Why bother making your own brushes?
The reason I started making my own brushes was that my first true love was traditional media. When I discovered digital painting, I fell in love with so much of what it could do, but I found that most of the digital brushes looked too, well… “digital.” They look flat, plastic and they lack character.
To make matters worse, my favorite use for digital painting was to apply it over top of a traditional underpainting. But I found that most digital brushes looked unnatural over traditional material, and the final painting would feel unfinished and soulless.
To solve this problem, I sample scans of MY OWN BLOOD. (just kidding) I sample scans of actual brush strokes, paint splatters, pencil marks and paper textures, made with various traditional tools and surfaces. (And some spilled coffee)
I then arrange all of the 10 billion sliders and knobs in Photoshop to arrive at a specific mathematical formula. This transmits my subconscious into the computer, you know, like that guy from Tron. And once inside, there is a whole universe in there, filled with millions of people, all of whom hate me and want to kill me with laser frisbees and motorcycles. BUT I KILL THEM INSTEAD. And I use their ground up bones to make my digital brushes.
*ahem* Anyway, once I have imported these “real” marks and input all the correct settings into Photoshop, I am left with better brushes that look natural alongside traditional media and leaves you with something that feels traditional, yet unique. Sort of like the robots that will soon be among us; they aren’t quite human, but close enough that you won’t be that bothered by them serving you fries at McDonalds.
See? When you use the ground up bones of virtual enemies, the spamcasters come out of the digital woodwork. You need to use the real blood and real bones of mortal enemies (spammers, telemarketers) to counter them.
Those are lovely digital brushes though.