Does tinkering with the brushes/pen settings a neccesity to a good art?

[Zannen00]

Asking this weird-ass question cause I've always see other artist
(* COUGH*theonesthathashugefollowingandearnsthousandsofdollars* COUGH*)
uses custom brushes for this and that, and offering the brush for a few dollars.

I'm using ClipStudioPaint since I first started doing comic and I have always use the default settings on all the brushes...

Should I really look into changing the settings and buying/download some custom brush to make the same awesome art as those artist?

[keii4ii]

It's never necessary for the result; it just makes the process more convenient and pain-free. Definitely look into it, because who wouldn't want less pain in their life?

[Shanny8]

Never a necessity to good art- just the artist's preferences. I adjust my CSP brushes to the sizes that I work with; makes creating my pages faster.

[shazzbaa]

I really like what keii4ii said -- they're not necessary to make great art, but they might be nice to use.
And also, this is probably obvious, but having the same brush as a great artist won't make your art better! It just gives you different options for making your art, imo.

I'd say playing with the settings or watching tutorials to find out what the different settings do isn't a bad idea -- I know I've definitely learned some tricks that way that made my life easier, and frankly, once you've tried out other settings, you might be able to see the effects those custom brushes have that make them so appealing. I kinda think buying a custom brush should happen because you really like what that brush specifically can do and you think that technique would be useful to the sort of work you create, not just because a person who makes great art uses this brush.

(Unless you just have a lot of money to throw around and wanna try it out; if that's the case, man, do whatever you want! xD )

I dunno, I'm a little biased since I downloaded two free custom brushes for photoshop years ago and use them for literally everything I make. I've seen some really nice custom brushes that I've thought about buying just because it might allow me to do some neat stuff and make some stylistic choices easier to achieve, but I've never thought that I need them.

[Zpreader]

I certainly think that having a firmer understanding of the tools at your disposal can improve your workflow. As a Clip Studio user myself, I've naturally changed defaults and reworked a few brushes as I've gotten time to analyze and understand my workflow in the program.

That being said, no tool by itself can improve art, improvement only comes with experience. It's not enough to have a tool, you have to understand why and when it's useful, and how to use it most effectively - and this depends completely on the individual.

One of the best examples I cite for this is screen tones. Putting screen tones down in digital is more convenient than in analogue, which is in turn probably more convenient than drawing the pattern by hand. However, your effectiveness in using any of these is restricted by your attention to detail - if you don't understand that a pattern on a piece of cloth will be affected by how it bends. or if you don't know how to emulate such an effect, screen tones will conserve time, but they will not improve the quality of the work. And in turn, someone who uses screen tones and understands these principles will more than likely be able to emulate the affect in analogue, even if it is more time consuming.

With all that out of the way, I reckon you should hold off on buying any additional materials for now. Experience (both with drawing in general and using a specific tool/program) are most important, and they take time to garner.

Who knows, after a while you may get to understand your own needs better and make a few custom brushes that are tailored to your needs far better than what you would have bought in the first place

[phen]

A necessity for good art? Of course not.

A necessity for more efficient production? Of course!

Good art tools that cater to your specific style and manner of creating, a way to get you producing art and more of it will always improve your output. So trying new brush settings and exploring your toolset is unquestionably a good thing! To have a vast knowledge of what you can do with what is provided should be a goal somewhere along your art journey, it's usually part of the process.

That said, I know of extremely skilled artists who use only basic/default brushes and settings in their work. It's truly whatever you feel is good for your work flow. I personally enjoy experimenting with the presets and creating personal brushes to explore more natural mark-making and streamline my inking time. But is that your focus? What are you trying to achieve (aside from more professional-looking art)?

Hone in on what it is you want to achieve with your digital art and really focus on that. If you adjust your brush settings and find yourself struggling, switch it up. Try a new approach, keep adjusting. Find a comfort zone and expand out from that using what you've learned about previous experiments with your tools.

[indagold]

I highly doubt buying extra brushes will make you improve your art lol. I've been using default brushes for years as well as making my own custom brushes, custom textures, custom vectors. I would certainly just make my own brushes, blowing money on brushes seems like a waste. Although I use photoshop, I don't know how limiting clip studio is.

[Mharz]

Playing with brush settings will yield you some nice different strokes that will help your art making faster. Having custom brushes isn't a factor in producing good art though. The most necessary thing in producing good art is your eyes, imagination and your understanding of principles. If you know and understand the principles in drawing regardless of what medium or what style you use, you'll always do great art.

The custom brushes are also a matter of preference.

Also you don't need to spend $$$ on custom brushes there are a lot of free custom brushes lingering on the internet. I particularly use redjuice's Brushes Set on my digital paintings. I just modified some to suit my preferences.

[alaingrey]

Just to be contrary, I've got to say that brushes absolutely improve my digital art. But also, if I had the brushes I use now eight years ago when I hadn't worked on my foundation skills, they wouldn't help. Good tools will always help your art look better, be it digital or traditional. However what's most useful is just knowing how to work the tools you have to their fullest.

.... But if you have a good foundation, Kyle brushes are a lifesaver. I never painted digitally before buying them because I was always dissatisfied with art that I felt was glassy and lifeless, but these brushes really helped to free up the way I worked, and even acted as an inspiration for many works.

[AnnaLandin]

It's not necessary, no. I use mostly default brushes in my work, and the result depends on my skill, not the tools - you can draw amazing-looking stuff with crayon and printer-paper too, if you're so inclined.

Tinkering with the tools just makes a few things easier; if you tinker with the settings so that you get a texture or a type of stroke you like with that brush, you don't have to spend as much time fiddling with the result to get it to look the way you want. Poke around with those sliders and settings and experiment a bit, and see if you can find something that suits the way you draw.

Think of it like this. Just because you buy the expensive, fancy fountain pen doesn't mean you're automatically going to become great at inking stuff - but it might be an awesome pen. It's not necessary, but it's convenient.

[JessJackdaw]

Uhh, it's already been said but I literally only use 3 brushes when I work on my comic. I get asked what brushes I use a lot and uhh... when I just say a square brush, people think I'm crazy. (I almost exclusively use a square brush for everything, haha. XD)

I don't understand the craze for brushes. They won't suddenly transform you into a better artist. Putting in the time and work will.

So I would certainly learn how the program works and how to manipulate brushes. Experimentation helped me loads to discover new tricks! And don't fret about the professionals. You'll get there with enough practice! Just focus on foundation rather than tools.

[kencoon7]

I have come to learn that it is not the program that makes the art but the artist. It takes lots of practice to get good at it and I mean lots. Get some good books and follow them. The Manga series of books is good by Mick Crilley ( I think that is right.) He explains things and is around to answer questions.
By the way, I haven't had enough practice yet but I have learned that some very simple characters can be made funny.

[thatphilippekid]

As most others have said, it depends. Some people swear by the photoshop pencil tool. Some people use a gazillion different brushes. In the physical realm, artists like Brian Ralph do their work in ball point pen and go over their lines a hundred times to vary the width. It's good to try new tools and see what fits you, but what works for one artist won't necessarily work for you. Experimentation and all that!

[epiale]

I mean, I have literally one brush I use for each comic, and one's only customized because I accidentally broke my sai's solid pen brush somehow. :,)

Really it depends heavily on what you're aiming to accomplish. You can easily produce great work with default brushes if you're a good artist, and you get used to working with them, but some effects are way easier to get with specific brushes. Just play around and figure out what works best for you.

[Zannen00]

Woah, there's a lot of replies! =D

Just wanted to say thank you all for your thoughts, opinions and definitely helpful advice! I really appreciate it!

... Well, time to go and practice more!