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You should give Art Studio Pro another try. I use the desktop version (Mac only) but the mobile version gets pretty high marks. Great wet brushes in the desktop version, I imagine they would be the same in the mobile version.

Great video and I'm very excited to see you future artworks!

My first love for digital art! Shame its feels abandoned but then again not much more youd want.

It’s about the talent, not the app.

i used to do this in photoshop as a kid bc i couldnt be fucked learning how to use photoshop's toolset. Round brush 80% opacity - square if i was feeling fancy

I still think you should write. Watching Tyler Edlin's critiques of his students and he talks about adding nuances and touches to tell stories in their paintings / illustrations. Maybe that's what you should focus on over the mechanics of the craft... you already know a ton about that. Perhaps writing narrative in text will carry over to adding story to your paintings. I look at Frazetta more closely these days and every simple sketch, ink drawing or painting he does tells a story. To the point that I want to jump in the art sometimes. Also sometimes you've got to put the stylus down, my friend, to avoid burnout. As always, fantastic video that I appreciate the hell out of. You're a constant source of inspiration to me. Peace from NZ 🤘

I love Sketchbook pro. I started my digital art journey with this program when it was $20 in 2007. It is the most comfortable interface of any app that I have used to for painting and drawing. While I also like working in Clip Studio its interface just won't get out of the way. I know there is simple mode but its still no where near the usability of Sketchbook pro. I just started working with it on the iPad and its got he same comfort level. Unfortunately it has limited features as compared to the desktop version, and can be a bit buggy. However, the application is being actively updated and developed right now. Who knows how far they might take it.

No corel painter?

I don't used krita because it doesn't have gradient maps, which are really useful if you want to change colors easily

About 25 years ago I reached the pinnacle of my ability as a fingerstyle guitarist, when professional jazz and blues musicians and singers started recognising me as an accomplished guitarist. Ever since then my growth has been horizontal instead of vertical - expanding my knowledge of different genres (playing more styles of music).

this method really helped me!! it's amazing.

Hi Wes, I love your latest video and I have to think about it for several days. I think you think you are at a point where you think you can only grow slowly but I think you need feedback from artists who are better than you. A little info for you: You're not asking for it, but I'll give you a little feedback from an outside perspective. I love your art and I've been following you on UA-cam for a while now. You are a great digital painter and your works have a lot of great fantasy vibes. I always miss the proportions and drawing skills in your works. You could also improve by working on your tonal values, value grouping and color saturation and hues to give your works a little more life and make them read more clearly. You are a painter and I can see that you love to paint, but I think your work could improve a lot if you work on your drawing skills, tonal values and color variety. If you have the money, I recommend you look at some courses from Bill Perkins. Best regards, Thomas

I feel like improving is a very complex topic that's hard to fit into one "true" model. I think it's true that improvement will often slow down with time because the improvements being made get smaller and smaller, but I also feel like this occurs when people lack direction. If your goal is "I want to get better.", what does that really mean and how can it be broken down into actionable and measurable steps? Maybe your technical skill and tool proficiency is almost maxed out and you're practically a human camera. The imperfections in your work get smaller and so does the progress you gain upon fixing them. Maybe the next choice is to branch out into another aspect of art that's relevant to your field and goal. If you do splash art for games and your rendering has reached a point of diminishing returns, it could be more impactful to improve in your composition, story telling, etc. As a sort of analogous, let's say you're playing a video game and you want to get your Damage Per Second as high as you can. Every time you level up, you can choose an upgrade, but the more you choose the same upgrade, the more the results diminish. If your choices are between Attack damage and Attack speed, a person with 10 damage upgrades and 10 attack speed upgrades will likely have a higher DPS than a person with 20 damage upgrades and 0 attack speed upgrades due to the diminishing returns. The question then becomes what you can branch out into that will improve your work rather than how you can continue to make granular improvements, though those improvements are still important to make. Often, this is seen in high level artists as how they use theory/design principals to boost the effectiveness of their already near perfect image quality. Another way to think about it is making a pile of sand. You can deposit grains on the top, but they'll continue to fall down until you widen the base as well. You have to widen the base in order increase the height, otherwise the changes will be so small that they'll eventually stop mattering. This is all just conjecture though. I'm by no means an expert, but I did enjoy your video and wanted to share my thoughts. Thank you for the vid and have a lovely day

It's really refreshing to hear a working artist be humble and self-aware to where they're at skill-wise. Good video bro.

Interesting topic. I would agree with your new hybrid graph too and I think that’s why some of those great artists changed gears. What did you used to like to draw before you monetised your art? For me it was lots of realistic animals ( horses and birds in particular) and surrealism. I always thought surrealism would be a fun one to explore again. I would recommend you make something for fun and explore ideas again like you used to when you were a kid. That’s what I think I will do next time I’m in a rut.

Hi Wesley! I love the videos, the conversation is wonderful. I somewhat agree but I think there are significant jumps to be had later on. I felt exactly how you felt about 5 years ago and I have had absolutely freaking huge improvements since then. I have been working as a full time illustrator for the past 10 years, I hit a huge improvement period of about 3 months in 2020 and another this year. Like 20-30% improvement I think. So there is still hope for that! The main thing for me was really spending hours breaking down the differences between me and the artists I admire most, picking that one thing, and focusing on it during all of my projects. Studying Ruan Jia lately has been my recent step up. Not that I am close to him but picking up some of those techniques of blending values and colors into each other in interesting ways. One thing that helped me was instead of focusing on learning things you are not good at, instead push the parts you are good at even further, it will pull upt the rest of your skill even more. For me I am good at epic scenes, and studying anatomy is the constant thing I have almost no experience in. I could have my time improving that and slogging through it, instead I have focused on pushing my technique for epic scenese more, especially getting into detailing focal points and that hugely improved my work. I don't know if I am overstepping and if you are asking for an actual critique of your work, but I think you have a huge level up waiting for you if you just spend more time detailing your focal points. In most of your pieces my mind doesn't immediately register which should be the main focal point, and a big thing is detail level. You get this very right in some pieces like "snowy path" Along with that though would be some sharper clean edges on the places you want the viewer to look. I feel like most of your pieces are like 90% there I just find myself not absolutely loving them because I can't dig into the detail of the focal point. It's kind of like the whole pieces makes you look at the focal point and you look at it... and you see it all in half a second. I want something to grab onto visually a bit more. A smaller second thing would be reducing the value spread on parts that aren't the focal point. I can tell from your work that you enjoy the overall creation of the image, the brushwork, but even just bringing up the density of brush strokes in the focal points would help. I'm happy to talk more and again I appologize if you weren't looking for a direct critique there. I say all this to hopefully encourage you because I have absolutely felt the way you are feeling now and it SUCKS. In short, I think there are major level ups still to be had. I feel like the growth is definitely less than right at the start, but not nearly as severe of an almost flat line like you have on there. Right now I see SOOO much stuff in my work that I don't like and I feel like I will get to a spot I can imagine myself being within 2 years, which would be another maybe 30% level up for me. I'm happy to talk more if you want! My contact info is on my channel!

I understand where you're coming from for sure, I do feel those skills/boredom plateaus (multiple). Prescription time! You mentioned some historic artists, eg Monet and Picasso, and saying they were bored with realism. While I'm sure that's true, they also existed inside of larger art movements that rewarded and bounced off their experimentation. Impressionism was massive and had actual stated theoretical underpinnings reacting to among other things the advent of photography. Picasso invented cubism but he didn't do it alone, Georges Braque was there bouncing off him. So I guess my prescription is, choose someone's work that interests and excites you on a level that's not just technical skill or a minor twist on your current style, and try and do what they're doing. You probably won't be able to, but you'll learn something and push yourself.

I think t helps to have a process, so to speak, so you can apply that process no matter the subject or complexity. That's where I'm stuck, right now. The stages I've set out to follow for each piece aren't really fleshed out. I can easily still get stuck in any one of the stages. I should be able to bang out these stages, but I can't. Hope that makes sense! Also, piece to piece you can either improve or go back to the "valley of disrepair!" I've done a piece that comes together in a few hours, then the next one never works. And, I'm talking similar subjects. I guess that's more of a slump, though. As far as getting out of the "grind" part of the graph, I think you've honed your skill and "process", but apply it to different subjects. Not like going from portraits to vehicle art, but try to expand in a similar path. Anyway, I'm a bit stuck myself, right now, so this was an interesting video. Thanks!

Okay. This is something I've thought a lot about and it's the reason I've taken up digital art. Firstly, I'll discuss within the artistic context. I was exactly where you are now with writing where you're at with your art, except a little further back. I thought of myself moving from apprentice to journeyman stage... good enough to produce professional work but not quite good enough to produce quality work that I was happy with. And I was stuck no matter how hard I tried. Then I happened to watch an interview with John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) on creative energy and production. He suggested to be truly creative you have to be in the "play" mindset where the stakes don't matter. I tried this with writing and it worked for a time but my self critical brain, which is an essential asset, if you're looking to progress swamped me. The stakes still mattered. It so happened in this "despair" mode that I started watching speedpainting and timelapse videos on UA-cam and it became an obsession of mine. Then of course I ended up here. I'm a part-time scribbler and did think I could do this, so I dived in. There were no stakes in it for me at the time... but now its starting to creep in. What I did find was that learning and play mindset was transferable and when I went back to writing I found to myself that I levelled up quite a bit. So my first suggestion for getting out of the slump is to do something from another artistic medium and play. Given your art style I would play around with writing a fantasy novel. No one has to see it, so there are no stakes at all and your beginner "play" mindset will transfer to your visual art. I can almost guarantee that. The second thing about this is from my days doing strength training and powerlifting. I gained strength really quickly and hit the intermediate strength standard in a pretty linear way... wasn't that way for everyone, but you've probably guessed by now I'm a little obsessive :) Then I couldn't progress for a long time. My lifts just wouldn''t go up. Then I discovered cycling, whereby I would half the weight at the beginning of a six week cycle and then paeak at the end with a weight that was just a tiny bit higher than the month before. It was like a magical thing for me. In an artistic context, I guess that would mean before any work just play with the fundamentals and work your way up to a level a little higher each time. This would sit outside your professional work of course. Lastly, its all about your perception of yourself and your work. I have shown all my fantasy friends your artwork and they love it. They don't say this isn't as good as so and so. They just like what they see. Same with me. I have had a noted editor tell me I write like a seasoned pro and I don't believe him. I think it comes down to operating in the "ego" space when we all came to art from the "id" space. We did it because it gave us pleasure to do so, and it didn't matter what anyone else thought or even what I thought. I have been actively trying to get back to the "id" mindset every time I tap a key or pick up a stylus. Very interesting video. As always, love your work. Peace brother 🤘

Do you have any advice for switching from photoshop to another program such as clip studio or krita? I've been using photoshop for digital painting for almost 15 years now I think, like since I was 6 or 7, and I just cannot tolerate any of Adobe's BS anymore. But I'm finding it almost impossible to try other programs- I've been trying to pick up krita since December 2022 and I still cannot do anything with it, I'm finding it extremely unintuitive and hard to navigate. I've been trying csp for the past few days and I can't tell if I'm using it wrong, but everything is extremely pixelated no matter what settings I use and I'm finding the brushes damn-near impossible to control or make do what I want. Perhaps this is all just a me problem, I do have a handful of learning disabilities so maybe its just a skill issue lmao, but you seem to be one of the more knowledgeable people on this topic so I might as well ask. Regardless, very helpful video!

Do you paint on canvas or just digitally? Great information..

very talent. much good.

Pencil guy here. Your instincts are correct. I’ve used every art app in existence in search of a good pencil. Artstudio is hands down the best.

Krita Mobile version is great... using it on my Android (XP-PEN Magic pad)

"Krita is so good it makes the artists using it better." I can confirm it. It's like Krita said to PS, "Anything you can do, I can do better."

Every time I use my wacom, my pen always lags. How do I get it to stop lagging in Photoshop?

Clip Studio and Rebelle is insane combo. They both do anything I could ever think of, other than a couple minor things I wish CSP stole from Photoshop (bevels/emboss/stroke effects) and simple mode for Windows.

Video starts at 13.30…

Hello, I am a moderator of the PaintToolSAI subreddit. SAI was indeed made by one person, Koji Komatsu, and there have been images of early art software Koji has made as far back as 1999. SAI actually stands for SYSTEMAX Advanced Illustrator, which I found in an image from wayback machine. Koji is currently developing a Paint Tool SAI Ver.2 with a lot of modern features you would expect from a program nowadays, but keeps things simple to run on computers from 15 years ago or longer. The community has created some amazing brushes for the software, and it is a lot less limited than you might think. I have heard of artists that are in other countries that might not have the greatest computers because of a high cost or barrier to entry that can still get by with a trusty copy of SAI. Even Ver.1 will work on basically any computer from the past 20 years and I hear a lot of artists love the brush and blending feel of SAI. I urge anyone to go download SAI2 and mess around with it a bit. You don't need to buy a license for it or switch to it, just give it a try. I am so happy to be able to help run a niche yet passionate community that is the SAI Subreddit. I guess it's not too niche since it has 11K members, but its nowhere the big companies' software in the digital art space, and that's okay. :3

The beauty of Procreate is just the brush performance, and for me personally the brush smoothing which is completely unique. On the desktop, would it still have the crazy smooth brushes? And on the desktop, people would expect desktop features so it would probably not be so impactful on desktop. People would get it because of it's popularity, but I don't think it would be a game changer on the desktop.

Affinity Photo has serious brush performance issues. Same problem Serif's Photo app had way back 20 years ago! The problem shows up when you do something like hatching. A series of really quick strokes. The problem is that, it simply can't do it. After the 3rd stroke, it just stops making marks. Affinity Designer has almost exact same problem. Try to make a series of quick arcs, you get a series of straight lines. Same problem as Serif's old DrawPlus program from 20 years ago. Serif changed the names and marketing and kept all the old bugs. And there are other bugs that are still there as well. So The Affinity programs are suffering from quality issues that should put them at the bottom of any kind of list.

THANK YOU!!!

Nice

really neat, it gives me some ideas. also, when you were in gray scale and with the music I thought of Mordor. oh and happy Fathers Day (when this was published)

<3

I am really looking for a way to get more spontaneous and organic in my illustration and have been trying out this method a bit in the last time, but without really getting into it very deep. I used to work in a common way by creating a sketch, refining it, add layers for colors, lights etc. But by doing all this digitally it can feel inconsequential and less engaging. As any choice can be reversed youare always thinking without taking decisions. It also makes it hard for me to be more spontaneous with the colors, and I am just not really enjoying the process of creating the piece. I really want to be more bold in my colors and especially in my mark making, so this is why I started working in this way. I try to start by putting a color on the canvas, but with a large rough brush to get variety in the tone and color. Then I really try to put more colors on the canvas and smudge them, paint details over it and refine it to a point. I tend to try to avoid the eraser too. I have not gotten to a concrete result yet, but I find the process quite liberating, and it is easier to get into a flow state.

So. No selected brush highlight on the list 😢

I fall into that category of...I have so many ideas I don't do any of them. I wasn't liking any of my artwork and I took a break....it's been 6 months...and it's just begging to come out now though. So I'm cracking back into it honestly and want to really hone my skills more accurately and start enjoying my actual work instead of hating it all the time.

It’s exam week for me, and your channel is such a comfort/reliever !! I’m looking forward to having more time this summer to really put your advice and suggestions to practice as learning from your videos is always a treat :))

I swear to God, that you're reading my mind lately. I embrace the whole indie mindset because ultimately I think its more rewarding and legacy building. Personally, as I get older, with a young son, I want to leave an expression of myself behind when I finally leave this mortal coil. If my wife and son have a body of work that's entirely my own then after I'm gone physically, part of my pure expression is left behind so I'm not really gone entirely... a sort of artistic immortality. I don't think this is a morbid thing. I now have a set of books done with a couple to follow, a world, characters, lore etc. But that's not enough, I follow your philosophy closely because I want my visual art skills to grow so I can have my own expression in covers, a concept art book of the world with poetry, monologues, short stories in the same world. Also working on a game book in the old school Fighting Fantasy style and a solo TTRPG game all in the same world. Also looking at a soundtrack, dungeon synth style ambient doom metal / dark country music to enhance the reading experience. A pure independent complete artistic expression that only me and mine need to see but if more people do then cool. Phew. Bad ass Viking portrait. Your work as always blows me away. Peace brother. 🤘

Such an important topic! I have made the mistake in the past not to do this and it contributed to burnt out. Love your viking by the way - it looks like a really interesting project 😊

I am a hobbyist and just started my art learning in retirement (retired in Feb) and never did anything more than doodle. I am using Rebelle and like the different types: oils, watercolors, ink and charcoal. I could not imagine putting your heart and soul into a project then not have it come to fruition but also everything related to it be locked away from public view and you cannot even mention anything related to it. toward the end I noticed it was 0200 and 73 degrees. I thought you were in northeast US but not with those temps. I thought "thats more like here" then you mention you are in Texas, I live northwest of Houston.

Everything makes the internet angry. I think the internet just needs to quit being a little b****.

This is, by far, the best tutorial of mixed Brush I`ve seen! Thanks a lot! I was about to give up the idea of compreehending it.

man I just bought paintstorm today to test it out it feels so snappy compared to alot of other drawing softwares i've tried.

Hi how are you able to zoom and moved your artboard around on desktop. Any time i zoom for mine it just zooms to the centre

dark souls of digital painting? fuck yea! i love dark souls because i feel like the game helps teach patience and strategy, and boosts your determination as you play. NO matter the challenge you get back up and try again. love it

Breaking down this video into personal and client perspective views is perfect. Thanks Wes ! I have a more freestyle way of merging layers: - Click on the first layer you want to merge, then shift+left click on the last one (or ctrl+left click on the particular layer you want). - Then ctrl+ j (duplicate the selection) and press ctrl+e (merge selection). I think it works for every layer's properties: hidden, group, or locked. And if you want to merge everything visible in one trick: ctrl+ shift+ e

You're speaking to exactly me sir!! 😢😢 Thank you so much for the advice and talking through, I'm just gonna safe this to come back to whenever I'm feeling this stress again, or to remember the tips! 🙏💚

Really nice to see your workflow! Small quite insignificant tip: You can just left click the lock icon once on the background layer to unlock it without going through double clicking and closing the pop-up window. This can save you 10s of your life throughout your art career, which is probably less than you spend reading this comment and trying it out.