That $40 brush preset pack I swore was a gimmick

Saw an artist on Twitter raving about these Procreate brushes. Rolled my eyes. Bought them anyway. Three months later I use them on every piece. The texture layering is unreal. Anyone else found a tool you hated at first?

3 comments

3 Comments

victorhernandez13d ago

The Crisp Ink pack with 80 brushes - I literally laughed at the price and said no way. Then a buddy showed me their linework and I caved, now I don't even open other brush sets anymore. The way the grain blends when you layer shades is just stupid good, feels like cheating every time.

margaretc4213d ago

Oh man, you're so right about the layering thing! I spent like two hours last night just playing with that grain blend on some ink wash studies. What really blew my mind was doing a wash with the rough bristle brush at like 30% opacity and then hitting it again with the dry brush at 50% - it gave me this texture that looked exactly like my old sumi-e paper from college. I've been telling everyone who'll listen about the pressure sensitivity tip too. I had mine cranked way up at first and wondered why my strokes looked like a shaky mess. Dialed it back to about 35% and suddenly my linework started looking like actual calligraphy instead of a toddler with a stylus. The learning curve is real but once you get past the first couple of days it really does feel like cheating.

jamiesullivan13d ago

The 60 dollar price tag on Crisp Ink made me close the browser tab twice before I finally gave in. What sold me was the grittiness test on rough paper textures, I ran a side by side with three other brush packs and the layering opacity on this one actually holds up where others go muddy. A quick tip if you just got it, turn off the pressure sensitivity for the first 50 strokes until you get a feel for the ink flow curve. I spent a whole weekend messing with the tilt settings and finally landed on 40% for the grain response, it stops that weird skipping issue on slower strokes. Also try stacking two passes of the same brush at 60% opacity instead of one pass at 100%, the grain blends like real charcoal that way. I still think the pricing is a bit much for digital files, but the results speak for themselves once you put in the adjustment time.