If you live under a rock and weren’t made aware, we’ve been giving out free brushes for the SketchBook Pro desktop app every Monday of every single week. This week, you’ll be getting the wonderful Leaves Brush Set. It’s a sixteen-piece set that includes various leaf stamps and some amazing brushes for drawing foliage (or any job that requires some texture). It can sometimes be tedious to paint nature, especially trees. We wanted to save you time and energy by providing you with these brushes accompanied by some helpful tips and tricks below. If you want to read more about how these brushes can be of use to you, keep on scrolling down. Don’t forget to download the brushes through the provided link above. Simply double-click the .skbrushes file to install.
Painting trees
If you want to go for a more detailed look, there is no shortage of leaf stamp brushes in this set. We’ve created the stamps to look subtle so they don’t stand out against a backdrop too boldly. You can try using a combination of leaves and foliage brushes to get a nicely blended finish with detailed leaves peeking through.
When using the foliage brushes, it’s encouraged to be messy. Think Bob Ross’s “happy little trees.” It doesn’t have to take hours. It can take seconds to create the illusion of a healthy tree filled with leaves. Trees aren’t symmetrical or neat, so try to create visual harmony or whatever looks right. Like in the example above, create layers with different tones of the colors you’re using. Add gaps of lighter colors where there might be a shortage of leaves and darker tones in thicker areas. Put in the lightest tones where there might be highlights from the sun.
The four main foliage brushes can help you to create some amazing textures so don’t assume this brush set is made exclusively for painting trees. You can also use the leaf stamps for other decorative purposes like banners, frames, or backgrounds. Have fun!
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
This week’s free brush set is an extra special one created by digital artist Giuseppe di Girolamo. We’re fortunate to have him share both his brush set and the story of how he came to use SketchBook as part of his process for creating art for a new hidden object game, Occultus Mediterranean Cabal. You can download Giuseppe’s Brush Set and install it in SketchBook Pro for desktop, but before you start making art with these brushes, we encourage you to read a bit about how Giuseppe used these brushes to make video game assets. It’s a window into an artistic process you may not have ever considered.
The making of video game art
Where do ideas for video games come from? Sometimes, they simply come out of a group of people sitting around sharing their supreme love of video games. Such was the case with Giuseppe di Girolamo and his friends Luca Alba, and Paolo Gallo, and Filippo M.Vela — together as Sylphe Labs. The four friends, each with a serious love of indie games, gathered together in Palermo in 2014 to share their know-how and work up an idea into a marketable game. Two years later and they’ve just released Occultus Mediterranean Cabal, a hidden-object game for PC/Mac. What’s especially interesting about this game is how it was developed. It’s a mix of 3D and 2D assets and artwork that uses SketchBook as a beautifying step in the process.
The process for this “Secret Backyard” level goes from basic polygonal shapes to textured brilliance to fine, hand-painted detail.
Their game-art process: 3D –> 2D
Originally, the team had thought the best way to approach the art of this game design would be to draw and paint every single asset, background, and character in the game as a 2D piece of art. They were intent on creating a uniform style that followed Giuseppe’s own style of art from a previous game he had made. But after trying out some early stages of the game prototype they built, they came to the conclusion that this process would lead to an insane amount of development time. The number of graphic assets would be absolutely enormous, so much so that creating them would overwhelm or slow down the actual creation of the game.
It’s not uncommon for developers to come to this kind of conclusion, and it’s the reason an initial working prototype is so important. Once you’ve proven to yourselves that the game mechanics work, you then have to divide and conquer as a team. You have to figure out how to break up the work of writing the code and designing the assets into manageable chunks. If you don’t balance the actual work equation among your team, you may collectively feel like you’re always waiting on that one person to finish their part.
One of the best things about creating a game like this is that you can add spectacularly detailed art deep in the landscape for players to discover like Easter eggs.
Creating the artwork in stages
The team settled on an approach that would speed up production and allow them to have a unified look and feel that spread the work across the team to take advantage of each person’s skills. They pre-rendered backgrounds in 3D apps and then worked their way toward SketchBook for finishing. Here’s their process:
Connecting & 3D modeling: In the first step, Paolo created concept art of the game environments as a 3D model. In essence, he created the “rooms” where the gameplay would take place. He used Modo 3D, an app that some game developers use to create basic 3D renderings, and Z Brush, which lets you sculpt your 3D models and refine them. Giuseppe helped out with some of the textures in spots (e.g., marble church floors, leaded stained glass windows, paintings). The final result of this step can be flat and polygonal, but it might also have some added detail.
3D Camera shot and lens simulation: In the second step, Filippo set the camera position and shot, as well as adding light sources. Game players view the rooms/levels in find-and-replace games from specific viewpoints, and Filippo’s job is to help make that space look realistic based on the chosen viewpoints. Sometimes that means adding shaders to smooth out polygonal edges or add visual effects to objects, which he did in Lightwave 3D. (For a nice introduction to shaders, check out this tutorial).
Digital painting: Finally, Giuseppe took over to enrich the scene with hand-drawn details. His friends jokingly liked to refer to this last rendering pass as the “Giuseppering” stage, which is a pretty wonderful name. Sounds like they had a lot of fun with this process. Finally, Luca put all of the graphic assets together inside Unity 3D using code he wrote to make it all come together.
One great thing about using 3D models as underpinning: You can very accurately simulate the light that flows into these church windows.
Why hand painting matters
Giuseppe felt strongly that the game should have a hand-painted look, and it’s hard not to agree with him. Hidden object games are strikingly similar in their basic objective. You scour a sometimes elaborately detailed painting/photo/illustration and uncover objects based on either clever clues or just plain can’t-stop-won’t-stop looking. What sets the best of these games apart is the artwork. Users will spend hours upon hours looking at every detail of art in these games, so the art style and its execution is a big part of their appeal. What probably makes this process especially rewarding is the amount of control you have over the composition of the scene combined with the ability to work and work the details until you absolutely love the final result.
Of course, that kind of re-working and layer-based fiddling is what makes digital painting tools so attractive. You can focus fully on your skills as a line artist, or you can indulge your love of a particular affect or come up with a completely unique stylization that gives your game a totally unique appeal. For this game, Giuseppe created a special brush set that he used for things like drawing vegetation to save him time and make the work feel like it was being done on actual canvas with traditional paint.
The three-stage process at work: Basic 3D shapes, followed by texturing and smoothing, followed by all the detailed “findable” objects.
The final result
The hard work of these four friends has been realized. The game was published by Anuman/Microids and recently offered for sale by BigFish, a well-know provider of find-and-replace games. You can buy a copy of Occultus Mediterranean Cabal on your Mac or PC or take a level out for a spin with a free trial. (Note: On the day of publishing this post there is a special 70% off sale!). You’ll soon also be able to get it on iOS and Android. When you download and play this game, don’t just think about it as a story of a missing Italian grandfather. While you’re running your eyes over all the details of these 60 locations, 20 mini games, and dozens of close-up scenes, stop and take a moment to think about how what you’re looking at went from conception to completion.
One of our favorite details of the game — this dozing cat.
It’s clear that a real love of drawing and painting went into this game, and we’re thrilled to have Giuseppe and team share their story and artwork with us. We love both looking at and hearing about the details. Check out the video trailer for a quick look at the look and feel of the game:
Giuseppe’s Brush Set
This brush set has a ton of great options. The pencil is a grease pencil, 4B, very rough (like Disney); it’s perfect for sketching. He includes a soft dirty rubber, which mimics the traditional rubber used on rough paper. Graphite, widely used in school, allows you to create noisy and blurred drafts. It’s ideal for chiaroscuro sketches and illustrations. The smudge brush he included has a particular texture that simulates the surface of the canvas or a rough sheet. You’ll also find a ballpoint pen, a synthetic and standard brush, and a brush just for making fur. He also includes a series of foliage and flower brushes that he used extensively when creating the artwork for the game (e.g., jasmine and bougainvillea found in the Secret Backyard level). And finally, a few texture brushes that Giuseppe tells us saved his life several times. It’s already one of our favorite sets ever. He even made the gorgeous brush icon art! If you like this set, please don’t hesitate to check out his blog and perhaps even say “grazie” on Twitter — or better yet help support his work by grabbing a copy of Occultus Mediterranean Cabal.
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
This week’s free brush set is a blast from the past. The Crayons Brush Set is a twelve-piece set of classic crayon colors and textures that will come in handy when you’re coloring or doing some rough shading. You can bet we had fun making this set, and we hope you enjoy using crayons with names like Tickled Pink, Perfect Sky, Fresh Snow, and Orange Crush.
The coloring book trend
The popularity of adult coloring books keeps rolling on — and on and on and on. It’s so successful that some people point to its popularity as a reason for boosting otherwise historically lagging physical book sales. Naysayers joke that all this coloring is an adult cry for help, but there’s no denying that for many people it’s a truly calming and mindful exercise that’s great for reducing stress. To us it’s really about reconnecting to that spirit of unbridled and simplified creativity we felt as kids. Back then, everyone was an artist, and everyone pretty much had the same set of tools: a big box of crayons. (If you were really lucky, that set of crayons had a crayon sharpener built into the back of the box!)
Some art for you to color
At this back-to-school time, we thought we would jump back into our early artist selves and make some line art for coloring. If you want to join us, you can download high res TIFF versions of un-colored line art by clicking the link under each piece of our colored line art. (Yes, we couldn’t resist coloring it ourselves). After downloading, simply import the image as a layer in SketchBook for desktop and start coloring. If you want your crayons to be sharper and have a point, you can adjust the settings and even save them out as new crayons. Remember when you used to peel off all the paper from your crayon and use it to shade giant blocks of color? You can do that, too.
Pegasus is the famous winged stallion of Greek mythology. He (she?) was usually depicted as all white. Boring! Our pegasus has a purple dye job.
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
If you liked the Dashes and Lines brushes we gave out a few weeks back, you’re going to love this new set. Although these eleven brushes are more on the decorative side, they’re definitely ones you’ll want to have in your library in case you need to make some dotted lines or half-tone patterns. Trust us, it will save you hours upon hours of manual work. You can also use these brushes to make patterns on banners or backdrops of your artwork. Download the new Dots Free Brush Set now and get creative!
Detailing with dots
The brushes in this set aren’t just useful for making pretty backgrounds. They can really come in handy with creating some amazing detailing. It may not be obvious at first glance, but any details in your art involving rounded objects can be more efficiently created with these brushes.
Using a dots brush of your choice, lay down some spots on a new layer and lock the transparency. You can now use the transform tool to manipulate the object within that layer. Just click transform and play around with the flexibility until the dots are moulded perfectly into your work. You can achieve 3D looks and perfect symmetry in minutes instead of having to do it manually. Keeping the layer locked, you can continue on with your coloring. Add some shade on the outer edges and maybe some highlight, and it’ll be popping off the screen. Don’t forget to add shadows with a layer placed underneath and you’re good to go. Feel free to be messy with this as it will most likely be quite zoomed out upon viewing.
You can make a single strand of dots using this method and just keep duplicating and using transform to make it fit into different areas like the necklace in this drawing. What looks like something that took hours could take you minutes to finish. Be creative!
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
Everyone who is attracted to digital drawing has to find their own way in. Each person has their own reasons — convenience (no scanning!), unlimited undo, ability to scale any element you draw, etc. — but for some people simply being able to create “mobile art” on the go is a compelling part of the reason. Jeff Hebert fits in this category. Traditionally trained as an artist and hailing from a small town in Massachusetts, he has taken strongly to the idea of producing art on mobile phones and tablets. In fact, he joined our SketchBook beta team a few years back and always has great perspectives about how to improve our apps. Of course, Jeff isn’t all digital — not many artists are *only* analog or *only* digital. He uses a traditional approach along with digital techniques on his iPad and Android tablets (e.g., Scan Sketch) to create painting of wildlife and caricatures, two of his favorite subjects. We asked him to make a brush set for us that works well for the kind of art he creates.
What you’ll find
Download Jeff’s Rough Canvas Brush Set, and you’ll find a combination of dry brushes, as well as a few cool pencils he uses for details and texture to give his digital paintings a more traditional rough, textured feel. Even better, he’s included his “Grain” brush that you can use to paint on a “noise” overlay to give your paintings an interesting rough canvas look. Jeff says nothing he paints feels done until he runs this Grain brush over his paintings — which he does by setting the size as large as possible and painting over the entire canvas. Another way to do something like this is to upload an image of texture (e.g., an actual image of a canvas) and use it as a layer with blending modes, but the brush is very handy to have, and of course you have more control over a brush.
Two paintings made with this brush set: A study of a Greg Manchess painting called “Sam” using a combination of the brushes and a kingfisher painted with only the Rough brush.
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
Did you celebrate Chuseok? Some of the SketchBook team who live in Asia have been celebrating Chuseok and similar Thanksgiving style holidays. Our employees span the globe, and so do SketchBook users. We thought this week we would bring you a 10-piece brush set inspired by Korean illustration and this Autumn holiday season. We’re calling it the Storybook Illustration Brush Set. These brushes are great for creating soft, textured edges and adding whimsical detail to your artwork. You may not know anything about Korean illustration, but this week we wanted to share a bit about what we’ve discovered. It has its own rich landscape that is often beautiful and fantastical — with rich watercolor looks, anthropomorphized animals, and motes of light and stars to make it all super dreamy.
The Harvest Moon Festival
Chuseok (추석), originally known as Hangawi, is a major 3-day harvest moon festival in Korea that celebrates the “great middle of autumn.” While it’s a Korean holiday, other holidays that are similar to it are celebrated by Asian cultures around this time. Chuseok brings families together to honor hard-working ancestors and deceased relatives who provided bounty and happiness for newer generations. Korean families use this time to connect with and remember their roots and to give thanks for the the gifts of the present. It encompasses an age-old story that has been passed on through generations with twinkling lights, elaborate costumes, extravagant lion dances, and delicious aromatic rice cakes (or songpyeon). Even if you don’t celebrate this “Korean Thanksgiving” we hope you will try your hand at drawing your own original storybook artwork with the Storybook Illustration Brush Set.
What’s in this Brush Set
This new brush set mimics the texture of traditional brush paintings. From naturally painted dry brush outlines to wisps and whimsical heart details, you can bring your characters to life in impressive settings with these brushes. Our own Michelle Li created artwork for this brush set, and her technique captures the full essence of the brush set by projecting extraordinary drama in her work using the set’s varying sharpnesses and blending capabilities.
The Rough Pencil brush is a true gem that gives your art an illustrated storybook narrative with sketchy dry brush line work. The Texture Watercolor brush introduces a new layer of detail for more refined forms with the perfect pressure sensitive wash of colour. Also, check out the Texture and Crackle and Point brushes for making dreamy watercolor-like washes of paint. We’ve included a Sponge and a Fuzzy brush and a Crosshatch brush for adding texture. Finally, there are some really lovely brushes for creating Starlight, Hearts, and Fireflies. As you can see from Michelle’s art, these little accents really help create a dreamy, gauzy, fairytale look. It’s perfect for making art that looks like it could be in a child’s storybook.
Start with the softer brushes and work your way to stronger, more texturized lines. Layering is a good way to make the foreground pop and add depth that almost animates your characters. The airbrush is great for making soft, faded, silhouetted backgrounds like in this impressionistic forest of illuminated trees.
Storybook Art to Inspire
The genesis of this brush set? Michelle in our office getting a little bit hooked on a site that’s popular in Korea called Grafolio. It’s a showcase of illustrated art that you probably can’t navigate fully if you don’t read Korean, but then again with art sometimes words simply don’t matter. Here’s a few of our favorites to inspire you if you want to create your own art with this kind of Storybook look:
리하 (sean lecha) makes lovely, soft drawings of anthropomorphized animals with some everyday anxieties that would be welcome in any kid’s storybook.
퍼엉 (Puuung) focuses on love, with lots of wonderful portraits about the beauty and comfort of everyday love — with a cute little cat often hiding in the background.
애뽈 (aeppol) goes full-on into dreamy territory, with characters who seem to be living in surreal landscapes. Notice how effective stars, petals, leaves, and firefly motifs can be to give illustration a fantastical feel.
This kind of simple study between two animals in an everyday modern setting can be a great place for you to start with this kind of storybook look.
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
We’ve partnered with Jake Parker of Inktober to help celebrate drawing and community throughout October. And we want you to join us. Jake created Inktober in 2009 as a way to challenge himself to draw every day, and it stuck. Every year, more people have joined in this challenge, you can too. Just pick up a pen or a copy of SketchBook for Desktop, iOS, or Android and follow along with the daily drawing prompts.
Download Inktober brushes
You don’t have to use the SketchBook Inktober Brush Set we made for this challenge, but if you’re a SketchBook Pro user you’ll probably love the way it makes your drawings look like they’re made with real ink.
Tag your drawings with two hashtags — #sketchbook and #inktober. We’ll be on the lookout for those two tags.
Every Friday in October, we’ll feature some of our favorite Inktober art in a weekly wrap-up post right here on the SketchBook blog.
Two examples from the first two days, which are already behind us. The prompts were “Fast” for day one and “Noisy” for day two. You can draw in classic black and white or color.
Installing the brush set
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
Drawing skin presents a few challenges. Your first thought might be about race and color, but it’s not really color that makes skin skin. You can make skin any color you want — even completely abnormal colors like blue — but if you want any semblance of reality you will want to add some kind of texture, however slight. You could use an airbrush to create that texture in a uniform way, but many people have imperfections like freckles and natural details like pores that can really make a face (for example) come alive. To help out with that need, we created a go-to brush set for SketchBook Pro members to make drawing skin easier.
Many of the prettiest faces have patterns or bands of imperfections. Call it character.
What’s in the Skin Texture Set
In the Skin Texture Brush Set you’ll find Two Fine Pores brushes, Two Rough Pores brushes, a Mixed Pores brush, brushes for making Dense Freckles and Mixed Freckles, and a Textured Blending Brush for blending all of your skin textures together. Finally, there’s a nice Skin Highlight brush for adding finishing touches.
Smooth, rough, mottled, patchy, blotchy, or flat-out blemished and burnt out — skin is almost never as smooth as a baby’s bottom.
How to Install Brush Sets
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
Each week, we offer up a free brush set for our SketchBook Pro members, and since we’re heading straight toward Halloween in the next two weeks, we thought we’d give our users something that was appropriate for the Season of the Witch: Blood. Download the Blood Splatter Brush Set, upload it to SketchBook, and start adding murder and mayhem to your drawings today.
What’s in the Blood Brush Set
This set is full of stamps and smears that are perfect for adding a bit of horror to your drawings, including bloody handprint stamps (both hands), drips of blood, slashes of color, drips and droplets and stabs and chops of chunks of don’t even ask what that is. These brushes have appropriate names like Desperate Smear, Sad Puddle, and “Oh, God It’s All Over.” Mix and match them for maximum mayhem. If you’re a fan of grotesque art, you’ll probably be happy with this set, but even if you don’t like that sort of thing these brushes are good at adding subtle background effects. It works great with the Skullz Brush Set from earlier this year, especially if you like to create one-color art that is just red (with white or black).
Installing the brush set
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
Every Monday, we give out a free brush set to SketchBook Pro users, and we’re following up last week’s very well-received Korean Storybook Art Brush Set with another exploration of an art style with Asian roots. This time around, we’re going with a manga inspired set of brushes for adding all kinds of dreamy and beautiful atmosphere to your drawings. We call it the Manga Stamps Brush Set.
This new brush set is based on a particular type of manga that has a lot of these kinds of effects: shoujo. Shoujo is basically “comics for girls.” It’s a particular style that’s aimed squarely at pre-teens who are in that awkward late-middle-school-aged time of figuring out just what kind of person they might be someday.
Typical shoujo art styles
In shoujo manga you’ll definitely see the big, expressive eyes that are a hallmark of manga generally. Shoujo girls will often have long, flowing hair. Shoujo manga is often exploring and celebrating the innocent beauty of girls and young love, so it’s not usually laced with overt sexual themes like some manga can be (e.g., hentai). The story lines and art style is more romantic. Think girls daydreaming with sparkles everywhere. Flowers are a very prominent motif in shoujo (especially cherry blossoms). Think Sailor Moon, first loves who need to be kissed, promises that need to be kept, and cute boys who need to be figured out.
Michelle Li in the SketchBook office drew this gorgeous shoujo girl for us in black and white, which is traditional and expected. Then, she added some washes of pretty-in-pink color. See how beautiful the Pentagon and Star Fill bubbles look with color? Adorbs.
Many shoujo manga comics are in black and white, owing to the fact that these comics can be pumped out quickly and cheaply. Without color, manga artists need additional elements to embellish their art, and these kinds of details can be really effective in black-and-white comics. But, of course, don’t limit yourself to black and white! Use these brushes for creating shoujo settings like illustrating love confessions or dramatic character reveals. These kinds of details are part of the larger world of manga iconography that runs very deep. Of course, you don’t have to be an expert in manga studies to create something beautiful. Grab the Manga Stamps Brush Set and simply start experimenting with your art. These elements will work in all kinds of situations, not just comic-based line art.
Some classics of the genre
If you’re looking for inspiration and guidance about shoujo, check out some of these important influencers in the shoujo manga genre:
Creator of the Magical Girl Sailor Moon, Naoko Takeuchi, (center bottom) is well-known to Sailor Moon fans, but you’ll also find a wealth of amazing fan art online, like stunners from Chinese artist and game developer sunmomo (top left) and Pillara (top right) that go way beyond fan art. Notice how all of these pieces incorporate bokeh bubbles, twinkling stars, or flowers.
Some influential originators of shoujo include Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya (middle row), Nana by Ai Yazawa (top row), and Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP (bottom row), an all-female group of mangaka (manga artists).
There’s a lot going on in the art of Phantom Thief Jeanne (a.k.a, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne) drawn by Arina Tanemura. Epic.
Installing the brush set
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
The world may have gone too far with pumpkin spice over the last few years, but actual representations of pumpkins are still acceptable and even necessary for Halloween. As are ghosts, spiders with their webs, spooky moons, creepy bats, and candy corn. All those things are signifiers of the season of the witch, so we thought this week we’d make some spooky Halloween stamps for you to add to your drawings.
Creep out
Download and install the Spooky Halloween Stamps Brush Set if you are one of those people who dig everything about this, the creepiest time of the year. It has a bunch of stamps you can use to quickly add classic forms for Halloween: Clouds, Spider Eggs, Scratch Marks, Pumpkin Outlines, Jack ‘o Lanterns, Spooky Eyes, Spooky Spiders, Spooky Webs, Spooky Moons, Ghosts, Bats, and even one that will lay down a Candy Border on your drawing.
Installing brush sets
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
Drawing with charcoal can be messy. If you’ve ever done it, even with the mess you know how satisfying it can be to take something as raw and tactile as a charred piece of willow or grapevine and make art with it. It’s as old-school as cave paintings. Compressed bars or charcoal pencils give you a bit more control, but drawing with charcoal is still a tricky technique to master. And you’ll probably end up with charcoal all over your hands, face, and clothes. One great thing about this week’s Charcoal Brush Set is that you get all kinds of control over the hardness or softness of your digital charcoal but with none of the mess.
What to draw
Studies seem to be popular with charcoal. Not too many people approach charcoal with the intent of creating a fully realized piece. Usually, it’s just pure sketching, with lots of shading and playing with values. Subjects are often figure drawings or portraits, or even animals. You can do a still life if you want, but most charcoal drawings don’t get into the tiniest details, owing to how blunt these tools traditionally are. You’ll be working almost exclusively with values, but one good thing about drawing digitally is that you can avoid having your sketch overwhelmed by blackness, which can be a problem with using real charcoal. With SketchBook, you have the benefit of layers and erasers and Undo do-overs. You can use a smudge brush to remove your charcoal or blend the charcoal as you might do in the physical world with a kneaded eraser, blending stumps, or your finger. Turn your charcoal to white when you want to add highlights. Of course, since this is the digital world, you can also break all the rules and draw in pink charcoal if you want. No limits except the ones you want to impose on yourself.
This Charcoal Brush Set comes with 10 brushes: Standard, Streaky, Smeary Edge, Thick, Broad Side, Itty Bitty Grainy Piece, Large Grainy Piece, and a few that mimic Conte crayons: Old Conte, Wet Conte, and Melted Conte. Conte is compressed charcoal combined with wax that some people use in conjunction with charcoal, so we’ve tried to make those brushes have that particular kind of wetter, more permanent look to it. The Melted Conte Brush is the wettest of the bunch if you find that you prefer working with less dusty or dry charcoal. In the end, we couldn’t replicate two details from the real world: blowing all the charcoal dust off your paper and then spraying it with a fixative. The former (we admit) we kind of miss, but spraying chemicals all over the room is something we’d be fine with never doing ever again.
Referencing stock art
If you don’t have a subject in mind, the best thing for charcoal drawing is to find a reference photo. A portrait of a loved one or a pet works great. Some people use photographs of famous people, which is a great idea if someone in the public eye inspires you. For this piece, our community manager Renee used a stock photo as a reference. It’s a photo that she found that she liked while browsing around on DeviantArt. Although you might not have thunk it, stock photos are a really popular category on DeviantArt. People upload their photos for other people to use as stock art, and each person who offers items for use as stock set own set of guidelines and rules to follow. Any time you’re using free or stock images, be sure to check the rules for usage. The original photo is by Vikarus and you can check it out here.
Installing the brush set
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
It’s our job to mimic the properties of the art supplies of the physical world, and lately we’ve been focusing on some of the tools artists use that are messy or rough. Last week, we gave you the Charcoal Brush Set, and this week we want to focus on another challenging-but-rewarding tool, the pastel. We’ve created a set of brushes for Pro members that we’re calling the Creamy Pastels Brush Set, and we hope you’ll install it in the desktop app and make something delicious with them.
There are four types of pastels in the physical art world: soft, hard, pencil and oil. All of them are made of ground up pigment bound together, and the end result is usually a crayon-like stick that has a lot of intense color and a specific texture. Although they can sometimes be found in pencil form, they are not instruments of finery. They’re all about bold color, and they’re great for blending colors together.
Edgar Degas was a big user of pastels to make rough impressionistic drawings, but you can also make sophisticated drawings like these by Georg Anton Urlaub and Maurice Quentin de La Tour. Edvard Munch actually made four different versions of The Scream, one in pastels.
Natural Blend brushes
The “Natural Blend” brush type was introduced first in SketchBook 8. They’re soft, and they are blend-able. They mimic real world brushes and have a lot of natural texture and unpredictability, which isn’t a bad thing at all. If you want your digital artwork to look like it was made with watercolors, pastel crayons, conté, or other soft blended media, these Natural Blends brushes are the ones for you. Watch what happens when you layer two colors together using this kind of brush:
Notice how the brush starts out by laying down a light wash of color, but gets more intense as the stroke continues. As the orange color is brought in on top, it softly blends into the pink. These “Natural Blend” brushes have personality that can shine through the artwork you make with them.
Pastel brushes in action
For this piece (below), I started out by sketching two different ice-cream treats. Your first idea isn’t always perfect. It’s always good to sketch multiple things before deciding on your final piece. You might come up with a better idea on your second or third try.
Once I decided to continue with the ice cream pop, I lay down flat colors over the top.
Then, I chose some crazy colors to shade it with: a deep red and a bright yellow. The pastel brushes do a lot of blending on their own at low opacities. This makes them fun and messy.
We can’t wait to see the yummy treats you create with these Creamy Pastels. Get them now!
The final result: a creamsicle.
Installing the brush set
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
Each week, we release a new set of brushes for SketchBook Pro members to add to their collection. This week, we’ve got a set of brushes and stamps that let you add little sparkly details to your art. Download the Sparkles, Neon, and FX Brush Set and put a glint in a character’s eye, add a flurry of dust motes to a scene, or paint in neon colors.
You’ll find sparkles of all kinds, glints and glows, and dappled and diagonal motes in this brush set.
Dust in the Wind
With the dust mote brushes, you can create atmosphere and depth. A great example of how to use this is this drawing that came out of the recent DOTA 2 Beyond The Summit tournament.
Bright Idea: Neon Animation
The Neon tube brushes in this set have the best effect when using color. You’ll see that the inner part of the stroke turns bright white, and the color glows around the edges like a neon tube. Our community manager Renée created this neon sign using the Smooth Neon brush and then animated it using the Flipbook options. If you’ve never used Flipbook, this is a quick and easy exercise for getting familiar with how it works.
First, she drew the image in SketchBook, making sure the neon was on its own layer. Having the details be on separate layers allowed her to save out two images: the background combined with a dark “at” (left), and the “at” on its own lit up as a transparent PNG (right).
Then, she imported both of the images into Flipbook for animation. To import any image in Flipbook, go to the File menu, select Add Image and make sure you have selected the correct layer. Whichever layer is selected when you choose this command is where the image will end up.
Renée chose to put the finished artwork on the background layer and then import the “at” twice on the foreground and mid-ground layers. Why twice? Once for the bright neon light and once for the reflection on the glass behind the light.
With SketchBook’s Flipbook mode only the foreground and midground layers can be animated and will change over time. The background layer in Flipbook is meant to be an “animation plate” — fancy animation speak that means it won’t move or change at all.
Using the eye icon, Renée hid the layers to make the sign appear to be flickering.
And simple as that, you’ve got a neon flickering sign.
How to install and use desktop brushes
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app — as well as having the option to create Flipbook animations — is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
We asked Jason Heeley to create a tutorial about what he does very well — drawing epic landscapes. He went at it with a full-on winter scene, and he even shared the brush set he use to create this art so you can create your own snowy scenes in anticipation of winter. Download this week’s free brush set: Jason’s Icy Landscapes Brush Set and create your own seasonal art. We asked him to break down the steps of his process so you can see exactly how he uses these brushes to create rocks, mountains, and icy surfaces in these epic environments. Download the Icy Landscapes Tutorial as a PDF if you want to keep a copy of it on your computer.
When I was asked to produce this landscape tutorial, summer had just begun to fade into autumn. Almost immediately, my thoughts were quickly drawn further along the path toward winter, and I decided I wanted to produce something with an icy setting that offered both an imposing sense of scale and of a journey through it. It may seem like a bit of a well-worn idea, but the basic visual concept of a lone character in a dramatic location is a very popular one. And with good reason. It speaks of the simple notion that whether it’s in art or life, we’re all on our own journey. And of course, more importantly it just looks cool!
Everybody has their own preferred ways of working, whether it’s a freely evolving straight-to-paint method or taking a piece through a series of distinct, planned stages from a well-defined starting point. In this case (and because it’s my first full-length tutorial), I’ve gone for a structured approach. With any form of art, I think it’s equally important to see mistakes and wrong turns as it is to see beautifully finished pieces. With that in mind, I’ve included a couple of stages in the process showing how an early design decision simply weren’t working as the image took shape and how I subsequently altered the piece because of it.
Stage 1 and 2: Quick Sketching
Using my Pencil brush I quickly sketch a very loose framework for the image. It isn’t much at the moment, but these early stages are crucial for working out the broad composition and flow to avoid an intensely frustrating and possibly unrewarding struggle all the way through the rest of the piece.
Now that I have my basic framework, I can start gradually refining the lines and adding the larger elements. We’re building an ominous, frozen place. Who doesn’t love putting a few imposing, jagged rocks in there?
Stage 3: Add More Drama
So far it’s looking OK-ish, but it doesn’t really possess the dramatic feel I’m aiming for. Using the Quick Transform tool, I drag the drawing down slightly to lower the foreground and then stretch it upwards to steepen the canyon sides, which helps to drastically improve the atmosphere.
To add an extra sense of scale and enhance the impression of a precarious, winding path, I also erase the central part of the image and redraw it on a new layer. Once I’m happy with it, I merge the two layers to give me a single, unified base drawing to work from.
Stage 4: Finalize Values
For the final pencil stage I refine the drawing, adding in more detail and paying particular attention to areas of light and dark until I’m happy with the forms and values and feel the image is ready for the painting stage.
If you’re working this way, the point at which you feel it’s ready for painting will obviously vary according to your personal preference.
Stage 5: Divide Up Your Landscape
Having the ability to construct an image in layers is one of the most powerful and useful features of working digitally. Here I’ve set the main drawing layer to Multiply, which allows me to see the simple shapes I’ll be blocking in beneath it. Below that I’ve created another layer for each of the main image areas and named them accordingly.
Using my Base Builder brush and a muted grayish blue, I start blocking in the basic landforms on each layer using the main drawing as a guide.
If you’re new to Sketchbook’s interface, obtaining lighter or darker variants of your current color is very simple. Just press and hold the tip of your stylus (or mouse pointer) in the top half of the Color Puck and drag up for lighter or down for darker. An on-screen prompt will indicate the Luminance (brightness) level as you adjust it.
If you’re not used to working with layers then it’s important to get into the habit of naming them as you go. It sounds like an obvious point, but it’s so easy to overlook and end up in a real mess later on when you’re working with a ton of layers and have no easy method of distinguishing exactly which one you should be working on. It can seriously affect your workflow.
It’s also possible to sample colors directly from your image as you work by holding the Alt key (PC) or Option key (Mac). This is great for sheer speed, but bear in mind that as this method selects color by individual pixels, you may end up with slightly more tonal variation than you require. Remember you can also drag colors into the Color Editor to store them for easy single-click access as you work.
Stage 6 and 7: Define Light and Shadow
At the next stage I’ve dropped the opacity of the main drawing layer so it’s still there as a guide, but I can better see the the work taking shape beneath it. Working on each layer in turn and using a combination of Giuseppe’s Brush Set and my own brushes, I’ve started giving more definition to areas the of light and shadow and adding in all the foreground rocks and other pointy bits.
At this point I figure it’s a good idea to take a short coffee break and come back to the image with fresher eyes. Something’s been bugging me a little and after stepping away for a short while and then returning, I can immediately see it’s the plateau and rocks in the middle foreground. After a bit more consideration I decide they’ll have to go. The joy of layers!
Stage 8 and 9: Weathering the Landscape
I want to give the left side more of a sheer, imposing feel, perhaps hinting at further hidden depths from which there might be no escape. The various parts of the image are now strong enough to work without the sketch layer, so I hide that for the time being and start painting in the downward extension to the left side layer and adding more tone and definition to the other parts of the image.
As the picture develops, the large rock in the left foreground starts crying out for attention. This is supposed to be a wind and ice-ravaged environment, and over hundreds or thousands of years that kind of erosion would have some pretty dramatic effects on the landscape. With that in mind I use a sharp eraser to punch a hole in the main body of the rock and give parts of it a more splintered appearance, as if shards of it have simply been torn away by the elements.
Stage 10 and 11: Working the Center of Focus
Here I’m defining the centre of the image — the distance. I give better definition to the rock forms and add in what looks like an ancient and partly ruined entrance to… somewhere. I chose to keep this gateway looking quite low-key, as I felt it helped to add a touch of mystery (although it’s also entirely possible I’ve just played too much Skyrim).
Those rocks in the foreground still aren’t quite working for me. I hide the original foreground layer and add a new one, quickly blocking in the new contours and lines of the pathway using two flat tones. When I’m happy with the new foreground, I delete the old one to keep the layer stack as streamlined as possible.
Next, I begin adding some taller, sharper, more precarious-looking rock spires. Although these larger rocks overlap, each one is painted on a seperate layer. This will allow me to deal with the lighting on each one individually and to work in some atmospheric mist later on. I use the Group Layers option to keep this bunch of elements together. Not only does it help me locate them more easily in the list of layers, I can expand or contract the group to save some screen real estate in the Layer Editor.
Once the main spires are done, I add a single layer of smaller, scattered rocks and another with the basic shapes of the jagged spines which overhang the pathway.
Stage 12: Highlights
Now it’s time to give the rocks their dark tone and determine where the softer highlights will be so that they sit better within the image as a whole. One of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal here is the ability to lock a layer’s transparency. This literally means that when you paint over a layer that’s locked in this way, your brush will completely ignore the transparent areas and only affect parts that already have shapes or marks on them.
I use a soft, basic airbrush for this, working on each rock layer in turn. Then add a few diffuse highlights to the foreground, which will help me when I’m building up the snowy foreground in the next stage.
Stage 13 and 14: Landscape Details
Now we’ve laid down a solid base to work on, it’s time to start getting into what many people view as the really fun — the details. Because all of the rocks are on their own separate layers, I can freely use my Surface Snow brushes to build up a lumpy, pillowy covering of snow on the foreground layer beneath them. I make regular use of the Color Picker as I go, giving me a range of shadows and highlights.
Next I give each rock layer some contours, facets and highlights to enhance the feeling of harsh weathering. I use a combination of Giuseppe’s brushes and my own Rough Blocker Brush for this and keep each layer’s transparency locked to maintain that hard-edged feel.
The final part of the foreground I still need to tackle is the overhanging spines that line the pathway. I feel the existing ones don’t have enough visual impact, so I quickly draw in a few more to increase their presence. These will basically consist of just shadowy undersides with a top covering of snow.
Stage 15 and 16: Adding Textured Imagery
On a new layer above the rocks, spines and forground I paint in the extra snow cover over the tops of the spines and around the bases of the main rocks.
I really liked the effect the original sketch had when it was set to Multiply and used as an overlay in the early stages of the piece and I feel it’s now reached a point where it’s safe to add some of that extra visual interest and detail back into the image using some real-world textures.
The order in which you add texture to your layers is entirely up to you, but in this instance I start by selecting the Left Side layer. Then, using the ‘Add Image’ command under the File menu I import one of my texture photos. This places the imported image on a new layer directly above. I then select the Grayscale option under the image adjustment options and also adjust the brightness and contrast until I’m happy with it. It’s always worth experimenting with layer blending options to see what effects you can achieve, but in this scenario I know that a monochrome texture set to Multiply or Overlay will work best. Once I’ve chosen my layer mode, I lower the layer’s opacity a little to help it blend with the painted layer beneath. Next up, I use the Quick Transform tool to move the texture layer around until I’m happy with its placement.
The final part of this process is to remove the areas of texture that extend beyond where you want them to be (for example where the Left Side texture I’ve just added also overhangs some of the central, distant part of the image). There are multiple ways to resolve this which include reshaping the texture or using the magic wand to remove selections, but in this instance for speed (and for the purposes of tutorial space) I simply use a soft eraser brush to remove any unwanted areas of texture. I then repeat this texturing process on each of the main landscape layers and the larger rocks.
There are many ways of sourcing textures for this task but in this case I’m using some of my own photos so I have absolute freedom to use these as I wish. (I’ve also included these two images with this tutorial so please feel free to download and use either or both of them without limit). If you don’t have anything suitable to hand then don’t worry; a quick web search will reveal lots of sites offering free, hi-res images for use in all kinds of projects. Or alternatively if money allows then there are literally hundreds of places you can purchase high quality stock images from. Whichever route you take, please always remember to carefully check the terms of use before you go ahead and include such resources in your work.
Stage 17 and 18: Color Details
Although we’ve been dealing with a fairly monochrome image so far, it clearly needs some extra color to help it along. In this case my first choice is to add a new layer near the bottom of the stack, immediately above the central Distance. I fill the new layer with a circular gradient of violet hues and change the layer mode to Screen before finally adjusting the opacity to help the forms and details come through. This also helps to add atmosphere and enhance the sense of distance.
Adding new layers (arranged between the existing ones as necessary), I use my Cloud brushes to gently build up some mist and and add a few slight drifting effects across the tops of the foreground spines to increase the chill factor.
Stage 19: The Lone Pilgrim
Almost done. I just need to add the small figure on its journey through the landscape. This will give the final image a focus and an essential pop of colour. On a new layer, I quickly sketch in our hardy traveller and use the move and resize tools until I’m happy with the placement.
Stage 20: Adding Some Magic
For the final stage I add a new layer above the figure sketch and paint in the details using a brush set to a small size. Once I’m happy with the completed figure, I merge the two layers into one. I decided quite early on that the figure would have its own light source, but instead of a simple torch I wanted to use a staff and the suggestion of magic. On a new layer above the figure, I build up a small fireball using orange and yellow hues. I also add a trail of sparks to enhance the impression of wind flow and carefully use SketchBook’s own Glow and Neon brushes to enhance the intensity of the light for each of these small elements.
Then I add a new layer beneath the figure and gently build up some softer, reflected highlights on the surface snow and nearby landscape features. Lastly, I add a new layer at the top of the stack above everything else. I fill this with a dark, greenish-blue, before setting the layer mode to Soft Light and reducing the opacity until it just provides a subtle depth to the overall color of the image.
And that’s it! Remember that as long as you’re creating and questioning, you’ll always be learning and improving, even if it sometimes feels like a struggle. If you’re new to SketchBook Pro or finding your way with digital art in general, then I hope I’ve given you some useful tips and inspiration. Thanks so much for reading!
Every week, we give out a free brush set for our SketchBook Pro users. It’s our way of saying thanks for being a member. This week, we have something extra special for our users: not one, not two, but *three* brush sets that tackle the details of weather: We call it the Elementals Multi-Pack.
Snow Brush Set
The Icy Frost and Soft Frost brushes are perfect for adding frost to windows or other surfaces. Use brushes 6 through 9 on the diagram below (Wind Trail, Loose Swirl, Floating Trail, and Snow Piece) to create a snowy environment with dimension. The Snow Piece brush consists of one piece of snow; if you drag the brush around the screen, it will create randomly sized pieces of snow.
I made this super-snowy drawing of a lone pilgrim to show you how some of these brushes can work together to create a true winter wonderland:
Snowflake Brush Set
The Snowflake Brush Set has eight unique snowflake patterns and 16 total brushes. Each snowflake pattern has a matching randomized brush so you can easily create wind-swept trails of snowflakes. Want to make your own snowflake like this? Activate the Radial Symmetry tool and start drawing. Use your imagination or find patterns online for inspiration.
Elements Brush Set
The Elements Brush Set has nine brushes: lightning, rain, and fire brushes. Each element has three brushes. Use all three brushes of each element together to achieve a more realistic effect. As you can see with the lightning brushes, you can layer together a pretty effective lightning bolt when you use all three lightning brushes together. These brushes are all Glow style brushes: Select a color other than white and layer strokes on top of the other to achieve the Glow Effect.
The rain brushes are all slanted at a 45 degree angle. To change the direction of the rain, you can adjust the Rotation in the brush’s Advanced Settings.
The flame brushes are also all Glow type brushes. These brushes double up perfectly as smoke brushes if you set the brush color to white instead of orange. Use the Open Flame brush for the body of the fire and add strokes of Flame Lick and Flame Edge to add a fiery flair. For finishing touches, I recommend using the Blur tool on parts of your flame to add depth and implied movement. Watch the video below to see how to layer the strokes together to create a realistic flame.
Elements Brush Set: Fire Brushes in action
Installing the brush sets
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
If you love concept art and are looking to quickly illustrate detailed landscapes or cityscapes for video game backgrounds, the Glitch Brush Set will make your life much easier. You can rough out the main masses and forms you need to construct visual concepts in a matter of seconds.
Each individual brush pays homage to retro 8-bit video games and takes its name from various types of infamous screen glitches.
Download the set
The Glitch Brush Set is a collection of intentionally malformed textures that are extremely playful. They are especially good for drawing landscapes that have an artificial or mirage-like look to them, like this image of a ruined, apocalyptic landscape:
Pixels, glitches, flickers, and freezes
Each individual brush pays homage to retro 8-bit video games and takes its name from various types of infamous screen glitches. Glitch features a mix of misplaced buggy squares and static textures that allow you to capture radical rhythmic repetition by adding pixels, glitches, flickers, and freezes to your brush strokes.
Blend them for a more streamlined look
Despite the choppy origin of this glitchy brush set’s inspiration, the blendable brush options for each unique buggy brush makes it possible to create not only flat two-dimentional illustrations, but also realistic realms using free-flowing brushstrokes.
Installing the brush set
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required). Happy Glitching!
Our office is jam packed with people who studied industrial design in college, so it makes sense that one of our favorite artists, Hudson Rio, is an industrial designer. He’s a master at drawing product prototypes, including some super-sleek cars and some very luscious shoes. We thought hard about how we might create a set of brushes to help industrial designers. The answer came to us pretty quickly: Ask Hudson Rio.
A brush set that’s carefully thought out
We’re delighted to offer up a set of 13 brushes made by Hudson himself. Download Hudson Rio’s Industrial Design Brush Set and use it any time you want to emulate his style. It’s great for drawing strong lines, creamy chrome surfaces, and airbrushed highlights. Even if you don’t draw product prototypes, we’re certain you’ll want to grab this brush set; it’s useful for so many things.
Hudson added opacity markers so you can see more info about each brush at a glance.
Hudson not only made this brush set, he made some beautiful icons for it, which he emblazoned with his initials. For the three brushes and three erasers with different opacity, Hudson added a full, half, and empty circle in the corner to represent the opacity level.
The brushes are listed in the order Hudson uses them for drawing a prototype: from line work to rough sketching, to color blocking, to finishing.
A breakdown of the brushes and how to use them
For the brushes, here’s a brief description of how Hudson uses each one:
Linework Pencil: As the name suggests, this one is for doing very clean line work.
Underlay Pencil: Used for drawing rough sketch underlays.
Ink: This one is for creating an ink look for his line work when that’s what he wants. Because of the large variation in line weight with pressure, this one is also good for shading in solid areas of shadow/highlights.
Shut/Parting Lines: When drawing cars, this one is great for doors, hoods, and body panel lines, as well as for parting lines on product renders.
Soft Shadows/Highlights: Used for soft shadows and highlights. Typically, Hudson says he will shade large areas and erase away (with the airbrush eraser) the over-spray.
Glowing Highlights: Used on a layer (set to “Soft Glow”) above all the other layers. This makes the highlight areas look very bright and adds a lot of contrast to the render.
Full Opacity: Used to block in large areas of color.
Pressure Sensitive: For adding shadows/reflections quickly. Because of the variation in opacity, he can work fast without having to change brushes.
Light Opacity: Used to slowly build up value on a drawing.
Sharp Eraser: This one is similar to the default eraser, but with a sharper edge. Used to erase away color blocks or shadows/highlights to give the surface a glossy appearance.
Pressure Sensitive Eraser: Used to erase away shadows quickly. Perfect for surface reflections.
Light Opacity Eraser: Similar to the Light Opacity brush, this one is used to erase away shadows/reflections without erasing it all at once.
Airbrush Eraser: For erasing away large airbrush areas without giving them a sharp edge. Also used to shape shadows under the cars/products after airbrushing in a general shadow.
More about Hudson
Hudson Rio is a Chicago-based industrial designer who draws gorgeous cars and shoes, and he’s absolutely worth following on Instagram. In fact, he’s almost done with a 365-day challenge. We love seeing what he makes every day.
A few of our favorites from Hudson’s Instagram feed. These brushes are great for industrial design, but they’ll work just fine for characters and figures.
Installing the brush set
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required). Happy Glitching!
That’s right. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Again. If you love everything about this time of the year — the tree, the music, the nog — then we have a brush set for you. Download the Holiday Stamps Brush Set and start spreading some cheer.
If you like drawing anything about Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, or just fireplaces seen through snowy windowsills, you’ll appreciate these stamps that let you add things like colored lights, snowmen, candles, and jingling bells to your drawings. You can use these to make textures, or you can simply add them as individual 2D stamps for decoration. They’re great for making holiday cards or just doodling around. Not sure what to make? Download this coloring book page and get started with some straight up coloring.
Installing the brush set
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
Wouldn’t it be fun to make your own emojis? We thought so, too. We have a lot of feelings, and sometimes the default emoji choices just don’t express everything inside. That’s why we’ve made a collection of brush stamps for you to customize your emotions. There’s three brush sets in total. Here’s what you get in these packs:
Eye Stamps: Jeepers, creepers! We’ve got a range of emotions to express with your ocular orbits. Use the symmetry tool if you want the same eyes on each side of the face.
Mouth Stamps: These are full of frowns, grins, and even a kissy face. Pucker up!
Emoji Extras: We created some simple elements to accentuate emotions: a teardrop, hearts, demon horns, and even an anime-styled vein pop to show off how seriously mad you are.
We’ve included an emoji “base face” so you can get started creating your own custom emojis. Download the base face and check out this quick tutorial on how to use it.
Download the emoji base face and turn your frown upside down. Or whichever way you want.
First, check out our layer stack. We’ve included a guide layer that cuts the emoji bubble in half. This is to help you place eyes and mouths in the center of the face. You’ll want to click the “eye” icon to hide this guide layer when you’re finished creating your emoji.
Secondly, symmetry is your friend. Turn on the symmetry tool in vertical mode only. If the line of symmetry doesn’t show up in the middle of the emoji base, don’t worry! Grab the little bubble to move the line to the middle of your base face. Our guide layer we included can help you do this.
Once the symmetry tool is in the middle, make a new layer to put your emoji elements on. Then place your items you want to mirror on each side of the emoji such as eyes, demon horns, tear streams, or whatever else you feel like drawing at the time.
Once you’ve placed your stamps, make a new layer underneath that one to color your emotions. We hope you have fun expressing yourself, and if you make an emoji you’re proud of, please tag it #autodesksketchbook so we can find and celebrate it.
Installing the brush set
Being able to share and install these weekly free brush sets in the desktop app is one of the features for SketchBook Pro members. If you’re using the latest desktop version of SketchBook (version 8), simply double click on the .skbrushes file, and it will automatically install. Check out this article for all the details about brushes and legacy versions. If you haven’t tried SketchBook Pro, you can download a free trial and unlock Pro membership for 15 days (no credit card required).
