Welcome to my brush experiments! I had so much fun putting these together and exploring some new brushes.

 

Tools: iPad Pro, Apple Pencil

App: Adobe Fresco

 

My favorite brushes from this class:

Pencil

Woodchop Joey

Messy Square

Marker Chisel

GM Stipple 8

 

Here's my completed template:

 

Here's a shot of my favorites list as I was working through my experiments:

 

Experiment One: Mark Making

This exercise is honestly one of my favorite ways to get started.  I put on some relaxing tunes and go wild!  Taking notes and saving brushes as I scribble away makes this a productive activity without actually feeling like work.

 

Experiment Two: Referencing Other Art

In this exercise, I start to get a little more intentional about working toward a signature style. I collected several illustrations that caught my eye and started to look for stylistic patterns between them. It was fun to inspect these pieces so closely to see how they were made!

Then, I made a list of characteristics to look for in my brush library:

• grainy background texture
• canvas
• bold, imperfect line work
• hand-crafted feel
• inky pen or brush pen
• transparency
• washes
• marker brush
• sketchy pencil
• stipple or splatter

I filled my canvas looking for just the right textures.

 

Experiment Three: Playing With Guidance

In this exercise, I put all my previous efforts to the test across different art genres. I'm a lettering artist, so I expected to perform best in that category. However, I was surprised at my results in the end!

I set a timer for 20 min per drawing (though I went over on a couple because I didn't want to present unfinished work for the class). Here are the results:

My favorite turned out to be the floral experiment! I have this inner narrative that I hate drawing florals and botanicals, but this flowed so easily and I love the result that I may have to challenge that narrative in the future – more flowers please!

My least favorite is the character drawing. Hey, I'm not a character artist, okay! (Don't judge.) My inexperience here really showed, but her imagined outfit is cute. Maybe I'll try this again without a timer and see how it goes. With proper time and attention, you can master anything!

 

And one more bonus experiment...

Here's a little peek behind the scenes! This was created in the first filming of the class demo. I decided to redo the demo with tighter parameters (no color) but I love this image and wanted to share it. I would love to live in this art for a little while. Wouldn't you?

I hope you enjoyed going through this material and the class. I hope you get lost (for a while) in experimenting with brushes, and I hope you come out on the other side of your experiments feeling a little more confident and ready to make something amazing!