Intro

In this tutorial I'm going to show you some of my favorite brush assets.

I've carefully chosen my personal favorite brushes and packaged them together for you!

A few these brushes have been imported over from another program, then tweaked to perfection to work best with Clip Studio Paint's brush engine. Go grab the brush pack here:

(This has now updated to comply with asset rules)

Enjoy!

 

I’m gonna unpack how to use these brushes, and what they do effectively.

 

Below are some time-lapses (using the new feature!) of paintings each done entirely with one brush*

*not including default erasers

 

This is to show the kind of rendering effects you can get with each brush, as well as show of their individual personalities!

All GIFs in this tutorial loop 3 times then pause on the finished illustration.

 

Without further ado, let me introduce you to my friends!

Digital Joe - Digital Elliptical

First up, it’s Digital Joe.

Digital Joe is a simple but honest worker. A no-nonsense approach to work, Joe is a real one. He works hard, and he works fast. As Joe would say; “It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.”

 

Digital Joe is a basic elliptical brush with opacity set to pressure. The spacing on this brush is relatively high to assure quick lines.

 

Just look at Joe go. You’ve never seen a harder working lad. Cheers Joe!

Great at:

• Blocking in values and foundations

• Loose Sketching and rough layout

• Really a great all-rounder

 

Professor Pastel - Dry Pastel

Meet Professor Pastel. She has a PhD in being crisp. An anxious type who probably drinks too much coffee, which might explain her scratchy though concise hand-written notes.

 

Professor pastel is a heavily textured brush with a nice tapering effect, almost has a grainy or drybrush feel when used lightly. Very good for adding lost texture back in.

 

She’s always ready to help out anywhere she can!

 

Great at:

• Creating a traditional/sketchy feel

• Adding texture/grain to surfaces

• Adding a chalky, loose effect

Markus the Magician - Brush Marker

Markus the Magician is a skilled wizard. He's often getting carried away by his cantrips or lost in his spells. He takes pride in the way his magic weaves itself through the air.

 

Markus has a gradient effect, with pressure based opacity and overall soft feeling. This brush is really good at getting into the flowing forms of a subject.

 

Let the magic flow through you, young apprentice!

Great at:

• Gesture Drawing (flowing actions/movements)

• Glazing or adding a haze effect

• Adding a feeling of movement (makes for nice fabric folds!)

Olivia - Oil Paint

Olivia is a skilled artist who likes nothing more than to paint. Even though she wears an apron, she still paints in old clothes because she knows she'll make a mess while working on her next masterpiece.

 

Olivia is a very pleasant brush to paint with. Lines flow nicely while maintaining good texture.

This brush uses the tilt function too! So if your tablet has that capability, try holding your pen at different angles while drawing to control your line thickness.

 

Let's get painting!

*Note: This is the brush I used to make the example piece on my Getting Fancy with Blend Modes tutorial!

*GIF compression has caused some visual errors

Great at:

• A traditional feeling

• Painterly effects

• Gesture Drawing

• Blocking Values

• Happy little accidents (sketching around with this brush leads to some interesting shapes)

Arthur - Airbrush

Arthur is a relaxed guy. He likes cats, overcast days and soufflé. He has an obesssion with soft things, comfort is his number one priority. If it's plush, he probably owns it.

 

Arthur is a good all-round airbrush. The brush has some tapering, so, when used at a small scale you can create very fine line art. With this technique, it's very good at rendering soft hair and fur.

 

There's nothing wrong with comfort!

*I wouldn't recommend this brush for painting, this one was difficult!

Great at:

• Rendering smooth surfaces

• Removing or evening out texture

• Sky, atmosphere and clouds

 

Outro

I hope these brushes are helpful to you in your artwork!

And before you ask, I'm afraid I did do 5 original finished paintings for this tutorial.

(It was a lot of work!)

Luckily I learned even more about my favorite brushes and even made improvements to them along the way.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and meeting my best brush buddies!