Mastering the Carbon Stick Brush in Procreate

1. Presentation: Welcome to this new class, "Mastering the Carbon Stick Brush In Procreate". I'm Maurizio De Angelis, a professional illustrator based in London. I publish a number of courses so far, but this one is specifically designed for those who wish to master a simple yet powerful technique. The subject of our class is a vibrant sign along the Columbia flower market in London that offers an incredible deal. Three succulent plants for five or five pound nodes. With this call in mind, we'll look at how to color these small plants here. Start by setting up the canvas and adjusting a few brush settings, then we're ready to go. It's okay if you're a complete beginner. We learn this method step by step, keeping it simple and consistent. Because we want to attract people with our sign, we want to use a catchy, lively and colorful style. I feel the cable stick is a wonderful brush that is both evocative and visually appealing. We'll begin by breaking down the composition and then paying the leaves, the boughs, the petals, the stems, the compass, and ultimately the stamens. Once we finish our illustration, we can play around with color changes and tweak some adjustments until we find a nice combination. It might seem like a lot, but don't worry. By the end of this class, you'll be able to use this brush confidently and create your own style. So let's get started. 2. Setting Up the Canvas: Okay, welcome to this course. In this class, we'll make a vibrant sign like the ones you see at markets, shops or pubs, usually advertising a deal. And we'll do it with a carbon stick brush. In this scenario, we imagine ourselves walking down London's Columbia Road Flower Market, where you can get three succulent plants for five pounds, which vendors call, or a tener for ten pounds. I have a friend who works there who told me that such a deal is impossible to find. But whatever, because we want to attract people, we want to use a style that is catchy, fun, and colorful. And I believe the carbon stick is an excellent brush that is highly evocative and appealing. So let's get started. What do we have? We have a background, which is the slate and the frame. A drawing done with a white pencil, and finally the palette. We'll begin by painting this flower here using this purplish color for the petals, green for the leaves, and brown for the vase. Okay, the first thing that we want to do is to add a new layer. We need to choose the carbon stick, which is found under charcoal, and then carbon stick. We simply need to make a couple of changes. We want to lower the scale of the paper to around half of that. Around 17% would be great, and then we click done. Now if I grab this color here, I can test the brush and dy is quite large. I'd like to lower the brush size to roughly 2% With 2% we get something like this. Another thing that I want to modify is the tilting option. Because when you paint with the pen perpendicular to the screen, it looks like this. But when you tilt the pen, brush stroke becomes larger, which I don't like. If I go back to the carbon stick settings and select the apple pencil tamp, I can drop the size to zero, which will turn off the tilting effect. Now if I paint or light this, the strokes are identical and that's something that I want. Okay, I think we are ready to start. In our first lesson, we're going to paint the leaves. 3. Leaves: Okay, in this first lesson we're going to paint the leaves. The thing that I want to do is to create a new layer and rename it leaves. We'll be using the green palette. I don't want to start with the darkest color, but with the second one, I push and hold to select the color. Now that I selected the brush and the appropriate layer, I can begin painting the leaf here. It's probably best as you leave the opacity at 100% and the size to around 2% The way I want to color this is to follow the surface of the leaf. My goal here is to entirely fill the area in this fashion. Yet I still want to sense the roughness from the brush. It doesn't have to be too intense. Let's say this will be the first coat. Now I want to do the same thing with these leaves. Going to speed up this process because otherwise the class would be too long and you will get tired quickly. The procedure would be the same as with the first leave. Therefore, we'll paint the remaining leaves with the intention of following the surface. Now using the same method, we'll paint the shorter leaves at the bottom. Again, we try to follow the orientation of the leaves. It's perfectly fine if you don't manage to paint the smaller parts, cavities or corners. Remember, this is an illustration done with a charcoal on a slate. Like in real life, a charcoal or a stick is not a tool that can be used to get super precise artworks. The result is clearly less precise, but that's the beauty of it. Obviously, if we were looking for a highly polished or even photo realistic illustration, maybe the carbon stick would not be the brush to use. Now that we have done that, we'd like to continue painting on the same layer, but we'd like to switch to the third, the one in the middle. We'll ignore the darkest color for now. With this color, we want to add a brat mainly on the left side of the leaf. I don't want this to be a continuous treatment. Instead I want to modulate the pressure in order to simulate the shape of the leaf. We can move the drawing layer on top of everything to make it more visible. But it's better maybe to reduce the opacity of this layer as it's too distracting and possibly change the mode to add. Now we want to make sure you re select the leaf layer and then we can continue shaping the area in this manner. I can now continue on to this leaf. And using this concept, I'll paint the remaining leaves while slightly spinning up the video. Now it's time for the smaller leaves at the bottom, and here it's more about making the tips of the leaves brighter. Now that we completed the second phase, we can move onto the second brightest color and select it. But this time I want to drop the brush size to 1% and set the capacity to roughly 75% or 76% Around that amount, we want to create a perimeter with a smaller and brighter brush. But as you can see, the line is not a continuous and steady line, but rather a number of lines that are added one on top of each other with a variety of pressure applied. That's the way you want to get if you want a line that is dynamic. And it also makes sense to select a price at, for the perimeter because we're painting on a black or extremely dark background to make the image stand out Again, I'll continue with this technique for the remaining leaves. So make sure to adjust the pressure applied to the screen and draw an extensive number of lines. The same idea applies to the smaller leaves. Now that the perimeters have been completed, we can add additional. As to the leaves with the same color. The idea is to always follow the surface of the leaves. We want to add these shorter lines here and there, but not really randomly. But rather by envisioning the three dimensional shape of the leaves, and inserting these lines to indicate a change of direction or a bump or a vein. This approach will give the illustration a sense of dynamism. Because the outcome is not realistic, it will create the feeling of a nice and engaging artwork even more. You can also notice that they are slightly less intense at the perimeter lines, which is intentional because you want a more visible border and more delicate features inside. Now we can repeat the process with the remaining larger and smaller leaves. Then you can go back to the other areas and add some lines as you see fit. Now it's time for the darkest color in our green palette. These color will be used cautiously, mainly to define places in the shade or where they are cast shadows. I'll start here. You would expect to see some darker tones. Once again, I'd like to use this new deeper color to slowly define the forms of the leaves. You can see that it's not very present, but it serves a purpose. Now we can have a darker area, since the left in front casts shadows on the one behind it. Then I repeat this process for the smaller leaves. This is the type of treatment I believe is appropriate for these types of illustrations. Now we're going to apply this color here. But first there's a little trick that I want to show you. I can duplicate this layer if I select it. And Sw duplicate will duplicate the layer resulting in two identical layers. You can see that the colors are now stronger, you can see the difference. If I toggle the visibility on and off, because I like the effect, I want to merge these two layers together by pinching them. Moving on, I can use the brightest green in our palette, create a new layer that I can rename it into leaves, highlights, because the light source is coming from up here. We want to use the brightest color to simulate the reflections, also known as specular lights, resulting in the brightest spots of light on the subject. At this point, I would put this color here. Here, maybe here. You don't want to overdo it, it's just a splash of light. Consider where the brightest light would fall and then add some colors there. As you can see, it's fairly simple, but rather effective. We can focus on the left side of the leaves because that is where the light is coming from. But we also want to add some strokes around the mid line of the leaves, just a tiny amount on the right side. I know it's tempting because coloring is quite relaxing. Don't overdo it. Similarly, I want to create highlights for the younger leaves. I can now remove the arrow. Now I only want to show you the difference that highlights can make, which is fairly significant. And you can see it for yourself. If I show and hide the layers, I did this on a different layer. I said I don't want to duplicate the highlights as the result would seem untidy and aggressive. The highlights are the very final touches and they are pure. And it's good as right now that the leaves are done, were ready to paint the vase in the next lesson. 4. Vase: In this lesson, we're going to paint this little vase. I think I'm going to put the palette on top of things to make everything nice and clear. To paint the vase behind the leaves, I can select the background layer and then make a new layer, renaming it vase. We want to approach the vase in the same way that we approach the leaves. I'll choose the second darkest color, return to full opacity, and then set the brush to 2% With the color selected, we want to create the first layer of color. The base layer. We want to follow the surface direction as we did for the leaves. In this case, I want to mainly follow the horizontal direction. I don't want to paint underneath the leave because we would see some brown coming through since the pat isn't quite opaque. But I do want to paint around the leave as we were doing this in real life and not in the digital world, something in this style. Nice and simple. This is also a common brownish, reddish shade equivalent to sanguine, which was a popular color during the Italian Renaissance. I believe I may now drop the brush size to 1% since I want to paint the rim of the vase, and I may need to be more exact and attentive here, I can also paint the other side. I can probably return to 2% and feel this space. And that's it, I think it's fine. And as we progress, I choose the color in the middle. Because this is a cylindrical shape, I know from experience that the light will fall around this place here. Keeping this in mind, I want to begin coloring around this area, maintaining a cylindrical orientation. Then I want to shade the color towards the darker side, easing off the color here. And on this side now, a little closer to the rim, the light is translated a little. Because we painting on a different plane, it catches the light in a slightly different way. Only now that the major orientation has been established, I can paint vertically. Since I also want to disturb the consistency of the stroke direction. It's a matter of mixing and matching in different directions, but not randomly, but with purpose. Now I'm ready to choose the second brightest color. Reduce the brush size to 1% D, opacity to about 75% With this color, I'd like to add some light along the rim and towards the bottom. Then using a more delicate approach, I'd like to shape this section to give it a cylindrical appearance. My goal is to add volume to the vase. Now, using the darkest color, we want to create some shadows. Which is an important step because adding these stone will make the artwork stand out more. I'd like to begin just under the rim of the vase where you would expect to see some shadows, darker colors just behind the leaf, possibly a litter here as well. And then underneath this leaf, which is just in front and rather obvious now that the drawing is hidden, I can see the actual work. And you can see that the vase is not well defined. So I want to reinforce these margins with the darkest color selected. At this point with a brighter color, I can best outline the shape of the vase. Doing so with a lighter cala is definitely a good choice, given the black background saying treatment along the rim of the vase. But now I feel like this area here has to be better defined. When I hide the drawing, I want to quickly switch back to the darkest shade. Now, just like we did with the leaves, I can duplicate this layer and see how it looks. I believe it looks very good. You can see that it's filling the composition and becoming more volumetric. Perhaps I can drop the opacity a little bit and then merge the layers together. Right, the last stage for device is to add some highlights. I'll make a new layer, rename it appropriately, switch to the brightest color. And start from the rim with just a tiny bit of color. Nothing major probably here as well, and just a touch along the perimeter. And the vase is officially finished. The next lesson we're going to paint the flowers. 5. Petals: In this lesson, we're going to paint the flowers, focusing on the petals. First, we have the drawing here and we want to add the new layer called flowers or petals. It's up to you. We use this set of purple colors here. Like before, we pick the second darkest color and approach the petal in the main direction, which in this case is towards the longest side of the petals. I think I can set the brush to 2% And I'm going to paint the rest of the petals in this fashion, as well as I did before. I'm going to speed up the process slightly so that the lesson doesn't get too long. Now that we lay down the first color, we can continue on the mid tone, which is the color that lies in the middle of the gradient. I want to focus on the tips of the petals because you might imagine there is a variation in tone towards them. That they are darker, closer to them. And also because petals are nested, so there would be some cast shadows involved. Let's do this for the rest of the petals we've done. Now it's time to add some details. I'll select the second brightest color. Drop the brush size to 1% and reduce the opacity to roughly 75% With this color, we can begin defining the outer perimeter along with the mid line, as well as adding some minor details along the surface of the petals. The idea here is to differentiate the treatment from petal to petal. We can modulate the pressure at some shorter or longer lines. Basically, we want to add some dynamism to the composition while maintaining a great balance with what has already been done. And with that in mind, it's time to paint the remaining petals. No, it will be on the flower. This is it also. This step is now done. It's time for a darker shade, as expected. We want to use this color to identify the area in the dark as well as the cast shadows naturally. I want to start here because that's where I expect the darker tone to be, because the light is having difficulty reaching those nested sections. As I did with the brighter tones, I want to incorporate the color along the petals to balance out the presence of the other shades. Again, we want to be in charge of the composition. We don't want to be carried away by the fact that we enjoy coloring or shading. It's rather tempting because if we hear, it means that we like what we're doing. But once again, we have to find a balance. Now some darker turns on the other flower. With that, this process is complete. We can now add the highlights. I'll create a new layer and rename it Flower highlights. I'll grab the brightest color, making sure the brush size is set to 1% I'm going to use this color to add the smaller reflections, the brightest areas on the petals. In this case, it's best to hide the drawing because I want to be able to see the effect I'm adding without being distracted. Just for reference, the light is coming from this side and you can see the striking this area of the petal. And as we did before, we can add this round of description to each petal. Now that this is finished, I can erase the arrow here. We can now duplicate the layer off the flowers, which I forgot to do earlier, but it's not a big deal because we can do it now. It doesn't make a huge difference. But I think I'll keep it so I can pinch the two layers together into one. I can see there is a small here which I can remove. I can use the era to with the same brush. So the carbon stick, which is obviously too large and just fix around way is needed. With this minor adjustment, the petals are now completed. In the next lesson, we're going to quickly paint the stems. 6. Stems: Before continuing onto the stamen, which is the focal point of the flower, I'd like to quickly paint the two pedicls, which are basically the stems. I'm going to make a new layer, rename it into stems or pedicials. As you decide, select the color here. And this is going to be a quite quick process. I'm going to make a base color like we did for the other parts. I do the same for the other pedesal, then I can switch to the second color and use it here. Since the stem is curved so it's bent, I want to focus and insist mainly around the area and slightly less towards the bottom of the stem. The effect will provide a sense of curviness. Now, I can do the same on the other stem, even if this one is facing the opposite direction just a bit. Now I'm thinking about using the darkest hue to add some darker tones. Perhaps outlining the distinction between the two stems. Something like this, with very few strokes. Finally, using the brightest color, I want to brighten the lights here. And you can see that even a few lines of color make a great difference visually. And lastly, some cast shadow from the paso onto the stems. And I repeat that for the other stem, and I'm done. In the next lesson, we're going to quickly paint some compost at the base of the leaves. 7. Compost: Okay, before painting the two statements, I want to resolve this area here in a rather quickly way. If I choose the background layer, I can make a new layer and call it compost. We don't have a color palette for this section, but it's not a significant issue. I may choose the darkest brown and then change it to something similar to this color here. It doesn't have to be the same. I just want to differentiate the tone even if it's not that noticeable. As you can see. It's almost as dark as the background and maybe you can't even see it. But that doesn't matter because we know it's there. I'd like to do this bit here as well. Even zooming in is really difficult to notice, but what I can do is to brighten this color. Anything in the same region is fine with the circular movement. We want to break up the regularity of this area. We want to give the impression that something is going on. Something along this line here. I'm going brush hat. Now, I'd like to add some smaller brush strokes here so that something stands out. This is it for this small space. In the next lesson, we're going to paint the stamens, which is the central part of the flower. 8. Stamens: Now it's time for the statements, but we don't have any color for them. Here there is a trick. I can use the selection tool to select one of these watches, three fingers down, cut and paste. And we have a new layer now we can duplicate this layer and move them slightly with the move tool. At this stage, we can choose hue and saturation. And just cycle the hue lighter to select another color. You can even experiment with the saturation slider. If you want something more vivid and vibrant, I suppose I'll go with an orange, reddish shade for the crowns or stamens. Now that we decided on a new color, we can pinch the layers together and return to a single layer. Now I want to add a new layer right behind the petals. You can call it crown or stamens. For this element, I want to start with the second brightest color and paint in a circular pattern. Which we saw briefly when we created the compost starting from the outer perimeter. We'll work our way to the center of the statement in a circular pattern. You can see how this approach organically creates a texture and our brain is immediately forced to picture a mass of small pistols. But it's actually something completely different. Then the other statement can be done in the same manner. Now that this is finished, I'd like to use the third shade, the meat tone, and use it to emphasize the user perimeter and darken it slightly. I'll do the same with this flower. You can see that with this treatment, I was able to produce a texture that is pretty different from the other pieces that make up the plant. The same brush, the carbon sticks, but a different shading process. Now, I can re, select the previous shade and reduce the darker tone a little. I could even try the second darkest color to further define the boundary. Finally, I'd like to add the new layer for the highlights, which we may call crown highlights or statement highlights. Depending on which is more appropriate, we may now choose the brightest color. But first, I'd like to duplicate the crown layer and see how it looks. I definitely notice a change. Perhaps I could lessen the opacity of the layers slightly to make it less intense and I can pinch them together. With this price color, we can just generate some spots of color. Therefore, I want to make something like this with a circular movement. You press it first, then reduce the pressure as you go out, given the impression that these elements are disappearing. Okay, now we can do that for the other statement. But the feeling is resembling a pizza, actually, maybe a pizza, Margherita, which is tomato mozzarella and is actually delicious hungry. What time is it? Anyway, this is our lovely succulin plant. And our painting session is now complete. We'll perform some color and finalize the artwork in the next final lesson. 9. Retouching: Okay, in this final lesson, we'll clean up the layer stack a bit and go over some color adjustments and retouching. What do we do now? We can surely integrate the highlights to the correspondent counterparts. Now we want to look at lustration and say, maybe I don't like this color. I can duplicate this layer. So we have a Bakup. In case something goes wrong, go to hue and saturations and say, maybe I like this color better, or maybe this one. You basically make an artistic decision based on your feelings. You can change color or make it more intense using the saturation lighter. Once I'm satisfied with the changes, I can delete the copy that was made previously. Now I'm thinking about increasing the saturation of the elements because I think they need to be more colorful and I just want to copy them first so I can see the change. Now that this is completed, I may feel tempted to change the colors, so I'll change the use. With the twist, I want to show you something slightly different, but very powerful. I can duplicate the leaves. I can choose a different color for them. Could be any color you like. Could even be a plant from another planet. Now we have two layers on top of each other. If I make a mask, you can see that a white layer is being created and linked to the layer below. You can use the same brush, the carbon stick, by increase the brush size before you begin painting. The mask layer works in such a way that painting with black hides a section of the layer. Painting with white reveals a portion of the layer. Now that I'm painting, it looks as if I'm erasing, but in reality, I'm only hiding the area of the layer in question. Using this technique, you may produce something rather interesting and the possibilities are truly endless. Again, you can use hue and saturations and say, let me see now what color works best. Then you make your own choice. This specific example, I'm interested in keeping the hues authentic. I may use a type of brownish greenish tint. I can do the same for the petals. I duplicate the layer. I create a mask. I adjust the hue slider again, this time to a light blue, which is wonderful. Now painting on the mask layer, I can cover the tips of the petals while revealing the color underneath. That is the principle. Another trick is to blur the mask, which results in a more uniform gradient. To achieve this, pick the mask and go to Filter Gauschenblir. Then by sliding to the right, you may increase the level of blurness. At this point, you can experiment with the hues again until you find a pleasing combination. For the sake of this video, I'd like to go back to a more traditional color scheme. So I can do this until here. As part of the class project, you can now paint the remaining two plants on this page. And you may expect a similar result if you use the same method. I hope you enjoy this and to see you again soon. Goodbye for now.