Comic Weekly Shop Thread - Let's Talk Brushes

[leecomics]

Those woods are so dope. This art style definitely works for a horror comic.

1px is pretty small though. What resolution do you work in?

[leecomics]

Nice work @spudfuzz, I'm a fan of the lineart and your color palette is really pretty too.

Out of curiosity, how long does it take you to "chisel" away at your lines?

[Luminosophy]

Thank you! :>

Honestly not as long as you might think, once you get into a habit you just get faster at it as you go (learning how to control your lines better significantly cuts down on erasing time.) Longest ones can take a couple hours if they have details like super curly hair like above (less depending on if frames cut part out of it out.) But I don't think I really set out to be as fast as possible. xD

[Jenny-Toons]

I use SAI for both my inking, coloring, and a lot of my special effect. But when I want to add a little bit more "magic", I also add in some Photoshop effects as well.

1. My lineart brushes vary base on the type of comic I'm working on. For my horror comics, I use the Sketch pen and the Xamag Pen to add a bit of roughness to the work (and add to the mood as well). For my fantasy works, I use the Scribble Pen to add a bit of softness. And for my one Noir comic, I use the Ink pen for a bit of hardness. Here are some examples of those pens!

1. For backgrounds, I do a mixture of lineart and lineless painting-type styles. For this, I often use special effect pens you can find mostly on DA. Some examples are pens that create bark, leaves, and clouds. In terms of SAI, I also use the Multiply, Overlay, and Shade Opacity settings in order to add more layers and depth to my backgrounds. Here are some examples!
   

   
   
   
   

2. As for the dynamics, I don't always change the size or have thick and thin layers in my work. A lot of times, I use colors to show distance, size, and scaling. From my previous examples, A lot of my lineart is one-dimensional. It start out that way, as shown below (not really NSFW, but there is blood just in case):

Summary

However, by using the Opacity setting and different colors, I'm able to add layers to it!

I hope this helps a little bit!

[leecomics]

Thanks for the fast reply!
-Lee

[leecomics]

This helps quite a bit, thank you!
Your art is beautiful, for some reason I'm really drawn to the trees' shadows in your second (I guess 5th) image and the river you painted :0

Since your work isn't on Tapas yet I guess I need to wander over to DeviantArt now
-Lee

[dawgofdawgness]

I use Sai and do most of my lineart with uhh these settings:

I like using textured brushes like this one since it's much easier for me to sketch things without being a perfectionist. It gives my drawings sort of a grainy look but it can have a nice pencil feel to it too. It also gives them more personality in my opinion. ^_^

the only downside to using these kinds of brushes are when you use the bucket tool and it leaves some white spots in the lineart which you might not like.

If you're someone who constantly blocks in lineart/ adds hard shadows into your drawings, I would recommend a less textured brush if you don't want the white spots everywhere.
Also, though, if you tend to be a perfectionist with your lineart, I would try out some textured/grainy brushes to get out of the habit of making each line perfect. It makes you feel more like you're using actual pencil and paper

[feardeer]

I used to be one of many artists who swore by the hard round brush at varying opacity for everything I drew or painted, but nowadays I experiment with all sorts of brushes. I love browsing Clip Studio assets looking for neat additions to my artistic arsenal.

My recent favorite brush for line art and inking is, hands down, Perfect Pencil by user postdes on the Clip Studio asset store. It's free and it's great.

It may seem counter-intuitive to use a "pencil" to ink, but I just love the texture and versatility of it! I can use it for crisp lines, hazy lines, hatching, smooth shading, etc.

As far as settings go, I always use pressure sensitivity to control the width of my brush. The other important setting is stabilization, which I generally set pretty high unless I need to do some really fine details. I could never go back to working in an art program that does not have a stabilizer!

[scythe]

Not silly at all. No, these two brushes are locked in position. The ink pen pressure sensitive, so the thickness changes, while the blending brush changes its opacity. I really have to push to get it to put down a solid color.

If I need a thinner or thicker line while inking and the angle is perpendicular to the slant of the brush, I'll just rotate my canvas. I usually rotate my canvas anyway, so that my strokes move diagonally across the tablet, which I find gives me consistent, confidently drawn lines.

[scythe]

Youtube has everything you need to learn how to make brushes. Myself, I try to emulate a traditional inking technique, but some of the hacks people have come up with are incredible, with cross-hatching brushes for example.

I've bought brush suites over the years and used them plenty in making digital art, but when it comes to my comic work, I tend to stick to just a tried and trusted few.

[eochoa92]

That's amazing!

[Rowein]

It's like that meme of Yugi Oh, but I use the default brushes in Paint Tool Sai.
My favourite for drawing is the brush

And I have a couple of personalized brushes that simulate a mechanical pencil.

For paint I use the default airbursh and watercolor for make that smooth effect. I blend like a mad

[quicksilverhg]

Thank you! I’m so glad you think so!
Yeah, 1 px is puny. I work in print res (300 dpi) at 8.5” x 11”, but the line still shows up at 100% and in print, so it works. (I think.)

[spadesart]

What's your standard lineart brush?

its changed a lot, i started with sais airbrush tool, then the pen tool, then clips generic circle brush, a custom oval brush, and now i use a textured oval brush.

i also shade my lineart with a watercolor brush i downloaded

Do you use anything special for backgrounds?

mine are mostly hand drawn, ive been using 3d models to trace off to save time though.

i also add a blur effect because i like the look

Do you use pen/pencil dynamics when doing lineart?

i use pen pressure, and the oval brush shape also adds volume to the lines

[yondoloki]

Ooh! I love these kind of threads!

1. What's your standard lineart brush?
I use Photoshop CS6 and I managed to buy Kyle T. Webster's Mega Pack Brush Set before it became PS CC exclusive, and after I got it I swear by them and haven't really used anything else since. So for line art i use Kyle's Chisel brushes.

Here's an example

and I made a version without colour so you can better see the lineart

2. Do you use anything special for backgrounds?
I use the same brush for characters and environments, I just vary the brush size depending on how close something is to the "camera". The closer it is, the thicker lines and vice versa (The 10 and 35 px ones I made myself).

3. Do you use pen/pencil dynamics when doing lineart?
Eh... Shape dynamics? I honestly don't know, I'm not good with all the fidling with those dynamics, which is why I use already made brushes, and then modify a bit if needed...

[leecomics]

Thanks for showing your lineart, these brushes do seem pretty great!
I'm slowly improving my lineart so this amount of detail helps me out a lot!

[yondoloki]

You're welcome! I'm glad it helps!!

[leecomics]

The watercolor brush shading looks great in your first pic.

I'm not doing much coloring in my work yet, but I'm also really digging the color palette you used.

Did you hand-draw the shirt pattern as well?

Finally, seems like people are divided pretty evenly between those who use pen pressure/ those who don't. Good stuff.

-Lee

[spadesart]

the shirt pattern is the default morning glory brush in clip!

[Shanny8]

I use Flyland Designs HB pencil or a rough pencil I downloaded on Clip Studio. I rotate between 3-4 brushes when inking my but the main one I use is the MS4 Flexible Nib from Frenden- it allows me to make the nice lines with out a lot of control. For background work I either use line art tools or for "organic" type stuff I'll use MS4 Organic Brush from Frenden, that produces thinner lines compared to the main brush I use.