Rainy day brushes
Posted: January 11, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized 10 CommentsI haven’t worked in Procreate for a long time. When I opened the app this week, I was happily surprised to see some new additions to the brush menu, including a whole new tab of textured drawing brushes.
The best way for me to see what the brushes are really like is to do one monochrome drawing with each brush so I can test how the brush reacts at different sizes and with varied pressure on the Apple Pencil. I also recorded the name of each brush so I could use this as a reference if I want to duplicate any of these effects. On this rainy day, Alice the dog was happy to accommodate my experiments by pretending to close her eyes and sleep so I could draw her.
The first brush I tried was called “Blackburn”. This one has an interesting texture when you draw — a bit like brass rubbing. You can never really predict where the texture will appear, and that makes for an exciting and unexpected line, but not much control or precision when you want shading in a specific area.
I loved using the “Copperhead” brush for drawing the dog. Using it is almost like working with a really dried out Japanese brush pen, or drawing with many pencils at once. Each stroke is actually about 10 lines at once, which makes it perfect for drawing animals, or hairy humans. And when I switched the brush colour to white instead of black, I was able to get great texture for Alice’s light fur, especially on her tail.
“Oberon” was an interesting soft brush too. The less you press on the pencil, the more transparent the colour is, so if you want to achieve grey instead of black, you just need to use a lighter touch with the pencil instead of switching to grey on the colour picker.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
Great advice for tackling procreate’s growing complexity!
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Thanks! Yes, it seems there’s always something new on there which makes it hard to keep up for an infrequent user like me. But I like anything that simulates drawing on paper, so I like these new drawing tools.
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Lovely drawings, most informative too. I really like the Blackburn result. Glad to see you back on the tablet.
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It feels nice to get back to the tablet too. Thanks Alison.
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Good to see your experiments with the new brushes in Procreate. You used them to very good effect and I think it’s a great idea to repeat the drawings with the various brushes to check out their characteristics. I’m trying to figure out how I might use some of the new things in the recent update to the app as well. Good luck with it. I hope we’ll see more drawings from the iPad.
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I look forward to see what you do with the updates Jeff. No doubt they will figure prominently in some beautiful abstract that you create.
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Great sketches and info Shari ! TFS.
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Glad it was useful!
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Hi Shari, Yes, wasn’t this a great weekend to stay cozy inside!! I love how you took advantage of it trying out some new things. I have never heard the Apple thing of how you did your beautiful dog.
Welcome back! Laura
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Thanks Laura. I sketched the dog on my iPad using Procreate software and a stylus. It’s what I use when I’m too lazy to get out my watercolours.
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