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Thread: DOs - SquareMess Brushes (brushes 6-8 of 8)

  1. #41
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Posts
    671
    Quote Originally Posted by D Akey View Post
    This is a very cool share. I'm not entirely sure about his saying to paint an entire painting using only one brush. I agree that if one introduces into a painting a brush that does something really at odds with the painting it could stand apart from the rest of the painting which would be distracting and look like a flaw or bad choice.

    On the other hand, it depends on how you paint and how much any one stroke is a component to the level of finish. I don't think the brush matters in some cases, and could actually enhance the beauty. Plus, using one brush could make a painting's marks redundant. That might be analogous to a musician only playing quarter notes. Fine if you're Bach or Philip Glass or to draw attention to the fact that it's deliberately limited.

    In the real world I used many different brushes where the rule of thumb was to use the biggest brush you could get away with and adapt to each step in the process. But they all had their uses. For me, with my style, I got to where the painting mechanics were invisible, and so the point was the illusion of reality rather than a painterly painting. Granted, that's merely one way, but there are stages in all paintings where one builds up a painting to a point and only the last bravura strokes matter. In that case, using one brush would be good, varying the size and so forth, for highlights or to make it look juicy.

    None the less, it's always good to be exposed to different techniques and ideas and it's good to give them a go and see what happens in a practical context. Limits are not necessarily a bad thing.

    And as to making your own brushes -- I think that's a brilliant idea and may be one of the ways to create a unique look. But for me, I like to have variety and lots of choices, the more the better. It comes from the type of purposes one has for doing art. I have done a goodly amount of photo manipulation and so I use lots of tricks using selections and blending, smearing and adjusting etc what is already there to begin with. So they may not be considered a brush per say, but they are a way to make a mark. I have then used that for paintings as well. And things I do with paintings can have application for messing with photos.

    Anyway, I can now see what you were doing with the tulips painting, where it looks as if you used one brush to see where it went. Very cool experiment. It felt sort of Seurat pointillist which is fine if one is Seurat or exploring a concept (optically mixing) rather than merely technique farther down the evolutionary time line. Just as a late comment with a little more of an idea where you were going with it, I might suggest you try maybe introducing some variety. But by all means you're way out in front on this with the brushes. I just downloaded the square brushes and look forward to trying it when I get some time.

    Thanks for sharing all this investigation. It is exciting.
    I have to agree with your analysis here. An unthinking blanket rule of only one brush is unjustified and when the subject and composition could benefit from different brushes the rule is obviously much too limiting. The point to be taken though is that the use of brushes and the results produced should be diligently observed and choice of brushes and how they are used made with care.

    These are my first set of brushes and I see now that they need some work but they illustrate in rough form what I am aiming at, which is looser and slightly unpredictable, similar to what happens when you use a real brush and just touch the surface while varying the orientation and surfaces of the brush touching the canvas. I don't know how realistic it can be made using the custom brush system but I'm trying.

  2. #42
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Reno, Nevada
    Posts
    328
    Thanks for the kind words Guys! I think walking away from it and coming back helped to enhance it this time around. Some of it was new brush strokes and some of it was just using the layer filters to enhance what was already there from before.

    One brush for the entire painting kind of rubbed me the wrong way in his video. I can see merit in that approach but it really depends on the style of painting? I can't say I've ever looked at the Master's paintings closely enough to determine if they only painted with one brush. I will need to google that and see if there is any truth in that statement or it is just one YouTubers opinion...

    Here is the comment that has the highest ranking on his video:

    Quote Originally Posted by gianfar
    Someone should paint this character holding a pie and a baby and share it to the internet with no context.
    Am I a little inclined to agree with that quote? Maybe!

    Thanks again guys, for the great fireside chats!
    Robert Hopkins

  3. #43
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Posts
    671
    Just wondering, has anyone has found the SquareMess brushes useful?

    I am continuing to tweak and add variations, if anyone want them I can post, but if these brushes are truly only for me, that's fine too!

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