Brush skills in Artrage

Illustrator Nick Harris tackles a whimsical image about drawing and painting together, while exploring Artrage’s two custom brush engines

Nick Harris makes the most of Artrage’s two custom brush engines.

There’s much to recommend in the latest version of Artrage, not least the additions to its Brush Designer controls. That feature – alongside the Stickers system – means you have two custom brush engines inside one painting program.

I only have time to skim the surface of what’s possible with those brush engines here, because the creative potential in Artrage 6 is now almost infinite. Hopefully, I’ll skim close enough to pique your interest about what they might offer you.

The meat of this image will be tackled with more basic tools such as the Pencil, Pastel and Watercolor brushes, combining solid base colours and translucent media washes. The challenge when introducing elements from the custom brush engines can be to make them sit comfortably among the more traditional mark-making tool emulations. While familiarity with Artrage is an advantage, its accessibility means that you won’t be too hamstrung without it. I’m no Artrage ninja myself, relying more on traditional media techniques combined with a relatively modest depth of technical knowledge to produce my artworks.

The painting will be themed on isolation, while remaining connected through a shared activity. I have in mind a fantasy woodland scene with a handful of characters enjoying painting together, while sitting apart. Let’s begin, shall we…?

Sharpen your styluses 1

I set up a document at 200dpi. I’ll bump it to 300dpi later, after the blockingin stage. This helps avoid lag on slower machines and effectively increases the 500 pixel upper brush limit. I flood-fill the base with a warm tone and start sketching in pencil on another layer set to Multiply. I pin some warm-up doodles to the work space by clicking the Drawing Pin icon.

Putting things in their place

My working methodology is pretty fluid; compositions evolve as I go. The initial idea is to have two central figures drawing while sitting on a toadstool. Other figures are placed a discreet distance away doing the same. I doodle background shapes using the Pencil tool on one layer and block some pastel colours behind. I lay a translucent shadow over the foreground figures on another layer that’s set to Multiply.

3 Blocking in using solid colours

I block solid foreground colours on a layer above the background one, but behind the shadow. These are bolder to separate them from the lighter colours behind. I’m using the Pastel tool for most of this stage. On textured paper this leaves rough edges – tidy them with the Eraser where necessary. I usually do this as I go along, or soften them using a suitable Blender or Palette knife.

4 Making change to the scene

The figure front left isn’t working for me. I remove it and draw an alternative using solid and translucent layers as before, and adjust the shadow layer to follow the new forms. The light source comes from high and left; the cast shadow across them suggests a tree or bush out of shot.

5 Use the Blender and Eraser tools to sculpt shadows

I work the foreground figures and their shadow up more, sculpting shadows with the Eraser and softening edges with a soft Blender where appropriate. Cast shadows are great for helping describe form. I load some toadstool references from Pixabay to help me with our foreground fungus. The Fly agaric helps to add a classic, fairy tale flavour.

6 Beef up the background through the use of colour

Working all areas at once, I move on to the background again and introduce depth of colour on another layer. I still keep to more muted tones than the foreground, and also use more blues and purple tints. I deepen some of the shadow areas using a light watercolour wash. I set up several ‘tone’ layers for this earlier. I find it offers more control and depth to have several such layers standing by.

7 Add a glow to the tech

I continue to work all over, blocking in some colours on the background figures and cutting shadow away to help describe their form. I also begin to tighten up their line work a little. Meanwhile, in the foreground I cut the shadow away to add glow to the tablets our pair are using. Yes, I know folklore and tech shouldn’t mix.

8 Double vision… but in a good way

The foreground figures need attention. I spend some time refining and tidying line and tone, but try to avoid spending too long on any one part. It’s easier to keep a better perspective while zoomed in if you open a new View, which is an option you’ll find on the Reference palette. You can scale the window as big as you want and paint in either window.

9 Detailing the characters in the scene

I hop about, spending time on different areas. The characters all need attention because the eye tends to seek figures out first. Our tree sprite is most likely the secondary focal point after the foreground group, simply because of his size. This is all me using Pencil, Pastel and Watercolor tools in combination on various layers. But those branches are looking a little too bare for my liking…

10 A sudden rush of greenery

I select a foliage Sticker brush to splash some leafage around the nearest branches. I spread it across a couple of layers, painting darker colours underneath and lighter above to create some volume. It’s a bit ‘stuck on’ looking, though. I try to soften the effect in places with a Blender brush, and overpaint with flat colours to push other areas back (locking Layer Transparency intermittently).

11 Manufacture a mark maker

I knock together a quick brush head for the Brush Designer. I take a 750 pixel square and paint a small branch motif in white on black. Next, I load it into the Brush Designer and play with the settings until I get something usable. I’ve applied Paint Depth, but may go back and redo the brush later without this setting if this doesn’t sit right. You’ll find the Brush Designer palette in the Tools menu.

12 Painting over foliage using a different brush setting

That foliage near our blue-haired witch doesn’t fit in. I reopen Brush Designer and simply turn off the Paint Texture option, before resaving the brush with a different name. This means that I retain both variants. It’s a quick job to erase and replace the problem area. I also add some wild flower Sticker effects on the faerie child’s hair, to introduce some extra visual interest to the character.

13 Flattening layers and tidying up

The layer stack is becoming cumbersome, and we’re quite far along, so I save the file and flatten everything. It’s refreshing to commit to decisions, and feels like a fresh start to take me through to the home strait. I work round the image tidying up those loose ends – softening areas that leap forward too much and picking out details that may have gotten lost along the way.

14 Placing highlights and accents

Now’s the most enjoyable part: adding highlight and accents. I do this on a layer on top of everything. This is the time to tweak those little details while making sure things still work as a whole. Note that I’ve only used a few brushes and tools here – Artrage has a wealth of creative toys for you to play with. Enjoy!

PAPER

Arches Watercolour Hot Pressed 300g/m2

PENCIL

Mechanical pencil, 05 HB black graphite lead and Faber Castell kneaded eraser

INK

Winsor & Newton Indian ink

BRUSHES

Winsor & Newton Petit Gris #000 and #1, and Da Vinci Maestro #2

MARKERS

Uni PIN Fine Line markers #0.8, #0.5, #0.2 and #0.05, Tombow Calligraphy pen and Edding 1455 marker

WHITE RETOUCHES

Winsor & Newton’s permanent white gouache, Molotov acrylic marker and Prismacolor white pencil