment

How to Install Photoshop Brushes to the Plugin via the Web

If you have an active GrutBrushes membership you can add and install brushes directly into Photoshop via the GrutBrushes plugin panel using the “New” button.
You may think that it is broken, but it is likely just slow to load. I’m very sorry about that, but with a bit of patience, it is fast once it loads up. This 45 second video shows you how it’s done.

If you don’t see the screen with all the brushes, you can navigate to it in the menu by going to My Account > Members Brush Portal

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Nicolai — Leave a comment

Jesse VanWagner’s Beautiful Oil Impasto Piece From the GrutBrushes Gallery

"Penelope Isn't Possible: Painted by Jesse VanWagner using the Impasto Brushes — “Penelope Isn’t Possible” Painted by Jesse VanWagner using the Impasto Brushes

I’m thrilled to add this portrait by artist Jesse VanWagner to the GrutBrushes Gallery. Jesse used the Stump Trough oil impasto brush from the free Sampler set, among others, to paint this lovely digital painting in Photoshop. To see more of his work, head over to his blog where he frequently shares his work as well as his thoughts That’s where I found this piece and immediately asked Jesse if I could share it in the GrutBrushes Gallery. He also often posts interesting timelapse gifs that show the evolution of his paintings from sketches to finished paintings for those who like to see how it got there. More that just open and talented, he also comes across as a very nice, genuine person. Needless to say I subscribed to stay in touch with his art adventures.

Visit the GrutBrushes Gallery to enjoy the art or submit your own GrutBrushes assisted creation.