Ctrl+Paint Dynamic Brushwork

Before this week, I was struggling quite a bit with Photoshop, specifically with painting. Most of my knowledge consisted of using filters to create my textures, and when it came to creating them in a traditional manner, the results were sub-par at best. While watching Concept Cookie's live stream for this week, I asked the question of where to learn how to utilize the brushes when it came to painting in Photoshop. Little did I know that using the basics was the key, and then using specific brushes for the effects you wanted after. Even with that little bit of information, I was not ready to paint just yet, but at least I was given an idea of what to look for in order to progress forward.


Right after the live stream, I went straight to Google looking for any and every resource to help my understand the brushes in Photoshop. It wasn't until I ran across a tutorial by Ctrl+Paint, called Dynamic Brushwork. While it wasn't free, I have to say it was $10USD well spent. I've found a lot of good stuff on Ctrl+Paint, but nothing as in-depth as this. For someone like me who was an extreme novice to digital painting, this tutorial gave me a great shove off the cliff so that I could in fact start to fly.

Ctrl+Paint: Dynamic Brushwork

So to start, the tutorial covered some of the basic functions in Photoshop, and how they helped with digital painting. Various layer tricks were also mentioned to help take full advantage of the digital medium, and then going into how to add brush sets, specifically the set that came with the tutorial download. After the brushes were added, the tutorial went on to explaining the different brushes, and how they were best used. After watching this part, something in my head "clicked", and it all made sense.

After all of the basic information, the tutorial then covers three different "case studies", where the painter goes through three different paintings, showing the process of adding something new to each one. Each one shows a few different ways to use the layers to your advantage, as well as demonstrating each of the brushes in real world painting examples.

In conclusion, after finishing this tutorial, I finally felt confident enough to paint, and created my first painting "Cleo" which can be found in my Portfolio. If you are someone very new to painting in the digital format, or someone wanting to learn how to paint effectively in Photoshop, this tutorial is definitely for you. Even if you are a seasoned digital painter, but like what Ctrl+Paint has to offer, their paid tutorials are a great way to show that support without going broke. Either way, this is a tutorial I will never regret buying, and definitely not my last one from Ctrl+Paint.