LEARN TOOLS FOR PAINTERLY STYLE

Discover how Mandy Jurgens uses the Pattern Stamp and Mixer Brush to create a traditional feel in her digital work

- Mandy Jurgens

I love the playful textures that emerge when painting with traditional media, but I also enjoy the ease and versatility of digital painting.

In attempting to combine the two, I’ve experimented with recreating that feel of textured brushstrokes digitally. Two of my favourite tools are Photoshop’s Pattern Stamp and Mixer Brush.

Pattern Stamp lets you take any image and literally stamp it onto your digital canvas, which can create interesting textures by itself. We can further refine and morph this by using an interesting Pattern Stamp configuration as a base for the Mixer Brush, which can be used to pick up any assortment of colours already on your canvas and use them as a brushstroke, much like picking up a mixture of oil paints on a traditional brush.

This is especially useful when quickly painting things that naturally have a few different hues, such as leaves or grass, but also lends itself to mimicking different textiles, patterns and materials. It can also give a more abstract feel to backgrounds, especially the illusion of oil paintstrokes.

1 Prepare your sketch

To start, I usually create a sketch of whichever subject I plan to paint. Leave your sketches fairly rough, and allow the final painted image to take on a life of its own. Start each new project on a 50% grey background, as it can help you to balance the colours better.

2 Try the Pattern Stamp (right)

While I don’t plan out every single colour ahead of time, I usually aim to evoke an emotion within a painting. Colour is an important tool for this, and Pattern Stamp is a great tool to help you find suitable colour schemes. To start, select the Pattern Stamp tool and you’ll be greeted by the bar pictured. You can choose any brush shape from your regular brush set for this, and you’ll also need to cultivate a set of source images.

3 Find a source image set