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Photoshop Impasto Brushes 01 Set selection complete

Photoshop oil Impasto Brushes collection set

Photoshop Impastos 01 is almost here. I chose the final brush tonight (Lalo Salsa) so that makes 10 brushes selected for the first oil Impastos collection, available this weekend. It’s been a long time coming so thanks for your patience but I wanted to wait until there was a nice selection of brushes that represented a good balance of weights, blends and textures. I think this first set will cover most digital oil painters’ needs from blended backgrounds to the deep, sharp troughs of a loaded camel hair brush. Many of these have been available in the brush shop as singles for a while already and those of you who are Members will already have many of these as well as a few other Impastos that are extra additions not even covered by this collection.  Just another benefit of being a member: first access to new brushes before there’s even a notion of them being a part of a set.

This will be the first set of its kind anywhere that I am aware of.  Keep in mind that these impasto brushes have depth and texture built into them, there are no layer effects or any post processing applied to the brush strokes you see here. I’ve even restrained myself from applying any canvas layer overlays in order to show you the pure unadultarated brush strokes. If you haven’t tried any of my Photoshop impasto brushes yet you will get a chance to on Monday as next week’s free Photoshop brush of the week will be an oil impasto, and it will likely be a brand new one not even seen here. There’s one I’m working on that’s along the same lines as Imp Giganto that I’m keen to share next week.

Maybe this one:

little-sailboat-photoshop-oil-impasto-painting-with-the-deep-trough-GrutBrush

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Photoshop Gouache Brushes in the Workshop

Gouache-Brushes-Scratchpad

Some Photoshop Gouache brushes that I am working on. I like to work on a few different brushes of one type at a time so that I can see how they work together before I publish them. This is an attempt to get some kind of cohesiveness and continuity within a series of brushes. It’s not easy and I lose that battle more often than I’d like to and while there will always be an outsider brush or two (three?) within a set, by fine tuning them in small groups in the workshop I hope to minimise that.

If one Gouache brush is working for you on a project, but to finish up that last section you need a brush that is just a tad drier, perhaps one that shows a few more bristle marks for a grander dramatic flourish, well I hope to have you covered.

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Photoshop Lightsabers go Viral – Cheers to all who showed up!

 

how to add star wars lightsabers to your photos in Photoshop
Original Photo courtesy Michael Coghlan

Well that was crazy day. I posted the announcement about the free Photoshop brushes to add LightSabers to your photos on a sleepy Sunday evening, and within less than a day, 4,500 people visited the site with over 1,200 of them downloading the free brushes (They are still there for the taking) This was the first major test of the server which held up under the weight of mini floods of traffic. The vast majority of people came from Imgur.com where it was seen by an astonishing half a million people within about 13 hours.

In contrast, I also posted it on Behance hoping to capture the attention of some designers but after one full day it got just one single lonely little view, and for all I know, that was me.

Join in the fun and download them here: https://www.grutbrushes.com/drinksaber

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Add LightSabers to Photos with the Lightsaber Photoshop Brushes

how to add lightsabers to photos in photoshop with free Photoshop lightsaber brushes
add lightsabers to photos in photoshop with Photoshop brushes

Relive your memories of a night out with friends as a glorious Lightsaber battle instead by adding Lightsabers to all your photos in just a few clicks with these free Photoshop brushes. Use the hashtag #drinksaber so that I can find your creations!

Continue reading Add LightSabers to Photos with the Lightsaber Photoshop Brushes

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Brush Stroke Scratch Pad Nov ’15 – New Photoshop Brushes in the Workshop

Here’s the scratch pad from yesterday’s brush experiments in the workshop. These are scrawlings from a number of different unpublished Photoshop brushes that I am working on. About half of them are oil impasto brushes, the rest are natural media or gouache brushes.  (Visit the blog post to zoom in and explore the detail of the brush strokes by holding/tapping to magnify)

Perhaps more interesting though, the background is a paper texture (a seamless tile) that is also part of an upcoming series of papers and art surfaces that I am creating. They are PSD files that include several layers and settings to enhance the effect of the paper. The idea is to affect the appearance of the digital ink or paint, simulating real world phenomena such as surface depth, absorption and media pooling and not merely a background over which colour is applied. I plan to release the first ones for free on the site, starting soon (next week?) I will make a special page in the resources where freebies such as these will be available to download. Stay tuned to the blog for updates

 

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Doodling in Photoshop With ‘Swash Wanted’ a new Photoshop Gouache Brush

Swash-Wanted-Photoshop-Gouache-Brush-Painting

This one is a fixed width rough and dry Gouache Photoshop brush with the characteristics of an old house painters brush found stashed behins the basement furnace. This brush works best with a lighter touch to reveal it’s dirty dry brush sparsity but you can go full pressure for total coverage at full opacity while keeping your edges ragged.
grutbrushes.com/shop/photoshop-brushes/swash-wanted-photoshop-gouache-brush/

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GrutBrushes Brush Stroke Guides Updated With 30 New Photoshop Brushes

Download cheat sheet for all GrutBrushes Photoshop brushes

The November update to the GrutBrushes cheat sheets & brush stroke guide is here with about 30 new brushes added since the last update.
You can see it online and hover/tap to magnify the brush strokes (the prettiest way to preview) or download one giant Jpeg or PDF

While this is a great way to get a good overview of what all your brushes look like in one go, don’t forget the all important animated brush stroke preview that you get when you click on the red ‘play’ button on every single brush in the brush shop

You can access and see all of these on the brush guides resources page

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“Cave In” Photoshop Cross Hatching Brush

drawn with the 'cave in' Photoshop cross hatching brush brush
drawn with the ‘cave in’ Photoshop cross hatching brush

 

I didn’t get a chance to announce this week’s free GrutBrush on Monday due to my day job, but it’s been there and is still free until Sunday (24 hours left!)  This one is a cross-hatching brush and I doodled this guy above using it. First I sketched the basic shape in black and then I ‘etched’ into it with the same brush, but using white to chip away at it (you could also use an eraser) and essentially carve into the black. Finally I made the layer a Multiply layer so that the white disappears and the paper background shows through.

As always you can get this on the free Photoshop brush of the week page

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Free GrutBrush of the Week #28 – Dry Wetgoo Photoshop Ink Brush

'Dry Wetgoo' Photoshop Ink Brush digital download
‘Dry Wetgoo’ Photoshop Ink Brush

This week’s free GrutBrush is a Dry Wetgoo a sticky wet Photoshop ink brush, get it on the free Photoshop brush of the week page

Brush strokes drawn with the 'Dry Wetgoo' Photoshop Ink Brush digital download
Brush strokes drawn with the ‘Dry Wetgoo’ Photoshop Ink Brush
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