Not at all! And yeah, that's what I think too. You can use custom brushes to make things faster if need be (deadlines), but they
shouldn't be used to compensate your actual painting skills, and you shouldn't trust them 'to paint the artwork for you'
especially if you're still very much learning the basics for example.
There's also a danger of getting a bit too exited with custom brushes and using them way too much.
They're the icing on the cake, not the cake itself, to me at least.
Once you know how to built things from the scratch anyway, there's
no harm in using custom brushes here and there if you want.
One artist said this quite well as he said something like
"it's not about the brushes, a good artist can paint a good picture with almost any brush if need be, it's about
understanding your craft and how skilled you are". They even demonstrated that statement by painting a piece
with a brush shaped like a mans.. well you know.. 'thing'
shouldn't be used to compensate your actual painting skills, and you shouldn't trust them 'to paint the artwork for you'
especially if you're still very much learning the basics for example.
There's also a danger of getting a bit too exited with custom brushes and using them way too much.
They're the icing on the cake, not the cake itself, to me at least.
Once you know how to built things from the scratch anyway, there's
no harm in using custom brushes here and there if you want.
One artist said this quite well as he said something like
"it's not about the brushes, a good artist can paint a good picture with almost any brush if need be, it's about
understanding your craft and how skilled you are". They even demonstrated that statement by painting a piece
with a brush shaped like a mans.. well you know.. 'thing'
LOL That's hilarious 
And I agree. I saw some brushes online shaped like an entire solar system and moon shaded in, but usually if you use those kind of brushes they end up looking quite flat and out of place in the picture. I think it's better to use brushes for texture and effects, rather than replacing entire parts of the artwork.
And I agree. I saw some brushes online shaped like an entire solar system and moon shaded in, but usually if you use those kind of brushes they end up looking quite flat and out of place in the picture. I think it's better to use brushes for texture and effects, rather than replacing entire parts of the artwork.Agreed, they can make your artwork look sort of "artificial" and flat if used badly.
If the custom brush style clashes with your other painting, it will just look out of place.
One way is to use a custom brush as a "raw" base, which you then paint over by hand
to make it more interesting, add some variation/details so that it fits the rest
of your artwork. But personally I like to avoid brushes that for example, would just put a
whole photorealistic moon on the canvas for me and just leave it there. And, you have to
be careful and remember not use those brushes for commercial work, if the brushes license forbids that.
But yeah, texture variation is a good thing, and in that field SAI is limited. PS is better
when you want to customize brushes that have different textures, brush shapes and much more settings to tweak. And of course
filters and color correction options are much wider in PS.
If the custom brush style clashes with your other painting, it will just look out of place.
One way is to use a custom brush as a "raw" base, which you then paint over by hand
to make it more interesting, add some variation/details so that it fits the rest
of your artwork. But personally I like to avoid brushes that for example, would just put a
whole photorealistic moon on the canvas for me and just leave it there. And, you have to
be careful and remember not use those brushes for commercial work, if the brushes license forbids that.
But yeah, texture variation is a good thing, and in that field SAI is limited. PS is better
when you want to customize brushes that have different textures, brush shapes and much more settings to tweak. And of course
filters and color correction options are much wider in PS.
I can understand that. Photoshop definitely has superior photo editing capabilities than SAI, and more brush variation. Although I prefer the painting process in SAI, since SAI's software works more like real painting - when you apply a color over another, it sort of 'blends' like traditional painting. I think Corel is like that too. Photoshop tends to 'stamp' colors on top of one another by default. In SAI I do like the bristle brush for painting hair though to give it that texture.
It's why I see several artists use Sai (or Corel) for drawing/painting, then Photoshop for touch ups/custom brushes. I have adopted that method for now, too.
It's why I see several artists use Sai (or Corel) for drawing/painting, then Photoshop for touch ups/custom brushes. I have adopted that method for now, too.
You can sort of emulate the SAI's blend brush inPS as well, using the mixer brush with different settings and brushes.
That's what I would use to blend if I didn't use SAI, together with airbrush and lowering the opacity of my brushes.
One similar program to SAI is Clip studio paint (or 'manga studio' by it's other name), it also blends like sai. I have it actually, but I still haven't
gotten myself to paint anything big with it. I've also tried Corel painter when it was available for trying purposes for one month.
It isn't the easy or fast to learn to use thought, and I found it's interface a bit confusing. I got the feeling that if I wanted to
produce anything decent with it, I would need to spent weeks just to learn to use the software itself and get comfortable with it.
A versatile and great program for sure, but takes time to learn. I found I still used old and simple Sai when I felt I needed to get
things done fast, with those other programs I spent time just trying what this and that button would do and arranging my work space
panels so that they wouldn't bother me. But as I'm most comfortable with sai and then photoshop, I'll stick to those for now as well.
That's what I would use to blend if I didn't use SAI, together with airbrush and lowering the opacity of my brushes.
One similar program to SAI is Clip studio paint (or 'manga studio' by it's other name), it also blends like sai. I have it actually, but I still haven't
gotten myself to paint anything big with it. I've also tried Corel painter when it was available for trying purposes for one month.
It isn't the easy or fast to learn to use thought, and I found it's interface a bit confusing. I got the feeling that if I wanted to
produce anything decent with it, I would need to spent weeks just to learn to use the software itself and get comfortable with it.
A versatile and great program for sure, but takes time to learn. I found I still used old and simple Sai when I felt I needed to get
things done fast, with those other programs I spent time just trying what this and that button would do and arranging my work space
panels so that they wouldn't bother me
. But as I'm most comfortable with sai and then photoshop, I'll stick to those for now as well.