SOFTWARE:

Photoshop CS6+
CC18+ Recommended
(Mac + Windows)

HARDWARE:
2.5GHz processor
8Gb RAM or Higher
16Gb+ RAM recommended
640MB of available
storage space

SKILL BASE:
Suitable for
intermediate to expert
Photoshop users

THANKS FOR PURCHASING THE DEAD SUBTLE BRUSH SET.

I’VE HAD A TONNE OF FUN COLLABORATING ON THESE
BRUSHES TO FIT MY WORKFLOW AND COMPLIMENT MY
SIGNATURE STYLE.

BELOW ARE MY TOP 10 TIPS FOR WORKING WITH YOUR Milan Chagoury

DEAD SUBTLE BRUSHES TO DEVELOP YOUR OWN Staybold.com

PERSONAL STYLE AND KEEP YOUR WORK LOOKING LEGIT. @StayBold

01. SUBTLE TEXTURES ON TAP

Your Dead Subtle brushes are designed to be used like a big-ass rubber stamp and are
perfect for quickly filling large areas of your artwork with natural texture details with
minimal effort. Just choose a brush, tap your pencil on the canvas and you’re done.

02. REPEATING TEXTURES

Since the brushes have soft, feathered edges, they are really easy to repeat and tile
across a larger area. Either drag your pencil across the screen to repeat the texture or
stamp it on one pencil tap at a time. If you overlap them too much just hit undo,
reposition your pencil a little and try again.

03. ROTATE & REPEAT

To build up more texture using the same brush, rotate your canvas each time you tap
your pencil to avoid obvious repetition and ghosting.

04. LAYER! LAYER! LAYER!

It sounds pretty obvious but keep yourself in the habit of using your brushes on
separate layers. It helps a lot when you’re making small edits to your textures and
adjusting transparency. Editability is king.

05. BRUSH OPACITY VS LAYER OPACITY

You can reduce your brush’s opacity by adjusting the Brush Opacity slider (below the
brush size slider). If you’re like me and like to change it up as you go, apply the brush
on a separate layer instead so you can adjust the layer opacity later. Another advantage
of this is you can also make your texture bolder by duplicating the layer.

06. SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE

Try to use your brushes in a considered way whether it’s just using one or two
complimentary brushes or combining lots of brushes to create a dense and layered
look. Less is usually more (unless we’re talking about tattoos or dogs).

07. USE LAYER MASKS

Sometimes it’s not enough to just brush one texture over the top of everything. To get
a really authentic look, apply your Dead Subtle brush texture first then use a layer
mask to show or hide it in specific areas of your artwork.

Learn more about using layer masks in Procreate here.

08. POSITIVE VS NEGATIVE

Try experimenting with your brushes to see the different effects you get when brushing
a texture in a light color on a dark background (negative) or a dark color on a light
background (positive). Some of the brushes, especially the worn brushes (No’s. 14-20)
look great when applied as a negative and give the effect of ink having been rubbed off
the page by years of wear and tear.

09. BRUSH SIZES

Procreate doesn’t display a brushes size in pixels so it’s helpful to know that the default
size of your Dead Subtle Brushes is about 1350px (50%) and the max size is around
2700px (100%).

10. OBSERVE & REPORT

Observing texture IRL is once of the best ways to improve your use of texture in your
work. Hit up vintage stores, yard sales, junk shops and trawl the internet for images of
old books, comics and packaging and try to take notice of what makes something look
authentically textured in real life.

GOT A QUESTION OR NEED SOME HELP?

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