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Brollonks In reply to Kasz [2012-09-30 00:44:34 +0000 UTC]

I release a newer version soon, at least when I have enough time.

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Brollonks In reply to Micheal-C [2012-05-21 10:13:36 +0000 UTC]

Too much work to do. I won't be able to release anything the next time. The brushes from the example-image are version 1, my newest are version 4.

I decided to share my brushes with professional workmates only.

Perhaps I am able to release a small collection of my whole set when I have more time to do so.

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Brollonks In reply to Loona-Cry [2011-09-19 10:39:02 +0000 UTC]

Mh, more downloads on the image than favs or feedback. It seems people are not interested or are just waiting what happens. Anyway, it might be that I won't share them on Deviantart and upload them at CGHUB.com. So be sure to follow me there if you want those.
It's sad but I think I should concentrate more on CGHUB, as there are tons of GREAT artworks to see and many fellow artists are there too.
I think Deviantart is somehow too much like a site for random images (and unknown, very good artists, won't be noticed at all besides all the stuff)... I still like it as I know many good artists here, as well moderating Groups with my best friend MrsGraves to gather those unknown or even known great artists, having a great Portfolio-option etc.
But I am missing those huge, massive great galleries like those on CGHUB. So Deviantart will become my second site, CGHUB my first at all.

As for the pencil-shader: Yes, this one is very useful but this would be my last choice besides all the other brushes in this pack.

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Loona-Cry In reply to Brollonks [2011-09-19 12:38:03 +0000 UTC]

Fair enough.
Well, concentrate on wherever you think you'll get the best feedback. The more popular or even what people consider the "better" artists here get utterly inboxed bombed and I suppose it makes it very difficult to find time to give feedback between shunting off the random commenters. I get a piddly amount of messages and even I find going through them all quite daunting.
I know what you mean. One of my friends here has fairly decent stuff and barely anyone has seen or even acknowledged it. I'm a complete newbie and he deserves a hell of a lot more credit than anything I've been given.
Can't say I've ever frequented the place but I'll check it out.

Well, right now I'm looking for brushes with some more texture to them, so I'd find that more useful as of right now.

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Brollonks In reply to Loona-Cry [2011-09-19 12:57:28 +0000 UTC]

Yes, that's what I mean. I don't want to be "bombed" with comments - but what I mean is, that I noticed that my brushes were downloaded way more often than I got feedback or favs (which would help to spread the tools). At CGHUB.com it's quite difficult to get feedback, as many just want to "watch" instead of commenting a lot. Even favourites are pretty rare, at least I can tell from what I saw while looking around all those great galleries.

In terms of textured brushes - oh yeah I discovered a great way to create those. I prefer, sometimes more, sometimes less, "noisy" brushes creating a drawn look. But I don't wonder why, because I love the traditional pencil very much. (And inks)

Back to the topic of becoming more feedback - I think at Deviantart it's most difficult because there are tons of works (mostly not soooo good ones), millions of members and only known artists will be found here. Of course, there are indeed some exceptions as well.
At CGHUB, I think, there is a far better chance to meet some cool artists (and there are no Photomanips, no Photographs, and pretty much no low level Fanarts, no Pornography, etc.) and spreading the own work to be noticed by companies.

But christmas is coming and of course I appreciate every comment, favourite, and contact I made in dA, so I might give something back to you guys. . It wouldn't be fair to just go away and leave my account alone - no, that's not what I want.

Oh and I am at the 6th version of my Painter'ish Camelhairbrushes. I think I developed them to the next level. Ah, I wonder when I'll reach Version 7... (current versions are 6.2).

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Loona-Cry In reply to Brollonks [2011-09-19 13:23:49 +0000 UTC]

Hey, I'll have you know "bombed" is a very technical term for us Australians. We can literally apply it anything, from shoddy art to burnt food. CGHUB seems to be a community that likes to sit back and poke people with a stick. *nod* You need to be careful with "elitist" communities too, they can be an absolute pain to deal with. It's best to hang around websites with a variety of of skill levels I find, otherwise the odds are you'll be seeing the same old stagnant artwork type.

Cough out as many textured brushes as you like. I'm in dire need of ones that are of decent quality. :/ Despite the popularity, not all brushes here deserve the hype they're given. Okay, I'll admit it; the first thing I looked for when I got a tablet was a sketching program.

Well, 90% of everything is complete crap and that's regardless of where you go and what you look at. DA does attract it's fair share of weirdos though, but I think that's more to do with the lax enforcement of submission terms. There's always exceptions. Well, I play with all the different art types for practice and that includes Photomanips, although I tend to paint heavily on mine as opposed to only using textures with little paint. *shrug* I guess it depends on the skill level of the people you're dealing with. You've clearly been doing it for a while and commercially, so your standard is definitely going to be higher than mine as well as the type of exposure you want.

Well, high quality brush dumps are great presents. *hint hint* Your art is done from scratch, it definitely deserves kudos when most of the things here seem to be cut and paste jobs.

More camelhair~ *squee* ^^ Looking foward to seeing the new version at any rate.

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Brollonks In reply to Loona-Cry [2011-09-19 13:52:24 +0000 UTC]

Mh, well, Elite-Communities are not easy, yes, but are needed to get into the professional level. At the very beginning, it's super painful that nobody even wants to have a little conversation with "beginners". But I can understand that too, because every rookie wants to get tips and has tons of questions. No professional will have time to answer them all.
Well, besides those who don't ever answer a single question (as I wrote I understand that), I had great conversations with some of my favourited artists. From time to time I write a message and from time to time they have a chance to answer. This is very helpful for everyone who wants to improve.

I personally try to help as much as I can, but somehow it seems very wasteful to put much work into, per example, brushes and those are the only ones getting more views, more downloads than everything else.
For those, like you, giving some feedback I have much respect and those people will get more from me than anyone else, who is just "taking" my stuff and doesn't give a single, little, "thank you".

Of course, the same could be said to me - I rarely have time to say thanks for favourites, comments, or feedback - yes, that's true. But I try to thank all of you with something I have to share, like brushes or, maybe, some day Videotutorials.

At the time when I become known (if it will ever happen), I want to answer as many questions as possible, if rookies are starting to ask tons of questions. I want to change something, don't want to just sit back - I want to help others to reach their goals.
But without feedback, it won't happen anyway... I can't read others minds, so they need to say something.

In terms of Camelhair-Brushes - I finally sorted out how to get rid of the Dualbrush Setting, slowing down the PC, and getting same fluent stroke results...


Ah yes, there is a thought I had - I could upload PDF-Tutorials for Step by Steps. But I think Videotutorials would be more helpful.

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Loona-Cry In reply to Brollonks [2011-09-20 02:21:16 +0000 UTC]

Well, you're actually a professional while I'm a hobbyist so you'd probably have less of a problem with the critiques than someone like me. The thing with most beginners is that we aren't really looking for involved tutorials all the time. More often than not it's the little and most basic of things like "How do you get your lines so straight?" or "How do you make your textures look decent/blend" and stuff like that. Yep, exactly the reason, professionals have lives - we don't. I'd be very suprised if you all had time to help out with us newbies.
Indeed, being able to talk to people even on rare occassions can very helpful. I've found the tips you've given me to be really useful.

I know what you mean. :/ I do heaps of render jobs, which lots of people look at, despite the original drawing not being my work (which I specifically state). It becomes very irritating when you're looking for feedback on work that's actually your own and people just favourite it or have a comment saying "lol nice". I try to give critical feedback when I can, but I can't always pinpoint what exactly it is about the painting that feels wrong unless they're making very basic mistakes. :/
My pleasure, I try to say thanks to everyone but DA has this thing called a spam filter. -_-

Anyone who has any degree of popularity on their work finds it difficult to say thank you to everything. I tried at the beginning but gave up when I somehow ended up with 380 feedback messages overnight. In the end I gave up and wrote a jounal saying thank you to everyone for favourites and the like. There's not much more you can do, short of scripting a bot. Video tutorials, huh? More on this at the bottom.

Fair enough. Also very true, unless people are specific about what they want then it's going to be hard to answer their prospective questions. You'll get there eventually, it takes time to break into these jobs.

Awesome~ Also, a higher resolution would be really nice too, for the absolutely huge paintings. Unless that makes life difficult, in which case it's fine the way it is.

PDF tutorials vs video tutorials, well, it depends. Video tutorials are only really useful when they're at 1x (normal speed) and you're actually explaining things as you go. Video tutorials like Feng Zhu's (who I'm sure you've heard of) are helpful at times, but they don't really explain the finer points of WHY he's chosen to do something in a certain way or HOW he came to that conclusion. He does too much association which he doesn't explain to the people to the people watching the tutorials. As a complete beginner he doesn't really help people like me who already know the concepts but lack the technique and strategies to implement the ideas. He'll compress 2 hours of painting into half an hour and you as the viewer lose a lot of the information you'd otherwise get from watching it. Just keep that in mind if you ever do video tutorials. Most people who watch them are complete beginners with the odd intermediate and advanced people checking it out for ideas and concepts. Not explaining even the little, minute things can cripple us and our confidence as beginners.

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Brollonks In reply to Loona-Cry [2011-09-20 09:37:29 +0000 UTC]

I exactly know what you mean. Years over years I cared less about critique, when I knew that's not meant to help me but just to look down on me. At the beginning it's hard, yes. And I went from site to site the more I improved. Years ago I never would have signed in to CGHUB, as I knew I would have to improve to get into this community without being completely ignored.

Oh and Feng Zhu is explaining how to draw straight and almost non-wobbly lines. Shall I search this one out for you? But I think I already told you how to draw like this. The other thing is just hard practice... Even I feel that I have to draw A LOT more lineart to get it were I want it to be.
I might be a professional (a very young one, just started to walk down my path), I know how hard it's gonna be for me. But as I wrote, I want to change things and get in touch with beginners to help them with their basic questions. I was very disappointed at the beginning, when I almost got no answer from favourited artists, but I learned why they don't have time, or just don't want to - I realized that they answered tons of questions being the same I had. So... luckily I was able to talk to some of my favourited artists and their tutorials helped me out a lot.
Videotutorials - yes, I think at the beginning it's hard to follow the process when the video is sped up. I came in touch with videotutorials when I almost got the idea of how to build up forms, shapes, and outlines. I had the same idea - when I do videotutorials, they will be in real time. PDF-Tutorials are, as far as I can tell, only helpful if you exactly know "how" to draw good lines, shapes, and "how" to get nice looking brushstrokes.
They are interesting as they give much information, but it's like someone telling you exactly how to open a door - but you don't know how to move your hand to do it...


As for CGHUB - it will become my first choice when uploading new works, sketches and tutorials or brushes. Besides that, I also upload images at dA for my portfolio. And tutorials if I think it's worth it. Brushes will be uploaded eventually, when I know they will get enough favs to be spreaded. In CGHUB you can find brushes very easily, so I don't need favs to spread them.
I will post a journal-entry when they are at CGHUB so I will see how many people want to download them. What I want is to spread them, because I want to help. What annoyed me was to see how many people downloaded them, but didn't fav them to spread them around. It's some kind of selfishness I can see. Sure, if they tried them and thought they weren't helpful, then there is no need to spread them around in their opinion. But how many are using them right now, but don't want to help spreading them? This is sad, at least, I find it sad.

As for Feng Zhu's explanations: I think absolute beginners won't get them, as they need basics first. I learned a lot, and even more, from his tutorials - but that could be because I am beyond the basics. Okay, I love to step back and improving the basic things though. It's fun to look into old artbooks and studying the basics after years, it's funny that I notice much more things than before.

Oh and there was a very helpful tip of Feng Zhu, I never took care of that much: Writing down some notes before starting completely from nothing. If drawing a creature, writing down some notes like "massive head, teeth to slay bigger animals of prey, massive claws to climb rocky areas"... etc.

I already got an image in my head, then just thinking about what it could be - as when I only think, there are tooooo many thoughts showing up. When writing down notes, I only think about what I wrote down.

Oh well, there is so much to talk about - but for now I send this comment to you so you can answer back. I will answer after reading yours, might need some time. Today I'm gonna sketching rather than doing concept/sketch-paintings or finished artworks. I need to practice working with written notes.


- Ah yes, most of the Camelhairbrushes can become quite huge. There is a limit though, my PC slows down by 80px. But when I think of my older ones, 20 px were too big at this time. My standard-size is up to 25 px for lineart at the moment. An image - resolution up to 10000 px is pretty rare, mostly I come up with 7000 and for those high rez images 25 px-brushes are pretty good...

My pencilbrushes can become even bigger, but the shader should do the job when shading bigger areas.

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Loona-Cry In reply to Brollonks [2011-09-20 10:30:49 +0000 UTC]

It sucks when people have a go at you for something that you're trying to improve. I'm basically doing the same thing at the moment - floating around and looking for advice.

Don't bother, it was just an example to show that we're more concerned with the very basic things. Straight lines take lots of practice and nice smooth arm movements. Lineart is so daunting. *shudder* I've just been using the pen tool for my lineart and I've been using my plain painting as straight line practice for the moment.
People not answering me doesn't bother me all that much - their life does not revolve around me afterall. I'm thankful to anyone who does repond by making space for me in their schedule. If/when you do end up with a high end job show me some of your end projects.
I agree completely. Video tutorials at their normal speed are far more useful and they give you more time to process what the artist is doing.
The only PDF tutorials I like are the ones that literally explain in depth each step. The PDF tutorials "How to" are more often than not just explaining the concept, not the technique. I feel the technique comes from literally asking and watching the artists themselves.
Exactly right - they show the end product but not how they got there.

That happens to me too. It is annoying when people don't spread your work around but I find the opposite quite annoying too. I've lost count of the number of people I've caught using my work without acknowledging me as the artist. It's effectively theft and they never so much as check to see if they're allowed to use it. It's amazing how we have the opposite problem. You can't spread your work and I can't stop mine from being spread. *head shake* I'll keep an eye out for your stuff on CGHUB at any rate.

Hence why I find his explanations useless more often than not. I picked up some ideas from him like texture blending and the like but not a great deal technique wise. I know what you mean, I do the same thing with books I read. ^^ I look at my old favourites and end up spotting all of the author's mistakes. It's no suprise when they're not my favourites after the reread.

Having migrated from literature I'm in the habit of trying to write down some details so I have a rough idea of what I'm doing. Point form is your friend, having too much text can just confuse the main points of your artwork. I generally improvise on some of the subtleties after I've finished the main areas of work, then I write them down. Personally, it's something I find easier.

I have the same problem all the time in everything I do. My mind leaps to about 8 different concepts/conclusions and I have no idea how I got there by the end of it. Having a plan written down really helps.

Cheers for the consideration. Well, I find written notes a lot easier to work from having written quite a few essays, short stories and god knows what else in my few short years. Good luck with your practice. ^^

Sweet, if they can reach even near 10000 px then I'm happy. I use the size to hide the mistakes in my lineart. *innocent whistle* Your camelhairs are also really nice for imitating manga lines when I'm redrawing them.

Great, one of my main gripes with PS is the low quality brushes. For how much it costs they could at least provide some higher res brushes. :/ I enjoy most user made resources simply due to the higher quality.

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Brollonks In reply to Eric-A-Allen [2011-09-18 17:32:49 +0000 UTC]

Hi, good to read that. If there are only a couple of people I might share them only via E-Mail or uploading them at another place.

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Eric-A-Allen In reply to Brollonks [2011-09-18 18:40:43 +0000 UTC]

Cool. I would be interested. Let me know if you need my email address.

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Brollonks In reply to Eric-A-Allen [2011-09-18 19:01:22 +0000 UTC]

As I am also at CGHUB.com, I might upload them there, but I am not sure yet. I can understand people just wanting some cool tools, and that there isn't always time to say "thank you". But I noticed it especially when I upload some of my tools, that there are much more pageviews than in my other uploads. This wasn't the point were I thought "Wait a moment...", the point was, that there were many downloads but only a few favourites. But, at least, some people thanked me and one even wrote me an E-Mail.

It's not that I want tons of comments, but more feedback and favourites to spread my tools would help many which are searching for such kind of brushes.

Perhaps my new tools will only be shared with some fellow illustrators, they at least appreciate it. But let's see, perhaps more people stumble upon this brushes until the end of September.
There are tons of brushes here at dA, I might upload them at CGHUB first, as there are only a few brushes shared in their tools-section... I will see if people find them helpful or are interested to try those, when more are knowing that they exist or will exist soon.

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Eric-A-Allen In reply to Brollonks [2011-09-18 19:15:07 +0000 UTC]

I appreciate you taking the time to create brushes and sharing them at deviantart.

I enjoy using them.

Thank you for creating and sharing your brushes.

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