31.08.2022 03:04
LunatiqueRob
portfolio

When I purchased Rebelle 5 Pro, I was offered a bunch of papers at a discounted price, but none of them interested me because none of them had gesso textures, which is a surface type I usually prefer. I couldn't understand how with so many types of papers the Escape Motions team had created, there wasn't a single gesso textured surface. So I'm officially requesting the dev team to create some, and I'll happily buy them. 

I'm specifically talking about the kind of gesso-primed surface (on canvas, on illustration board, on wooden board) that has random bristle marks. Here are some closeups crops of my artworks where you can see those gesso texture marks used (they were embedded in the custom Photoshop brushes I used): 

 

30.11.2022 03:24
Steffen
portfolio

Hi Rob,

you can create a layer and paint it in light grey with oil brushes (impasto), then export this layer as a png-file and add it to your papers. You can now delete the layer and use the "paper" you've just made in your painting. *The size of your paper will have the dimensions of the document you created it in.

You can experiment with the grey tone to get different results. I usually keep it between 20 - 40%.

 

Hope that helps! :-)

 

Cheers,

Steffen

07.12.2022 08:45
LunatiqueRob
portfolio

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely try it out. 

17.05.2023 01:43
LunatiqueRob
portfolio

Escape Motions just releases a new batch of gessoed papers! Woohoo!

17.05.2023 09:15
Veronika Escape Motions
Team Member portfolio

YES, based on your suggestion. :) How do you like them?

20.05.2023 03:31
LunatiqueRob
portfolio

I just bought all three sets and was playing around with them. Here's me trying a bunch of brushes on EX33 Fine Gesso:

I like them so far. It's really tricky to find the exact oiliness setting so a brush can go from thick impasto to dry brush/scumbling just by controlling the pressure. Too often it's either too thick or too thin and would require I constantly change the oiliness setting to get a more natural looking transition from thick to dry brush/scumbling, which isn't ideal. 

I would say you guys have made great strides, and the only thing left is more dynamic brushes with bristles that can clump together or splay apart based on direction of stroke and pressure, as well as control how thickly to lay on the paint just by pressure (which is more like real life). For example, even if it's thick impasto, if I just very lightly scrape the tooth of the paper/canvas, I should still be able to impart a more dry/brush look, and when there's less paint, I press hard or change the stroke director, the bristles will react by splaying or clumping together. With all those factors working together, the brushes will become even more expressive and realistic. 

27.05.2023 10:41
RoksanaDiamond
portfolio

+1

"....as well as control how thickly to lay on the paint just by pressure"

 

THIS. I need this too.

For now I'm unsatisfied with current Paint mode, that's why I mostly use Paint and mix, Paint and blend.

 

The amount of paint being applied and its' opacity very poorly depends on the pressure in Paint mode for some reason. In addition I have to constantly change Opacity manually in Glazing mode which is pain. Glad I'm not the only one noticed this.

29.05.2023 10:12
Veronika Escape Motions
Team Member portfolio

Hi @LunatiqueRob,

Basically just set Oiliness to 20 and Paper Texture Strength to 80, Paper Texture Contrast to 50 - it works with multiple oil brushes.

We've also prepared 4 Grunge brushes for Express Oils, you can download them from this link.

They were created to better imitate the effect you are talking about, here are some brushstrokes:

We'd be grateful if you test these brushes and send us your thoughts.

Thank you in advance!

 

01.06.2023 06:41
LunatiqueRob
portfolio

@Veronika Escape Motions - Thank you for the tip and the brushes! I tested them out and here are my thoughts:

Here's me testing out the custom expressive oil brushes I downloaded:

They do look/feel a lot more like actual dry brush, but not scumbling, because Rebelle's brush engine currently doesn't have dynamic bristles. Notice now no matter how "rough" I try to make the strokes, they are always contained in neatly and perfectly consistent widths and edges, making them much less expressive. This is because the bristles can't splay and create unpredictable shapes. 

Here's what dynamic bristles can do in Photoshop:

These are only three separate strokes. See how expressive these strokes get when the bristles can clump together and splay apart based on tilt, direction, and pressure? This is what I really need in Rebelle because I use this type of brush so much in my work. They actually feel like real natural media due to the dynamic expressiveness and give me the unpredictability and chaotic look I love (but still controllable and repeatable). 

And there are also Photoshop brushes that even without the dynamic bristles, can still impart very expressive results. Here's one single brush shape, but with three different settings. These are also some of my most used brushes in Photoshop (these are also three separate strokes only):

I had tried exporting those brush shapes into Rebelle and experimented with various settings, but all I could get were predictable and limiting results due Rebelle's brush engine's limitations:

Maybe the dev team needs to really analyze Photoshop's brush engine and figure out how it is able to achieve such expressiveness under the hood, and then apply what they learned to Rebelle's brush engine. There are some inherent limitations currently in Rebelle's brush engine that will probably require some pretty major overhauls in order to achieve the kind of results I can get in Photoshop's brush engine 

01.06.2023 07:01
LunatiqueRob
portfolio

For those following this thread, you might want to check out my other thread, which also contains discussions about brushes and various brush experiments: https://www.escapemotions.com/community/forum/t/2804/rebelle-badly-needs-some-dryscumbling-brushes