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View Full Version : Missing an efficient blending feature for Oil brush.



sweep2rails
02-17-2016, 04:30 AM
Hi, ArtRage team.

I got to know there is a blending mode in Knife brush, but it intends to remove the bristle look of strokes painted by Oil brush.
You know, bristle blending is also a commonly used skill in traditional oil painting. In fact, the traditional oil artists rarely use an knife to blend, but often use bristle brushes instead.

Recently, I tried a tiny free painting application called Verve. (You can download Verve here: http://www.taron.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4) It works similar as ArtRage. It can also produce realistic natural painting like Oil brush of ArtRage does. However, it additionally provides an efficient way to blend Oil strokes using the same bristle brush. It can perfectly and easily produce a bristle style blending or a very smooth look blending using just the same bristle brush.

This is a quick test screenshot below:
89087

rscottfree
02-17-2016, 08:42 AM
You can get a similar effect by setting the oil brush to 0% loading and 0% thinner (and I usually turn stiffness all the way up), and stroking over existing oil on the canvas. However, this is very limited because even with very thick oil on the canvas, the dry oil brush does not carry the oil like you would expect from thick, wet oil, so your blending is very limited. Using the dry brush tends to quickly "dry out" the oil and flatten it into the canvas, making it so you can't rework the paint after the first couple strokes with a dry brush.

I do wish that there was a dry brush blender that worked more like a blending knife but with the dry bristle look.

*Edit*
I just saw these blending types linked in another page:

http://artrageteam.deviantart.com/art/Blending-with-Brushes-in-ArtRage-578063151
http://artrageteam.deviantart.com/art/Palette-Knife-Preset-Blending-Effects-in-ArtRage-578065795

They don't address the things I would like to see improved about the dry-brush blending, but there certainly are more combinations for blending than I knew of.

sweep2rails
02-17-2016, 04:22 PM
You can get a similar effect by setting the oil brush to 0% loading and 0% thinner (and I usually turn stiffness all the way up), and stroking over existing oil on the canvas. However, this is very limited because even with very thick oil on the canvas, the dry oil brush does not carry the oil like you would expect from thick, wet oil, so your blending is very limited. Using the dry brush tends to quickly "dry out" the oil and flatten it into the canvas, making it so you can't rework the paint after the first couple strokes with a dry brush.

I do wish that there was a dry brush blender that worked more like a blending knife but with the dry bristle look.

*Edit*
I just saw these blending types linked in another page:

http://artrageteam.deviantart.com/art/Blending-with-Brushes-in-ArtRage-578063151
http://artrageteam.deviantart.com/art/Palette-Knife-Preset-Blending-Effects-in-ArtRage-578065795

They don't address the things I would like to see improved about the dry-brush blending, but there certainly are more combinations for blending than I knew of.

Thanks for your reply.

Actually, I got to know those blending techniques in ArtRage, and I'd been using them in practice for a long time. However, those techniques may somehow produce an unpredictable effect and take time to achieve an ideal result.

In Verve, you can Hold Shift Key while painting to blend efficiently. Usually, it only takes one to three strokes to get a good blending result, when blending strength has been properly set.That blending feature is actually a smudging effect for every bristle brush. Meanwhile, you can also tweak bristle amount to effect the blending style which maybe a bristle or smooth look.

So, I wish there was smudge blending settings in the Oil brush of ArtRage and they could also work with bristle amount setting. That would make the oil painting workflow more robust.

sweep2rails
02-17-2016, 04:55 PM
Here are some features demo videos of Verve, I hope ArtRage team take a look:
http://www.taron.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31

markw
02-18-2016, 11:39 PM
A yes from me too for what its worth!
Would love to have something a bit more "bristely" for blending oils.

Stavros
02-24-2016, 04:28 PM
Artrage is wonderful...and I have done some amazing things with it but….
I too have been working with Verve for about a year now and I have to say…
Once you start painting with the basic paradigm of a single brush with modifiers …..shift to smudge, control to erase
And realizing how fast, efficient and intuitive it is...
Then going back to "dedicated tools" like knife and eraser seems painful and archaic.
Its a no brainer….you can still have dedicated tools but….
Every brush should also be a blender and eraser with the addition of modifiers….it just makes sense
Even on iPad….all you have to do is add button modifiers on the edge of the screen.
Verve and Rebelle are are breaking new ground in realism….even if they are not quite ready for primetime!
Hope we see some of this new technology in artrage soon….basic tools haven't changed in years!
Its been waaaaaay too long artrage team!!!!!!!
:)