Creating a painterly illustration
In this section, we will see how to create a basic paintbrush, or a more textured one, and how to use them. Plus, I will show you your greatest ally, the gradient map.
Creating a paintbrush
Creating a painterly illustration is half taking precise steps and half intuition that is based on training regarding which color to choose or the type of brushwork style to use.
For a painterly style, you don't need a fancy brush if you're a beginner; you can use your workhorse brush with the Color mixing settings on. This is because, in painting, the most important part is not the texture but the color and shape of the strokes in relationship to each other. A good video talking about this is The best brush for digital painting by Sinix Design, which can be found on YouTube.
There are three color mixing options: Amount of paint, Density of paint, and Color stretch:
Figure 7.59 – Workhorse brush with color mixing options activated
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