Illustrator Kyle Webster has developed a series of digital brushes that allow artists to recreate the look of scratchy technical pens, flowing watercolor paints, and dusty pastels all within the pristine confines of a Photoshop file. Kyle Webster
Illustrator Kyle Webster has developed a series of digital brushes that allow artists to recreate the look of scratchy technical pens, flowing watercolor paints, and dusty pastels all within the pristine confines of a Photoshop file.
Webster's brushes are used by Disney concept artists and award-winning comic book artists. Paolo Rivera
Webster's brushes are used by Disney concept artists and award-winning comic book artists.
What these artists like most isn't that the digital brushes feel perfect, but rather that they feel unpredictable and require experience and experimentation, just like real brushes. Kyle Webster
What these artists like most isn't that the digital brushes feel perfect, but rather that they feel unpredictable and require experience and experimentation, just like real brushes.
Last year, Webster earned over $100,000 selling his intangible art supplies Kyle Webster
Last year, Webster earned over $100,000 selling his intangible art supplies
Webster developed these brushes to allow himself to work in a variety of different styles. Kyle Webster
Webster developed these brushes to allow himself to work in a variety of different styles.
Some of Webster's creations are carefully planned and designed to mimic a specific type of tool, like a fine sable watercolor brush. Others emerge organically from experiments. Kyle Webster
Some of Webster's creations are carefully planned and designed to mimic a specific type of tool, like a fine sable watercolor brush. Others emerge organically from experiments.
"Most of the work I am making now for clients is work I am proud to show in my portfolio, as opposed to a mix of jobs that pay the bills and keep me busy," says Webster who now has to regularly turn down big gigs to handle tech support and marketing. Kyle Webster
"Most of the work I am making now for clients is work I am proud to show in my portfolio, as opposed to a mix of jobs that pay the bills and keep me busy," says Webster who now has to regularly turn down big gigs to handle tech support and marketing.
Using these tools Webster has been able to serve a diverse client list that includes Tori Amos and Krispy Kreme. Kyle Webster
Using these tools Webster has been able to serve a diverse client list that includes Tori Amos and Krispy Kreme.
Illustrator Kyle Webster’s client list includes The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, but last year more than half his income came through the sale of virtual paintbrushes. These digital tools allow artists to recreate the look of scratchy technical pens, flowing watercolor paints, and dusty pastels all within the pristine confines of a Photoshop file.
The brushes are used by illustration luminaries like Christoph Niemann and the anonymous artists who design armor for Game of Thrones. They give shape to Spiderman and the ne’er do wells from Grand Theft Auto. They’re owned by budding art students, pre-loaded on designer’s laptops at Nike, and quietly have become a six-figure business for the North Carolina-based artist.
This highly profitable hobby began like one of Bob Ross’s “happy accidents.” In addition to his work for national publications, Webster maintains an eclectic client list that includes Krispy Kreme and Tori Amos. Donut makers and cornflake girls have very different aesthetics, which led Webster to become proficient in a variety of styles and mediums. “I never wanted to be known as a person who only created one specific kind of imagery,” he says. “Creating brushes, in my spare time, that emulated different kinds of natural media, allowed me to experiment more and then eventually work those experiments into paying work.”
After a decade of tinkering, Webster had a cache of finely-tuned digital tools. After illustrator friends started asking to use them, he realized there was a nascent market to be served. He collected them into virtual packs, put them on the market, and as of last year earned more than $100,000 selling intangible art supplies.
Old Master Techniques Meet New Technologies
Oil painters swear by certain types of bristles and purists will even mix their own paints. Webster is just as picky, but more digitally inclined.
Photoshop comes pre-loaded with brushes, but they’re crude approximations of analog tools. By layering textures, taking advantage of built-in algorithms that mimic wet edges, and tweaking sensitivity levels for tablets, Webster’s digital facsimiles approach real life Winsor & Newtons. “Everything changed for me when I realized I could use some of Photoshop’s brush tool settings in ways they were never intended to be used,” says Webster. “Certain combinations that do not seem logical yield amazing natural media results, and when these settings are combined with the right brush shape, you have something really special and new.”
Some of Webster’s creations are carefully planned and designed to mimic a specific type of tool, like a fine sable watercolor brush. Others emerge organically from experiments. He’ll play around with a shape, overlay a texture, and push the “jitter” setting to see what emerges. “Sometimes, the brush immediately looks like something familiar, perhaps dry pastel,” he says. “I then refine it a bit and voila—a new dry pastel brush.”
What the Pros Say
Webster’s clients run the gamut of the illustrator profession. We talked to a few, to see if what they had to say. Turns out, no matter their style or background, they all tend to echo one another’s thoughts. And what they like most isn’t that the digital brushes feel perfect, but rather that they feel unpredictable. They require experience and experimentation, just like real brushes.
“Kyle’s brushes mimic the ‘happy accidents’ that make painting so magical, and allow them to occur in digital work,” says Samantha Kallis, a concept artist at Disney. Chris Turnham, worked on Laika’s Coraline, says, “So many brushes online act more like rubber stamps than true paint brushes. Kyle’s brushes look totally natural, and one brush can give a variety of results.”
That sentiment is echoed by Sophie Diao, who works at Google crafting the famous doodles that replace the search giant’s logo on special occasions. “I especially enjoy that some of his brushes have an unpredictability to them, in terms of how pen pressure and pen tilt affect them,” she says. Paolo Rivera, a comics artist whose work includes Wolverine and Daredevil, recently adopted Webster’s wares into his workflow. “His brushes really get me excited about drawing again,” he says. By increasing the fidelity of his digital sketches, Rivera finds himself sharing his work more widely on social media, and at much earlier stages in the process.
Webster is thrilled with the positive responses and the wide uptake his brushes have garnered, even if it has cut into his drawing time. “Most of the work I am making now for clients is work I am proud to show in my portfolio, as opposed to a mix of jobs that pay the bills and keep me busy,” says Webster who now has to regularly turn down big gigs to handle tech support and marketing.
“I keep my brushes very affordable to hopefully prevent too much copying and sharing, but it is just part of the world in which we live,” he says. Webster’s brushes are available with prices ranging from $3-13 dollars with a few free samples to get started.
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