Relax and Enjoy Painting with just one Brush to Improve your Technique and Speed in Procreate

1. Painting with One Brush Introduction: Welcome to my new class. Relax and enjoy painting with just one brush to improve your technique and speed in Procreate. This entire concept, castle was painted using a single brush. Why you may ask, use just one brush. When there are thousands of brushes made for Procreate to choose from, using lots of different brushes takes up so much time searching for the right one triangle. Then searching again in case there's a better choice. Just think of the time that takes many artists like to paint in the evening while watching television, e.g. and find themselves constantly distracted in the brush search. Just think. Using one brush not only saves time and frustration, but brings back relaxation into the painting process. Remember when you first started painting, before the flurry of new brushes, you could relax doodle, and just enjoy making a great picture. You miss the joy of creating the new art work effortlessly from your imagination. How does it improve your art? Well, if you think about it, art is basically making marks until a picture emerges. Using one brush forces you to experiment with line thickness, line opacity, line pressure, and line direction. This process encourages your brain to work to solve creative problems. Over time, the brush techniques will carve a neural pathway in your brain and becomes second nature. Try this technique and turn off your mental clutter and free up your creativity. What brush you may well be asking. That's all explained in the next class. So let's move on. 2. Choosing the Right Brush: Many artists have a favorite brush that they use more often than any other. There's lots of choice. But here are some features to bear in mind. That's the brush have texture. From the brush, work successfully. In small and large formats. The Apple pencil gives us the ability to adjust pressure to have more or less opacity. Can your chosen brush use this feature? Make sure that streamline. And in the stabilization part of brush creation is turned on. The brush I've chosen to use is old beach. In the Procreate artistic brush library. You can of course, create your own personal brush by adjusting the brush properties in Procreate. There are many similar brushes that also include the properties I've listed. Have a look through your brushes and Experiment. Choose the right one for you. All. Begin with the old beach brush. To get started. I've included this brush in the Student Resources. Yes. Warren brush will allow you to do almost anything. Let's have a look at a few techniques. I'm checking that my brush is on old beach. Now. I'm going to create a canvas using shapes and squiggles, doodles, and using lots of colors. Relax and let your imagination run free. He's lines in different directions. And contrast those with circles. And ovals. Group horizontal lines together to form one shape. To be easy on the eye. Move your marks towards the middle of the picture. So the eye of the viewer is constantly moving around the artwork. Not being led out of it. Change the size of your brush. Quite often. To create more contrast. Use pressure to increase or decrease texture. No idea. Doing all these marks and shapes is to relax. And let your creativity flow and see what emerges. It gives you the opportunity to get used to the brush that you're using. Also, always a good idea to make sure that all the corners off filled in. This leaves the eye into the picture. Now I'm just going to continue to play and see what emerges for me. As I continue to play around with this. See, maybe the start of a waterfall down here. Maybe put some rocks. As I work. I'm constantly changing the size of the brush. I'm pressing lightly to vary the opacity. So now I've got an idea of what I'm hoping this picture will turn into or carry on working. And we'll see. Mark the end result is. And you can see a picture is starting to develop. At this stage. I could make another layer. Choose the blue color and go over this. And then change the screen, screen or color dodge. Turn it down slightly. And you can see at this stage, you can begin to play about print different screens on maybe different textures. Just have fun and let your imagination run wild and most of all relax. Because painting is really like a meditation. It helps us to relax, put the world's worries behind us, and just live in the moment. So now we'll move on to the concept castle. 3. Sketching and Blocking: Welcome to lesson two. Now you've warmed up and how to play with your chosen brush. We'll move on to painting the concept castle. But first we'll open up a new canvas. The size I've chosen in landscape format is A2 in 300 DPI for quality printing. First I'm going to go into the background color. Make us a cream. I find it easier on the eye than using a pure white. Now, tap that wrench icon. Tap, Add, and insert a photo, slide to the left. Now you can insert a private photo. Choose the castle, or any other picture that you are going to paint and tap Fit to Canvas. By choosing a private photo. It won't show up on the final video. Now make sure you're on your chosen brush. My knees. Oh, Beach. Go into the castle layer. Press the N and turn the opacity down to about 50 per cent. Now, make a new layer. Rename that layer. Sketch with a dark color. And your chosen brush set to a size suitable for sketching fairly small. And then just simply sketch in the main shapes. And that's the main shapes sketched in which he's all we need. And now we'll move on. Go back into layers, tap inserted image and add a new layer. Now, we're going to leave the sketch layer always on the top. Rename this new layer sky. Now choosing a sky color. It doesn't matter too much exactly what the color is. Because we're going to put a texture on the top layer, tap the selection tool, make sure it's on color fill and the sky. We're going to have it on rectangle. So he simply going to make a rectangle. And there's the sky filled in. Now we'll make a new layer. We're going to rename this one. Ocean. Choose another blue. Go to select. And leaving his own rectangle. We'll put in the blue of the ocean. Make a new layer. Rename this layer. Rocks. Now, choose a gray color to represent the rocks. Doses selection tool. Make sure it's on color fill and free hand. And then just trace around until in the rock shapes. If you see on the bottom, on the left-hand side, add is selected. So you can go on and put all the other rocks in. Like this. And that's our rock selected. Now we're going to add another layer and rename Green. I'm going to choose a green color that's going to represent the green parts of the picture. Again, selection tool, freehand, and simply trace around the green parts that we'll do. They don't need to be exact because it's only a guide for us. Now we'll add a new layer. Choose a wise pure white double-tap on the top edge of the color wheel. Rename the layer Moon selection tool. And carefully trace around the moon layer. A new layer. Rename castle. Choose a light gray. And we'll just define going to Selection tool. And we'll just define the castle layer. There we have our sketch and the base URL for all our layers. Oh no, we haven't got the bridge. So we'll go back in, add a new layer rename bridge selection tool. I'm just going to use the same light gray as the castle. There. There's also a path there, but I don't think we need to put a base coloring on that. 4. Adding Textures: Now in lesson three, we're going to put in the textures. In this lesson, we'll look at adding base textures to speed up our painting even more. Adding textures in different layers gives artists a head start. Analyze the option to leave, bear some texture to create interest. So go into layers, tap the sky layer, add a layer above it, and tap clipping mask. Insert a photo. Bringing the sky texture. And larger movies around. It's got the texture just where you want it. That looks fine. Now, this layer can be duplicated and with different screens with the opacity made less. But we'll do that as a later date. So now tap the ocean, add a layer, clipping mask. Insert a photo. And I'm going to bring in the texture I'd like for the water. Now that's going over the path a little bit, but that's no problem. We'll just go into the eraser, make sure it's on the beach. And we'll just remove lasts, see there. So that's our C layer. Tap rocks, add a new layer, make it into a clipping mask. Wrench key, insert a photo. And this is the texture I've chosen for the rocks. I can almost put Fit to Canvas. And then free form. Bring the size down in. And there we have a rock texture. Go into layers again, tap green, add a new layer, clipping mask. Insert a green texture. This one, I want to rotate it. That's the texture there, but I don't want to make the texture so large to fit the other side. So I'm going to make another layer, another clipping mask, bringing the same texture, rotate it, and move it over to this side. And then we can just merge that layer down. We've just got one layer with our green texture. Now I'm not going to bring in a texture for the castle because it's fairly small. And I think we can paint the castle successfully just using our brush. So there we have all our textures inserted. Now you can find many textures are available on the free photo sites such as Unsplash and Pixabay. And all the textures I'm using here are included in the class resources. So now we'll move on to lesson four. 5. Painting the Rocks: Welcome. We're going to paint the rocks. First, bringing your reference picture. Go to the wrench icon, canvas and import reference. If you're painting a different picture, decide which area you would like to start with. Painting the concept castle. I've decided to start with the rocks. So go to layers, find the rock texture layer, choose it, and add a new layer, and make this layer into a clipping mask. Now we're going to work on the rocks because it's a clipping mask is all stay within the ROC area. But first let's make a palette. So go into the color wheel, into palettes. Plus nu from photos and choose your reference picture. And there you have your palette. We're going to start with a dark color, a dark gray. We're going to paint the rocks with three shades of gray. So I'm going to start down here and put the darker shades. The bottom of the rocks. And especially around the edges. You can see the stroke is semi-transparent. So just paint several times to get a dark gray. I'm just going to paint this one rock. And I'm going to choose a medium gray, something back to the dark gray. Going to shape the rock. Then I'll go to a lighter gray where the light shines on the top of the rocks. And just make this a little bit lighter so you can see the different layers in the rocks. I'm doing all three shades of gray on one layer. Because later on we can always add more layers on top to refine it. So now I'm going to carry on and paint the whole of the ROC area. And I'll speed this up. And you can follow along at your own pace. I think that will do for the rocks tonight. But later, we'll put our finishing touches to them. I can see here parts that should have the green base. So we need to remove the rock base. We can do this by going into the green layer. Choose a green color. Go to the selection tool on free hand, and color fill. And then we'll simply go around those parts. It should be green. Now fill in. Doesn't matter if it's not exact. We just want the majority to be the green color. That's much better. I was just one more part here. And there we've finished the rock layer and we'll move on to the green shrubs and bushes. 6. Painting Shrubs and Grass: Welcome to lesson five. Let's paint the shrubs and the grassy areas in layers. Go to the green texture layer, add a new layer and make that into a clipping mask. Back to the brushes. Going to use several shades of green. And then we're going to add in some purple brushes. I chose the purple color as it's on the opposite side of the color wheel to the green. And therefore complimentary. Now I'll carry on completing this step. You will have seen, as I was painting, this tiny raise some texture areas that needed to be smaller. There is still many uneven edges and gaps. But don't worry as we will clean this up and get them a finishing touch as we progress. Now we'll move on to the next class. 7. Painting the Castle and Bridge: Welcome to lesson six. Now we'll carry on and we'll paint the castle and the drawbridge and the steps. Maybe adding some extra rocks amongst the greenery. So let's get started. So now I'm going to go into the sketch layer and lower the opacity. So I can see what I'm working on. We're going to go to the castle layer after layer. But I'm not going to make this a clipping mask because I want to go outside the boundary. So I'm just going to begin by outlining the towers and straightening up the shapes. I'm going to do the same thing with the drawbridge. Now we can go back into layers and turn the sketch off. I'm going to carry on on the layer above the castle and paint the castle. And then the drawbridge. After I've painted the castle and the drawbridge, going to paint the steps and put a few extra rocks in the bushes and shrubs to make it look more natural. So now we'll carry on speed the process up to you. Not see rocks in the past Stan and the drop branch. Now we're going to lie and go above the green layer, add a new layer in. But we won't make a clipping mask. Because what I want to do now is tidy up the edges of the greenery. I'm just going to choose a green and start to tidy up the edges. I can see that we're going to have to move this layer. So go back into layers and bring the layer above the castle so that we can go over the rocks if we need to. That's better. So now I'm going to carry on and just go over the green parts again and tidy them all up. And I'll speed this process up for you. Now we've done all our housekeeping, tidying up the greenery and tidying up the rocks will move on to the next lesson. And we'll work on the sky. The C and the moon. 8. Painting Sky, Ocean, and Moon: Welcome to lesson seven. Let's start with working on the sky. Go to Layers. Go to the sky texture layer, and then go to the Adjustment icon. And Gaussian blur. Slide along to about nine per cent. Tap the screen and press Apply. Now we're going to go back to layers, add a layer. And we'll rename this one. Clouds. Still on our old beach brush. Will painting the clouds. But first let's bring our reference picture back in. I'm going to start off with the darker bits around the castle, the brush quite high. And then I'll carry on and painting all the clouds and speed that part up for you. Now I've painted in the clouds and use the blend brush fairly sparingly to leave some of the brush mark sharing. Now go into layers. Duplicate the cloud layer. Let's choose a screen and we're going to go to overlay and reduce the opacity to back 50 per cent. Now go to the moon layer, add a new layer. And we're going to bring in, um, moon graphic. Movies over the moon. Reduces in size a little. Move it into position. Just move our reference picture out of the way. That's about right. Now, go to the eraser brush and just erase the part that goes over the ocean. So now we're going to paint the ocean, go into layers and we're just going to add a new layer right at the top. You can rename that if you like. Ocean waves. So we're going to start with the dark blue around the edge. And be careful to not go over the rocks or if you do just to me, erase those points. Now I'm going to paint the whole of the ocean. And I'll speed this up for you. Now we're going to reference photo at the way. Carrying two layers. Add a new layer at the top. And we're going to choose a light blue color. The larger brush, we're going to just paint in around the moon. Go to the eraser, erase the overlay, just clean up the edges. That's it. Now. Go into that layer and press the N. We're going to go right the way down to the bottom and choose luminosity. This is to give some light around the moon. So going to the adjustment tool to Gaussian blur, blurry, so round about 20 per cent. And that gives us a nice moonlight glow. Tap the picture and press Apply. Go into layers again, add a new layer. And we're going to bring in the rider on the horse. It's quite small as you see. Just make it a little bit bigger. I just put the rider into place. Crossing the bridge. He raised the tiny portion of the horse's legs. That's all fitted in nicely. So add another new layer above. Make this into a clipping mask layer. Choose a dark blue and just brush over. The horse and rider. Thought was a good idea not to use black to match or directly. Wants to be a dark blue. Towards the bottom. Then we're going to go to a light blue just to show the light from the moon shining on the horse's head. Maybe on top of the rider's head. That will do for our horse and rider. Will move our reference photo out of the way. We're going to put in the lumps. So add a new layer. Bring in length picture. See the lamp is quite small. Let's just make it a little bit bigger. There's our first lamp. Duplicate. Its place in a second lump. Duplicate again. Placing a third lamp. Now with the third lamp, we have to erase the part that goes behind the bushes. So that's our lamps pudding. Now we're going to make another layer. And this is going to be the lights in the castle. A nice bright yellow. We're going to approach it a little bit of that light in the lamps. And then in the castle. Just choose them randomly. But makes sure there's an uneven number. Just always looks better if it's uneven. So what we've got 567, just going over them again to give them more density. Back into layers. Now we're going to duplicate that layer and choose an overlay. Press the end. And it will probably be screen color dodge. I think I'll put some color dodge. But I'm going to go back into the previous layer and make the color a little bit more orange. That looks better. Now we're going to go to the adjustments and choose Gaussian blur. Back to the upper layer. Gaussian Blur. And just move it up about ten per cent. Just to give a little bit more glow. Tap the screen, press Apply. And I think we've finished this point. You can sign it if you like. There we are. There's a concept castle painted with one brush. Now I'll move on to the wrap-up. 9. Paint with One Brush Wrap Up: Thank you for taking my one brush class. I hope you've enjoyed it and found the process relaxing. By including textures. It's quite easy to use one brush only to build up your picture. I would love to see your results and encourage you to upload your finished Creation so the whole class can enjoy your work. Please take a moment to review my class. This helps me to improve and gives me encouragement. If you'd like to know more about me, please visit my website, www. Color story.com. That's color spelled the English way, including a U color story.com. Thank you, and I'll see you in the next class. I started my creative journey writing books and audios, as you can see here. Then I returned to my first love art and created all kinds of art. Finally, I have 20 years of mind, body, and spirit articles to help my readers navigate complex world. I think you'll find it very interesting to visit my website, color story.com.