For free brushes, check out Loish’s Digital Art School! It includes my brush set with the brushes I use most often in all of my art. As for other brushes I use, my favorite sketching brush is the MaCaLabs HB Pencil brush, which you can download for both Photoshop and Procreate. My favorite Procreate brushes are MaxPacks Gouache and RazumInc pro II.
Brushes & tools
Programs / apps I use
I use Adobe Photoshop for practically everything! It’s the software I learned to make digital art with back in 2003, so it feels most natural for me. I also like to use Procreate when I am drawing on my iPad.
My setup
Most of my work is created on my self-assembled desktop PC. It consists of:
- A Cintiq Pro 24
- A rapoo keyboard that I can latch onto the edge of my tablet
- An Asus ProArt 32″ display
- A Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Eagle OC graphics card
- An i9 processor
Alternatively, I sometimes use:
- A Dell XPS 15 7590 for when I work outside of my studio space
- An iPad Pro with Procreate
- A 2nd generation Apple Pencil
I’ve been using some combination of a Cintiq and a Windows PC since 2012, so this is the setup that I feel most comfortable with. There’s so many options out there these days, so if you’re looking for new hardware, take the time to research which options best fit your budget and needs!
For those transitioning from traditional to digital art, I definitely recommend the iPad Pro with the Apple pencil and Procreate – it is very responsive, intuitive, and easy to learn. I have a few tutorials about my Procreate workflow available for free at Loish’s Digital Art School.