New Procreate Watercolor Brushes

When I opened my Procreate app this week the apps tarted an automatic download. I hoped there would be some new brushes - and there were! An entire library of new brushes! Just as so many of us write our names with new pens, I remember my art mentor, Katherine Pittman, happily testing new colors. Whenever she chose a new watercolor brand or color, Katherine would sample the paint and write the color on it. I found myself doing the same thing with the Procreate watercolor brushes, but writing the names of the brushes. 

I enjoy using digital watercolor when I work on digital art or illustrations. There is something soft and more intuitive feeling to me about the brushes. I used watercolor for the books I illustrated for Amanda Hodges and some of my own work. It's my preference. 

Procreates old brush library did not have a great watercolor selection, and I purchased my watercolor set from Art Junky's website and they're wonderful. I've really enjoyed working with them (I especially like how they blend color together). 

But, the new Procreate brushes feel more realistic than the Art Junky brushes. I liked the way they looked on my test page and I couldn't want to make some piece of art with them to really get a better feel for the way they would work in the app. 

I did not want to use the brushes in my works-in-progress because I did not want to change the feeling or look of ongoing work, so I knew that it would need to be a stand-alone project. I considered working on a butterfly; the monarchs are migrating through my area and they've been so lovely. I settled on a flower. I decided to work on an Iris. My grandmother loved Irises and she had beautiful Irises in her yard. 

I sketched out the Iris in the app. I used a dark digital pencil at first, but I was not pleased with the way the lines were so visible, so I changed it to a lighter grey to help guide my work. I wanted something subtle that would also help me with the appearance of sharper lines. When working with physical watercolor, I remember pencil lines being visible and trying to lightly sketch out drawings and will work on doing the same in Procreate for the same effect. 

I immediately found myself thinking that the new Procreate watercolor brushes were even more realistic than the Art Junky brushes. I enjoyed the texture of the new Procreate brushes, it felt like real paint on Arches paper. I also became very frustrated with the hard lines and some difficulty blending the digital paint - just like real watercolor, which I have never found to be a forgiving medium. 

I look forward to creating other pieces of art with these new brushes and continuing to discover what they can do and testing the limitations with my style. They were a delightful discovery and a wonderful way to spend my evening.