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I might be exaggerating a little, but for a lot of people that works digitally, that\u2019s exactly what happened when Kyle Webster\u2019s brushes were made available for free for Adobe Creative Cloud users (the membership itself isn\u2019t free though!) His brushes are loved the world over by artists and illustrators around the world like Christoph Niemann, Sophie Diao, Mark Conlan and Samantha Kallis.<\/p>\n
What if the tools that these artists use were now in your hands? What would you do with them? What would you hope you could create with it?<\/strong><\/p>\n Would you try your hardest to emulate the artists who\u2019ve chosen certain brushes as their favourite? Or would you think of using their works as inspiration for your own practice, studying their strokes to see if you could recreate them? Or would you set out to just have fun with them to see where it takes you?<\/p>\n It’s all good, really.<\/p>\n While having special brushes in Photoshop does a lot to help elevate one\u2019s digital work (or at least make things easier), I realised that traditionally, we\u2019ve been using the tools that have been in existence for a long time as well. Tools that were used by Picasso, Monet, Mondrian: the humble pencil or charcoal. A paintbrush, and a variety of mediums that are in existence until today \u2013\u00a0oil paints, gouache, watercolour, pastel. Artists who play with sculptures, collages and paper, among the many, many different ways of expression, whether it\u2019s in 2D or 3D.<\/p>\n It might be helpful to remember that the tool(s) that you have in your hand, whether it\u2019s traditional, or digital; is merely an extension yourself. A complex culmination of things that no one else has: your history, personality, hopes, fears, ideas and concepts; along with your emotions, thoughts and passions.<\/p>\n And while we may be wielding the same tool, we\u2019re all very different, and that is what makes art-making so beautiful.<\/p>\nImage: Menina IV: Paintbrush Portraits by Rebecca Szeto \u2013 based on Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s Las Meninas (1656) (source<\/a>)<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"