Brush skills in Photoshop

Geoffrey Ernault showcases his method of generating an image from random brush strokes in a short time

Geoffrey Ernault uses random brush strokes.

For me, the best part in doing concept art is finding new ideas and solving design problems. I love painting anything that deals with sci-fi and fantasy, and more generally anything that gets my creative juices going. I use mostly Photoshop, but also enjoy mixing other software into my workflow, such as UDK, 3ds Max or ZBrush.

When I started discovering Photoshop, I often ended up in front of a blank white canvas and didn’t know what to paint. And when I did, I would have trouble finding an interesting idea, and this could become frustrating and intimidating. Five years later, I’m now using a supercool method that enables me to always have something I can work on and develop. This method is useful when you have time to paint, but either have nothing specific to work on or just can’t come up with ideas. It also trains your brain to recognise shapes and create compositions quickly, which is also useful.

Bear in mind that some of the methods shown here don’t always work on detailed images. For instance, when I work on more final images, my layers are much more organised, and I spend a lot more time on finding the right composition at the start of the process.

In addition, even though it’s great to be able to do an image in under a couple of hours, it doesn’t always help you develop your core skills. To be able to do this well, you need first to know how to do things the slow way. This is why mastering the fundamentals is essential!