Does the Brush Matter?
After watching loads of online art tutorials by awesome artists like RossDraws, SamDoesArts, and Marco Bucci, I picked up on a common phrase I'm sure at least 70% of them said: "The brush does not matter."
I'm sure you've already heard this multiple times and just want to know which brushes are my favorites...and I will 👀
But before I share my list of favorite brushes, I'd like to emphasize that there isn't a single brush that can be the ultimate solution for our digital art needs.
When I first began exploring digital art, my goal was to create stunning pieces like my favorite artists (and become a webtoon artist but I've shoved that into a long-forgotten archive folder). And perfecting my brushstrokes—while an enjoyable journey—was a lengthy process.
I purchased my first custom brush set in February 2021. And as you can see, there really isn't a big difference between the drawings made on November 2020 and February 2021. Custom brush sets added nice textures to my work, but what truly improved the quality of my art were videos like:
Bam Animation Clean Line Art - Not only does this video teach you how to make clean line art, but the exercises included were instrumental in helping me learn how to control my Apple pen on a slippery tablet screen.
SamDoesArts - While it's not a specific video, Sam always emphasized the importance of soft and hard edges in his work. Subscribing to his Patreon will likely give you access to one of his monthly tutorials where he discusses this topic.
After getting comfortable with my slippery tablet screen and learning a few more fundamentals such as color, shadows, shapes, etc., I delved into two information-packed video series on digital rendering (rendering basically just means painting/making edits until you're done).
Rossdraws' Bootcamp - The tips and tricks I learned were foundational and significantly accelerated my learning process. You can even check out his first class (portrait rendering) for free on YouTube.
Marco Bucci 10 Min Series - Really tied everything together and clarified many of the questions I had about rendering. It quickly became my personal favorite resource.
After that, I practiced like hell and studied tons from even more artists. Below is my progress after soaking up all that foundational info (and a lot of hard work practicing on my own).
This Drawing Was Just Done by a Round Brush
SamDoesArts even made a whole video dedicated to creating a piece with just the default procreate round brush to say "the brush does not matter" and it drives the point home.
He's got another video where he compares two different pieces of artwork: one created using only default brushes, and another using his own custom brush set. While the custom brushes certainly make a difference, he was still able to bring the first painting to an amazing level of quality.
With That Being Said...
Although I stand by their statement of "brushes won't fix your problems", I do have a select few I've gathered into a 'favorites' folder that I'd like to share with you! Use 'em wisely 😊
Procreate Default 6B Pencil
Procreate Inka
Procreate Gouache
Help out another artist by commenting your current favorite brush! Thank you & good luck with wherever you are in your art journey 🤎
- Sock 🧦