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Brushes: Example and Choosing Your Settings

01/11/12  |  Posted by Niki Smith  |  Posted in Digital Creativity

So, your CIA iPad came with a few apps for art-making, one of which is called Brushes. For those familiar with Photoshop and working digitally, the options are probably very familiar. There are 6 layers, 5 layer modes, and a variety of brush textures and opacity options. Over the break, I took a road trip with some friends, and here's one of the Brushes pieces I sketched on the road. It's great to have a portable digital sketchbook! So I thought I'd share what settings I used to make this piece. First, I went to the main iPad Settings app. There, I selected "Inverted Pressure". What does this mean? Well, the iPad isn't like a Wacom tablet-- it doesn't have pressure sensitivity. Instead, Brushes mimics the ability by changing the width of your brush depending on how fast or slow you are moving your stylus (or finger). By default, your line is its normal thickness when drawing slowly, and it thins out if you speed up your stroke. I've found that I prefer to work with this option inverted-- when I want fine, detail work, I draw slowly, and my lines are thin. When I speed up, it thickens my line. I recommend trying out both options to find what works best for you! You can seem my specific brush settings in the Brushes app. Referring to the last option, I make sure ot have "Vary Size With Speed" turned on. For this piece, I left the Vary Opacity option off, but I have used it in other pieces. In this sketch, I used one of the textured brushes with the opacity at 100%. Here, you can see my 6 layers. I left a white, empty background on the bottom, and did all of my drawing on transparent, new layers. Layer 2: Lineart, set to Multiply Layer 3: Flat colors for figure, set to Multiply Layer 4: Flat background color, set to Multiply Layer 5: Shading. Single purple color, set to Multiply. Using the same shade helps unify a piece. Layer 6: Highlights. Single yellow color, set to Overlay. You can see how it effects all 5 layers underneath (including the outlines). Give it a try!

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