“After The Flood ” digital painting by Valentin Kopetzki • Painted using GrutBrushes Photoshop brushes
Sometimes I see an artist use my tools and I feel like they have some innate connection to them. It’s such a thrill to see my brushes play a part in a brilliant performance by talented hands. This grand and masterfully painted scene by Valentin Kopetzki is one such example and also the latest addition to the GrutBrushes Gallery.
The Spectrum award winning “After the Flood” was painted as an illustration for the H. P. Lovecraft story “The Whisperer in Darkness” and was included in the 26th issue of Spectrum Fantastic Art.
You can see more of Kopetzki’s work on his instagram account where, as well as more landscapes and fantastical scenes you will also find some powerful portrait work
When I see how Martin Guldbaek uses my Oil Impasto Photoshop brushes it is such a thrill. He brings out their sculptural qualities and gives them weight, to create forms that feel almost physical even though they are mostly just broad brush strokes of digital paint, but so perfectly placed, thanks to Martin’s superb understanding of light and volume. Continue reading Martin Guldbaek in the GrutBrushes Gallery
I have neither the skill nor the patience to draw the kind of portraits that Josh McCann does, but what makes them all the more remarkable is that he draws them with the GrutBrushes pencils! The piece above by Josh is the latest addition to the GrutBrushes gallery (Scroll down to see a timelapse video of this piece being created)
“For the most part I only use 4 [pencil] brushes (Mech Mini, Mech Mid, Maybe Sews and limbo lift.) I have saved each of those brushes out with varying levels of opacity and flow. And then I created my own mixer brush for blending. They’re great brushes for drawing!!”
Here I am testing one of the Art Surfaces (Meko). Notice how it adds light as well as shadow.
That’s one of the hardest parts to tweak (the distribution of values between light and dark)
It’s difficult to get a good gradient ramp when the details are so fine. It’s much easier to deal with course textures like a gravel road than something that is mostly one tonal value like paper. Too much contrast and you won’t be able to see anything you paint on it, too little and you don’t get any surface definition
While working in 16 or 32 bits per channel would give me more flexibility in tweaking these but these templates are already so large a higher channel bit rate would be impractical. They are already averaging about 85 megabytes per PSD. They are seamless tiles, but they start at 2048 by 2048 pixels, at 300 DPI.
To learn more, try a free one and get on the list to be notified when they’re available go to the new paper textures page
A question for you – what would you pay for one of these and what would you pay for 10 of them? Let me know in the comments.
This enchantingly beautiful illustration was lovingly painted in Photoshop by Lisandro Trepeu with the humble assistance of some GrutBrushes. I’m thrilled to add this to the gallery page today where Lisandro’s piece joins a growing list of wonderful work by talented artists and illustrators. You can see more of Lisandro Trepeu’s work on his Behance portfolio page here.
If you have work you created using GrutBrushes that you would like to share in the gallery or even just to show me what you’re working on, please don’t wait, send it to me today!
This week’s free Photoshop brush of the week (#120!!) is this creamy oil impasto brush “Butter Bits” These are my favourite types, I could smush digital paint around with these all day long.
Don’t forget there is also an excellent free impasto brush in the Sampler set (from the Photoshop oil impasto brush set)
Come back next week when there will be a brand new Photoshop brush to download.
Mammoth painted by Mike Sobey in Photoshop using GrutBrushes
Artist Mike Sobey painted these fantastic Mammoths in Photoshop using GrutBrushes.
I really love his brash use of the brush textures to bring these majestic creatures back to life, not to mention his amazing grasp of light and colour.
You can see this piece alongside plenty more examples of digital paintings created with GrutBrushes here in the gallery.
One of my big frustrations as an amateur doodler is that I so rarely get to see my brushes used to their full potential. That’s why it is such a thrill for me to see them used by talented professionals. When I do, I promptly beg them to let me show their work in the GrutBrushes Gallery. This week I’m happy to be able to add Salon, a wonderful digital painting by Children’s book illustrator Mary Manning.
Customers often ask me questions about pursuing a career in illustration. I’m neither an illustrator nor do I have any answers, but I’m just as curious, so I ask actual professionals any chance I get. Mary was kind enough to answer my questions and I’m happy to share them with you here.
Nicolai: Do you have a background in traditional media, and if so, do you ever mix traditional and digital painting? Mary: Yes, I used to work in watercolor and finish it off digitally. I liked the look, but have long since abandoned that since it takes too much time, so I now work digitally only.
Nicolai: How did you find your first clients? Mary: From putting my work out there in as many places as I can. But make sure your work is good enough before you do. You’ll be up against a lot of competition and skilled artists who know what’s what, and they can spot an amateur a mile away – and so can everyone else.
The Strangest Thing by Mary Manning
Nicolai: How much creative freedom do you have with client work and How specific is the direction you get? Mary: That varies widely. Every client and/or publisher is different, but be prepared for anything.
Nicolai: How do you stop deadlines from interfering with making great images? Mary: That’s a hard one, but you need to remember that as a professional, you have to do the best you can with whatever time limit or project you have.
Nicolai: What do you do to get ‘un-stuck’ when a project feels uninspiring? Mary: I don’t ever really have that problem. If it’s your own work, then obviously do something else. If it’s client work, and if you find yourself getting frustrated or can’t seem to “fix” a certain design, then step away for 10 min. When you come back you should be able to see the solution. Works for me every time. 😉
The Wild Ride by Mary Manning
Nicolai: Do ever do any drawing or painting exercises and if so, are there any you feel are particularly useful? Mary: I always make sure I’m doing a personal piece on the side no matter what else I’m on. It helps keep me sane when I can do what I want, especially if you’re on a project that you dislike in some way, and believe me, you’ll get plenty of those.
Nicolai: What would your ideal project be? Mary: To be able to design everything the way I want of course 😉
Mary had some nice words to say about GrutBrushes too…
“I’m really happy I found them! I use them a lot in my illustrations, and I love the very cool effects I can get from them!”
Thanks Mary!
You can learn much more about Mary Manning and see more of her work here on her website
Then come back and visit the GrutBrushes Gallery to be inspired by what these amazing artists are doing with GrutBrushes.
