If you notice I’ve used the same sky in the whole of the latest book so far. As you say, thematic.

Here’s another one of my skies. I did dozens of them one weekend a few years ago. And now use them all the time. Probably should do some new ones.

Haven’t done, but can see it.

Yes, the brushes are just tools. It’s how you use them that counts. Just like playing jazz on a clarinet. More than just blowing and pressing buttons. But the advantage I have is I’m designing the brushes with exactly the requirements I’m looking for when eventually using them.

Thanks - I did that with my Chalk brush.

Here’s the actual picture. Easier to see when it’s not jumping about…

Here you go. I filmed it in real time. It’s not sped up or anything like that. I had to do it fast though because Bluesky limits video clips to 3 minutes only.
(I think this is just over 2 mins). Normally I’d spend a little more time on this kind of thing.

You can see some of my latest foliage work in real depth here on my free Substack blog. The image quality on Substack is excellent and allows zooming in to appreciate detail.

open.substack.com/pub/stevebee...

I suppose I’d describe them as being deliberately random in that I have control of brush size, colour and depth of layer.
The brushes are one thing. The way you use them (individually or together) quite another.
The brushes are good time-saving tools though.

You’ll probably notice if you look really carefully that there is a part of the brush-head that’s a bit too distinctive (and distracting) - it’s somewhere between ten to and five to on the clock face of the brush. It shows up too much on the art piece. I’ll need to remove it when I edit the brush.

The image quality on this platform doesn’t really do things justice though. It’s very fuzzy close up. In a more precise medium the design has a sharp edge even when blown up. Fascinating really to see how these things can merge and produce endless combinations.