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.
