Painting Tutorial! Part One: Basics (1)

I've finally gotten around to starting my tutorial! I'm working on a piece for the actual painting part, but if my projections are correct, this is gonna be a Long Tutorial. 

But so far, here's part one, where I talk about the brushes that I use. I only use about 3-4 brushes for the most part, and here I talk about the pros for the ones that I trust using. 

And if you're interested, here's the links to the sketching and painting brush:

Sketching (single brush) (I trust my life with this brush)

My painting brush comes from this post (and a few others I have leftover in my collection, but don't use as much)

Another good thing about the newest edition Photoshop CC, you can put your brushes into folders (I've been praying for this for a long time), which really helps categorize brushes. For example, I have my main set with all the brushes I use on the regular, and then I have a few extra sets (mostly Kyle T. Webster brushes).

Speaking of Kyle T. Webster, all of his brushes are integrated to use use with Photoshop CC! They're really great, and I use them on occasion. You can get them by going to "get more brushes" in your brushes menu, or going here. His concept brushes are especially useful for me, since I use the leaf brushes a lot. They're great for getting a basic texture of leaves down before painting, though I don't advise using them as a final accent since they're recognizable brushes. 

If you don't have Photoshop, or a recent version of Photoshop, there's tons of free brushes to download on the internet! The safest and best bet for Photoshop brushes is through DeviantArt. For other programs, I highly encourage you to look all over the internet for brushes you enjoy using! It took me about 3 years to find a trusty brush, and now I use it for everything! 

An evolution in my use of brushes:

I started off with shading with just a soft brush. It was easy to blend, which I liked, but also, everything I painted looked like this: 

(Hence why we redid the first odd-thirty pages of Falconhyrste)

When my professor told me to start thinking about using textures, I had an existential crisis and tried every brush under the sun. I finally found one that I liked, which allowed me to do soft blending, but also hard edges at the same time!

But it was all just a matter of harnessing my style, as well. 

Moral of the story: if you want to paint digitally, find a brush or two that you trust, and that you're willing to learn with. 

The next part of my tutorial where Cei stares at more nature-- I mean, I talk about the tools I use will be out next week! 

If you have any questions, or if there's anything you want me to cover in my tutorial, please let me know!!