Publishing Pals
Welcome to Publishing Pals Podcast, a podcast where two pals talk about publishing. For nearly a decade, we have tried, failed, and sometimes succeeded at being traditionally published. Come along with us as we share everything we've learned in this oddly gatekept, confusing, but incredibly fun and rewarding industry.
Publishing Pals
Procreate Brushes
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Hello!
In this episode we’re talking about Procreate brushes! Our favorites, some basic Procreate tips, and packs and edits we’d recommend.
Here are some of the authors, artists, and other things we brought up during the episode. Just a disclaimer - please do not take our word as fact. The publishing industry is always changing, and often we are talking about things we are remembering from a while ago or have heard from others. It’s always important to do your own research! If we realize after the fact that we have gotten anything wrong, we will do our best to correct it in the show notes.
Katie’s website (welcome, Katie!): katiedwyerillustrations.com
Links for Jessica Regel, the agent from our agency deep dive:
https://helmliterary.com/books
https://helmliterary.com/submit
What’s new in the Procreate update: https://tinyurl.com/bdck7snx
Kyle T. Webster, the creator of the new Procreate brushes: https://www.instagram.com/kyle.t.webster/
Devin Elle Kurtz’s gumroad: https://tamberella.gumroad.com/
Freya brush packs: https://tinyurl.com/45swjw5n
Lucy Flemming brushes: https://tinyurl.com/53wwvu37
Vivien Mildenberger brushes: https://vvberger.gumroad.com/l/Vivibrush
Retro Maxpack brushes: https://maxpacks.com/retro-maxpack
Devin Elle Kurtz’s Bakery Dragon series: https://tinyurl.com/46f84ens
Hello, I'm Katie. And I'm Maria. And welcome to the Publishing Pals Podcast, a podcast where two Pals talk about publishing. For nearly a decade, we have tried, failed, and sometimes succeeded at being traditionally published. Come along with us as we share everything we've learned in this oddly gatekeep, confusing, but incredibly fun and rewarding industry.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And today we are joined by the amazing Katie Dwyer. Thank you for being here, Katie. I'm so excited to have you back.
SPEAKER_01Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm really happy to be here.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So as we said in our last episode, Suzanne is taking a break over the summer to Wrangle Kidddo's work on her writing. And she'll be back, I think, early to mid-uh autumn. And until then, we're doing a special series of artist-themed episodes with picture book creator Katie Dwyer. Katie, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself since we interviewed you? Because you have some exciting news.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I do. So I'm Katie Dwyer, like Maria said. And I'm a picture book author illustrator. I started as an illustrator and then jumped into the crazy world of writing, also. But I have two books coming out in 2027 as an author illustrator. They will be my debut books. I have one coming out in spring called Pay Attention Oliver, and then another one coming out in fall called Bear's Friend. And I'm also a mom of three boys that keep me incredibly busy. I have two dogs, a beta fish, a male beta fish, and a boy lizard. So I am the only female in a house filled with males, which I think does influence my writing and illustrating a little bit. But yeah, that's kind of just a little bit about me.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm excited to have you here for some girl talk. Um, like you get away from your boys for a little bit. Um I we were thinking that for these episodes, because we're both artists, that we could make them a little bit more art focused for people who are trying to jump into the illustrator side of things. Since oftentimes we'll kind of gloss over or mention some artist things, but largely focus on the writing side and the industry side. So we're going to be talking today about Procreate brushes, which for anyone just jumping into Procreate, the brush selection can be a little intimidating, knowing how to make your own brushes, knowing how to kind of edit stuff, where to download packs. If you want to download packs, it can be a lot. So I thought we'd dive into maybe like what some of our favorites are for people who are new to Procreate and want recommendations. We could go into what we use them for, um, some that we might recommend that we've found elsewhere, and just kind of general thoughts on Procreate brush usage and if there's anything in particular we recommend to people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that sounds great. I love Procreate. Um it's kind of how I learned to draw a little bit. Um I started drawing on paper, just like florals and hand lettering and things like that. And then I got an iPad and started drawing in Procreate, and that's really where I started learning illustration. Um, since then I've switched to traditional, but I still use Procreate. I scan all my artwork into my computer, transfer it to Procreate, and then I do any kind of digital edits on there. So I'm obsessed with Procreate. I love it. Um, so I'm really excited to be talking about our favorite brushes.
SPEAKER_00Yes, same. I learned painting. I have a BFA in illustration from Art Center, but I was kind of on the tail end of like the beginning of the digital age where like everyone was doing digital stuff, but all the old white dudes who like run the universities hadn't caught on yet. And so they hadn't integrated digital classes into the curriculum. So almost all of my work going through school was traditional. And I think we had one intro to uh Photoshop and InDesign class where they talked about how to use those tools, but not necessarily how to paint in them. I think we had like two assignments where we painted in them, and then I took one elective, which was life drawing digitally in Photoshop with like a Wacom. And I think just because like I, first of all, I like I felt like I needed to become a better artist and understand light and painting more to like pick it up more easily, but also like Photoshop can be intimidating. And I ended up getting a digital painting through Procreate instead. And I I was kind of at a point where I was trying to transition. And then I went to some SCBWI talks, and they're like, oh yeah, like artists can paint whatever program you want. And I think that's something like it might be good to talk about because I know a lot of professional artists and and some art directors who have mentioned this too, who work entirely in Procreate and the art director will work with you. It used to be Photoshop was the only industry standard painting tool, but now I think Procreate and Clip Studio Paint, and it seems there are a few others that are emerging, are are becoming just as prevalent in the professional industry.
SPEAKER_01Right. So when I first started drawing um in Procreate, I just did it because it's a $10 app you pay once. And I had an iPad. Um, so it was really easy for me. I didn't have like a really great computer at the time. I didn't have another tablet to draw on. Um, and I had to see a lot of people draw on Instagram through Procreate. So I just started doing that. But then I kept hearing like these things like, it has to be in Photoshop. If you're drawing digitally in the industry, it needs to be Photoshop. But I discovered an artist um named Lucy Fleming, who I love. Um, and she did everything in Procreate. So I actually sent her a message on Instagram and was like, hey, do you like you make your books all in Procreate? And she kind of explained her process to me. And she does use Photoshop a little bit. I also use Photoshop a little bit. Um, but there are artists who solely rely on Procreate. And I think it's becoming more and more common as just different tools are available and Procreate keeps getting better and better. Um, I think that it's just more standard, and art directors and editors and designers are used to it now. And so they know how to like, there's more flexibility rather than just Photoshop.
SPEAKER_00And a couple things that I would want to say to anyone who's like, oh, let me just use Procreate as opposed to Photoshop. Like this is much cheaper. It's a better option. A couple things you should keep in mind if you're going to use Procreate for professional work is that you kind of do have to buy the Apple Pencil as opposed to an off-brand one because the iPad only recognizes pressure sensitivity from the like brand name Apple Pencil. So you'll end up drawing with the brushes and you'll get that cool texture, but it'll just be a monoline and you won't be able to go from like thick to thin by changing pressure. And I think that is really important if you want to get the most out of the tool. Um, and then when you set up your files, if your file is eventually going to be printed, it needs to be a CMYK file, not an RGB file. And you set that up in color profile. And I think those are like the two major things to keep in mind if you're creating for the picture book industry or publishing industry in Procreate. I don't know. Is there anything else that you would add?
SPEAKER_01Well, I would say also that the CMYK profile in Procreate isn't very accurate. Um, so they call it CMYK, and it's it's kind of it's a little bit newer. They didn't launch it with CMYK, it was just RGB. And it's only within the last few years that they allowed you to have a CMYK profile, but it's not the accurate true CMYK. Yeah, so when you print it, there's a disparity. It they yes, there is. So I always, this is how I do it, and there's I'm sure better ways, but I put my stuff in Photoshop and change the profile in there. So um, because then I know it's going to be accurate, and then I change it to um a PSD file, Photoshop file, because the our directors actually want it in a PSD file, but you can do that in Procreate. You can save it as PSD.
SPEAKER_00You can export as PSD, but if you open it in Photoshop as a PSD, sometimes the colors change a little bit. And then you can use like adjustment layer stuff in Photoshop to get it to look like it did on your iPad a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I do like the color changing. I don't know what that's called, like all the adjustments you can make in Photoshop as opposed to Procreate, because Photoshop has way more. But the reason that I like Procreate is because it's way more user-friendly. Photoshop is incredibly overwhelming to me. So there's just like too many buttons, too many options. It's like because it was originally created for photography, and you could do like all these different things in it, but it's not created specifically for drawing. So I just confused and I had already learned Procreate, and it just was like mind-boggling to me to have to learn Photoshop too. So I love like the basics of Photoshop.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and there are YouTube tutorials out there with like edits for artists. You don't need to learn all the Photoshop tools. Um and if you are a student in any capacity, or if you're a teacher in any capacity, it you can get a cheaper rate for Photoshop. Um, but overall, I mean, Procreate's like a one-time fee. It's so much more accessible to everybody. It's it's absurd.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, I know. I I pay for Photoshop monthly. I think it's like I just picked a basic and I think it's $20 a month for an app that I rarely use. It's only when I have to like upload my stuff like scan it in together in Photoshop.
SPEAKER_00That's like all I yeah, the automate photo merge feature is like half the reason I have Photoshop. That and their spot healing and cloning and stuff like that is so much better. Where if I'm painting, I have two cats, one of them is 20 years old, she sheds constantly, and there's always cat hair in my watercolor palette somehow, no matter how careful I am. And the amount of times I've used Photoshop to like erase a single cat hair that somehow got onto my painting.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. I use that. I I use the clone tool and procreate actually. Um, but I think you want to Photoshop because it gotten better with the update, do you think? No, I think it's the same. But it's how I learned how to do it. So that's just what I use. But I have dog hair. I when I scan it, I'm always finding dog hair. Even if I like wipe the canvas, I'm still finding animal hair.
SPEAKER_00And it doesn't matter how often you clean things or how careful you are.
SPEAKER_01No. And my dogs don't even appear in my studio that much. I'm still finding all the time.
SPEAKER_00Oh, oh, one other thing. Um, make your file at least 300 dpi, um, if not more. I I go 450 usually for mine. Um, and then make sure you're not using a really small file size. Like you want your files to be in inches, not in pixels. And it needs to have a high DPI, otherwise it's going to print blurry. That like default that uh canvas that's like screen size, I don't think it's print quality. Um, so deliberately make your page set up. But aside from that, yeah, Procreate is great. Go wild. So I so I do a lot of stuff digitally. Um, and and usually my process, especially if I'm doing graphic novel stuff, is I will have uh a rough sketch layer, a sketch layer, a line art layer, and then a color layer. So I thought maybe because could you do some stuff with line art. I know you have some pencil brushes you like. I thought maybe we could do like best brushes to sketch, best brushes for line art, best brushes for painting, and we could have like some some within those categories that we talk about. I don't know if there's a different way you'd want to go over it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I use um, well, because I do have everything traditionally, for the most part, I do occasionally do things uh digitally, but I'm more familiar with like the brushes that make it look very traditional or like the brushes that I use for cloning because I do a lot of cloning. Um, and you can pick your brush what how you want to clone it. Oh, okay. So let's start with that.
SPEAKER_00Because I don't I don't have those. What what are your favorite brushes for cloning?
SPEAKER_01I use the the Vivi Burger pack.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Hold on, I have to go back to my library. And just two now.
SPEAKER_00We'll try any packs that we talk about, we'll try and link in the show notes if you're interested. But we can maybe describe a little bit about what they look like.
SPEAKER_01So they're called Vivi brushes, V-I-V-I brush. And um, she has two packs, and I have both of them, and I'm obsessed with them. Um so the ones that I use for cloning a lot are her pan pastel grainy. Um I find that it just gets like a very if I'm working in watercolor, it it it it emulates the the paper and the paint. And if I use like color pencils or neo colors, it um it copies that really well. So I'll use her pan pastel brush. I also use her grainy pencil a lot, um, which I have I am like very weird and picky about my pencil brushes because there are so many already in Procreate, and I haven't found one that I love except for the 6B. I love the 6B brush. I use it all the time. I would say the 6B and the Vivi pencil grainy are the two that I use constantly. I like 6B but all the pencil brunches, brushes I'm not a huge fan of, even though you would think pencil, they're kind of all the same. I don't I don't like I like sketching with my 6B. I just love the way that it feels when it like goes down on the screen. And I feel like I just can't get the same look with any of the other brushes.
SPEAKER_00I like Huntsman a lot. I think Huntsman does a pretty good job in the new pack. It's it's one of the limitation brushes. I think it does a good job of like pressure sensitivity and getting pretty dark, but having a really visible tooth to it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I like the swanse brush also. Yeah, also in the pro pastadelli.
SPEAKER_00Like or charcoaly, maybe it's got some really good grain.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I like I like some grain, but not too much. And I like it to have good pressure sensitivity. But sometimes the swanse even is like too grainy for me. I like the six B better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think six B is from the old pack, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Very original.
SPEAKER_00Same. So, like my favorite sketching brush is Shale, which was from the original Procreate pack as well. So, for anyone who isn't immediately familiar with Procreate, they had the original Procreate brushes, and then it was last year, right? Or like late last year. Yeah, it was last year. Yeah, they released a whole new update for Procreate, and they'd never done a whole big update, and it came with a whole new set of default brushes. And when you installed it, it now under brushes, it gives you two different libraries, the original library and the new library. And the new library is like Chef's Kiss. Like I love so many of the brushes from it. And there were so many brushes that I downloaded that I like played around with um or that I'd made in the original one. And I feel like I prefer these new brushes largely to all of those.
SPEAKER_01Um, but there are some that I definitely prefer as well. Um but I always go back to my classic library also. But who was the person? I always forget his name who made the new brushes.
SPEAKER_00Oh gosh, something his I know his I'm thinking of his like black and red background graphic Instagram profile cartoon of himself. Kyle T. Webster. That's right. And Kyle T. Webster uh I think is is a badass. He so a few a couple years ago, there was that whole thing where Photoshop started introducing generative AI, and then they posted an AI generated image of an artist or of an artist's work and credited that artist. And then that artist hadn't made that piece. It was AI generated based off of work of his that had been saved to the cloud that Photoshop had scraped without his consent and that they hid in this giant user agreement. And he didn't realize they'd done it until people started congratulating him on the gig with Procreate. And he was like, What are you talking about? And he went and he saw what they'd done and then he posted about it. And the entire community was like, Why on earth are you shooting yourself in the foot? Like you're creating something that's going to get rid of the jobs of people who pay for your program. Like, this is insane. And so Kyle T. Webster was like, I agree with you. I stand with you. I'm gonna quit working for Photoshop. And he really publicly quit and then was immediately hired by Procreate to make all of their brushes. And he spent like several years doing it, and they all rock.
SPEAKER_01I did not know that that is what spurred him to quit. Like I knew it had to do with AI. And I knew like Photoshop or Adobe was like playing with all of that. But I didn't realize that that is the scenario that happened, that they had like taken, scraped some specific artist's art. I did not know that. Yeah, and then they just posted and didn't tell the artist and didn't tell the screen.
SPEAKER_00And they were so weird and creepy and secretive about like, oh, we're just gonna hide this in here that like anything you save to Photoshop now we can use for AI.
SPEAKER_01And that's horrible. I knew that's why Kyle T. Webster quit and then he got hired on Procreate, and I've been so excited to get his brushes because he made the brushes in for Photoshop for and he worked for them for a really long time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, his brushes are great, and just in his stories, like previews of what he was making.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I know, and I I would just think, oh my gosh, I'm so excited to see this brush.
SPEAKER_00I really love it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. He's working on another set.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I I'm curious as to like if it's gonna be every two years or something now. Procreate just drops a new library or something.
SPEAKER_01I hope so, but then it makes me wonder if they're gonna get rid of the old sets. Or just like keep adding on new sets of brushes.
SPEAKER_00I would keep adding on new sets. Like why destroy the old ones, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Especially if you get like addicted to them like me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, shale is my addiction brush. Shale, and I also brought over just like I I think it was like Spectra and the flat, just the basic flat brush, because I I use those a fair amount. But I think everything else in my favorites pack right now is from the new set. Oh, and the jagged brush, because I use that for hair.
SPEAKER_01Where's the is the shale in the it's not a pencil section?
SPEAKER_00It's in um shale is in the calligraphy section in the original library.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I used to do a lot of calligraphy um in Procreate.
SPEAKER_00I I like doing calligraphy by hand. I like those Le Pen flex brushes, but I haven't done too much of it in Procreate. But I do think the more you up the streamline, the more you can make anything a calligraphy brush in there as long as it has a taper.
SPEAKER_01Right. You've made a lot of brushes, right?
SPEAKER_00I've made a fair amount of brushes. So I think once you get the hang of it, it's it's not too bad, especially since a lot of the brushes I do are like repeating stamp brushes. So for example, if I need a lot of foliage, I'll just draw a bunch of flowers once and then make a stamp brush. And uh a lot of it, like you you hit the plus next to you know the brushes and then do create new brush. And then under shape, under shape source, you just import whatever image you want as long as it's black and white. If it's gray or has any middle values, those are never going to be full opacity. So unless you want a brush that's never fully opaque, um, it has to be black and white. And then you have to invert it by tapping with two fingers. Um, and then that's your shape source. And then you just go to like stroke path to see how far apart you want the spacing, stabilization to see if you want to streamline. And if you're doing a repeating stamp brush that needs to stay in one line, like a fence post or something where you want them all perfectly straight, then you want to like up the streamline a lot. But if it's something organic, maybe you don't want that. Maybe you want to add like a jitter to it. And you just keep messing around with it. Under Apple Pencil, if you want the stamp brush not to be transparent, depending on how much pressure you put on it, if you want it to be opaque 100% of the time. Under Apple Pencil, you just turn the opacity to zero. And aside from that, I think you can just kind of mess around with everything else. One thing that I can't figure out in the new brush set is that when you go to about this brush, it used to be where it says untitled brush, you could just type in whatever name you wanted to name the brush. And now that's grayed out. And I can't figure out how to name brushes since the update. And I don't know why it's different now, but it's driving me nuts. I know.
SPEAKER_01I'm looking at it, it's so because I just like made a brush but didn't, you know, do anything to it because I'm just trying to figure out how to name it. And I there's no spot about this brush looking at it.
SPEAKER_00I know, and it should be where it says untitled brush. It used to be you could tap it and you could type in whatever you wanted. But now all the stamp brushes I've been making the last few months are like untitled brush one, untitled brush two, and I just have to rely on that. Oh, it's so annoying. I'm sure it's something I'm not doing right. It's probably not a glitch. I need to look it up at some point. So I guess moving on from pencil, what are your favorite inking brushes if you have inking brushes? Because I know our art dials are very different.
SPEAKER_01I don't have favorite inking brushes. I did used to use the dry ink brush a lot when I worked only digitally. But I like it too. Yes, I really like it too. And it's uh pretty pressure sensitive. Um, so you can get a variation of your line. But other than that, I don't have any. So you tell me your favorite inking brushes. Because I know you were you you like graphic novels and things like that. So you ink a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01I did a whole thing.
SPEAKER_00I did a whole like, I'm very sporadic in my social media posts where like two or three times a year. I'll decide to give myself like an art challenge and I post to do account keep accountability and to keep myself on it and try and get part. Folio pieces out of it and stuff. And I did this thing called drawing every day in May last year because I wanted to figure out what my default inking brush was because I just couldn't find one that I really clicked with. And I did a different inking brush every time. And I still couldn't find one that I absolutely loved. And then the new set came out, and I immediately was like, oh my God, sheer water. Sheer water is the brush. I found it. My brush soulmate. And I use it for absolutely everything now. Yes. Sheerwater.
SPEAKER_01I remember that because you spent so much time looking for just like your soulmate brush. I know. And then at the challenge, you were like, kind of, you're like, this one's okay. This one's okay. And then as soon as the new pack came out, it was like boom, you finish.
SPEAKER_00I I needed to wait for the brush to find me all along.
SPEAKER_01You just have to like go through a lot of it's just like dating, right? You're just like going a lot of dates with the brushes until you find the one.
SPEAKER_00What I like about it is that first of all, I think any line brush that you're using needs to have pressure sensitivity. You don't want a monoline brush. So depending on how hard you press, you might need to adjust your pressure sensitivity so that there is variation in lines that it looks organic. Because if it looks too like, I don't know, monolinear, I feel like it takes a lot of the humanity from it personally. Um, but everyone has a different art style. And if you have a really flat graphic, you know, kind of art style, maybe that's not great advice for you specifically. Everyone has different ways of creating work. But I love the pressure sensitivity. I love that it has like a really thin taper, so you can get very small to big. It also has uh a little bit of a watercolor feel to it. But what I was getting with, because my favorite brushes that I'd used before then for inking were watercolor brushes, but I couldn't get them fully opaque. And I had to keep duplicating the line art over and over again and then erasing patches of it where I wanted it to be more or less opaque. Shear water does a great job of like it can be fully opaque. Um, and it has some nice texture on the edges, but because it's it's kind of imitates like an inky feeling, there's a little bit, it's not like a graphic toothy kind of texture. It feels like bubbly, like it fades a little bit at the edges. I don't know, there's just a quality that I find really personally appealing. Um, it feels like I'm using a I don't know, like a water brush or something with like ink in it. Um it's got some nice little bubbly things on it. But that's that's my favorite ink brush. And then I feel like for painting, that's gonna be the widest list because there's so many different effects and textures you can get. And I know Katie, you probably have a wider list for painting brushes than I do because I feel like you play a lot more with color than line.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I do. Um, and then I will draw things to try and get them to look as uh traditional as possible. Um I play with the sheer water brush. I don't think I've ever really played with it. It's got a very like gouache kind of feel to it and look. Which I'm always trying to find like a good gouache brush. Um I like the ones in their new set. What's that? I like the ones in their new sets, the new gouaches. I do, I do also, and I think the classic set only has like one gouache set, and it's in like the original um classic set.
SPEAKER_00Like I feel like the new set is like a lot of different kinds of paints, whereas the old set is like materials, vintage, elements, water. Like it's like trying to imitate like what you're trying to draw instead of how you're trying to draw it. And so that's one thing I loved about the new update.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm kind of obsessed with the beer water one now that I'm playing with it. I'm glad you like it too. So now I'm gonna have to use it because I do use the gouache brushes in there. I I like them better than the watercolor as well, even though I work mostly in watercolor. Um but I I don't like a lot of uh watercolor brushes that I found unless I'm doing like big washes of color in Procreate. But for like small brushes, I haven't found one that I really like, but I'm always looking for good gouache brushes. And sheer water, even though it's not in the gouache set, is very good. It's great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I feel like the gouache is great for big textures, like night heron in the gouache set. I I've been using for like big texture overlays, but not for drawing.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I use um night heron as well. I use heart ease and um penzance, and I don't know how to say it, loyety l-O Y-E-T-E-A. I don't know. O ye t. I don't know how to say it.
SPEAKER_00Loy.
SPEAKER_01But those are the ones loyety. Um, those are the ones that I use in the gouache set that I'm happy with. Um, I do wish that there was like a dry brush, gouache in this set. Like a more opaque one, maybe. Yes, a more opaque one. And I downloaded a pack. Um it was a max pack. Let me see if I can find it. Yeah, it's just the retro max pack brushes. So I paid for those. And there's a lot of gouache brushes in there. There's probably like maybe 40. Um, but it has so many different brushes that you can use that are just like like gouache flow rough is a great one to get like a good texture. I honestly when in doubt and you can't find one that's in the regular Procreate library, then you just gotta go find them outside of Procreate.
SPEAKER_00For a while, I I wasn't crazy about anything watercolor in the original set, and I paid for the um Freya watercolor collection, and I've seen her gouache one too, um, that looked pretty good. But in the new set, honestly, I think their new watercolor set for Procreate is pretty solid. I I like penguin a lot from it, it has a lot of really great texture. Um, and then I I've also been using, I think is it abalone? Um, yes, I use that one too. And lovely. Lovely from the oil painting section is like my favorite painting brush right now.
SPEAKER_01You talk about lovely all the time.
SPEAKER_00I know it's lovely. It's uh I've been doing a doing like a middle grade mock cover for my portfolio right now. And I I think I use three or four other brushes for some small bits, but the most of it is just completely painted with the lovely brush.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I remember you made a painting and you're like, it's almost completely lovely. It is. Yeah, it does look like a Maria brush.
SPEAKER_00So, what are your like two to three staple painting brushes if someone took all your brushes away and you only had like a handful that you were still allowed to use?
SPEAKER_01Ooh, okay, that's a good question. And I'm interested to hear your answer as well. But it's probably gonna be lovely.
SPEAKER_00Lovely in sheer water is my answer.
SPEAKER_01Okay, there you go. Yeah, you shale. Um mine would be the 6B for sure. Uh the Vivi brush, pan pastel. Um and honestly, that's probably it. Like if everyone took if someone took away all my brushes, those are the two that I would keep.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Yeah, you gotta have your favorites. And I feel like those contribute to your style if you're if you're working, you know, with the same materials, like in your hand is, you know, the one drawing things, like that all kind of contributes to your look, your aesthetic. So it's nice to yeah, have like a pack or two that you really resonate with. Um I guess like any like last thoughts regarding procreate brushes for our listeners.
SPEAKER_01Hmm.
SPEAKER_00Like parting advice, maybe.
SPEAKER_01We can like shout out the brush packs that we've bought that we really like. Like I've said, Vivi brushes, which is by Vivian um Mildenberger.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I have the Freya Watercolor Pack, which I still like, and I have several of Devin L. Kurtz's grass brushes on her from her gumroad. Um, and those are pay what you can. So if you're broke and you want to learn to render grass, she has a tutorial on YouTube too, and I use it all the time. She actually has a book coming out later this year. It's from her Bakery Dragon series, which is adorable. I recommend it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a really, really cute book. Um, the other person that I would recommend is Lucy Fleming. She has multiple brush sets. Uh, I have all of them. I think she has four and I have them all. She has Lucy's sketchpad, inkbox, pink box, and craft box. And there's a huge variation for like sketching, painting, traditional mediums. Um, the craft box is really fun because it's got like pastel finger smudge and then like chunky, really chunky brushes, waxy brushes. So that's really fun if you want to get like a lot of textures. I go to that set a lot for that. Um but those are my favorite.
unknownCool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, thanks so much for listening and geeking out about art supplies with us. Um, are you are you ready to jump into our agency deep dive? Let's do it. So, um, as you know, because we were talking about this the other day, the SCBWI Carolinas announced their lineup for uh the conference this autumn. And uh this agent is the one that I've been stalking because I'm gonna try and sign up for a crit with her. So this is Jess Regal or Jessica Regal at Helm Literary. She's the founder of Helm Literary. And I'm always looking for someone who takes illustrators but also reps older stuff and adult. And that's kind of hard to find since a lot of artists are repped by people who just do picture books and sometimes up to middle grade or YA, but they don't often branch out to adult. So she takes middle grade, YA adult, and graphic novels. Um, and it seems she has some picture books too. So I uh am excited for her. Um she is on Publishers Marketplace and she's she has like just a few deals on there, but I noticed that she's under Publishers Marketplace as Jessica Regal, and there are a lot of deals for Jess Regal that aren't listed and don't have a link to her. So I feel like she's got a lot more deals than is represented here. Um, that's interesting. She's been at Bookends and she's been at Galton Zachary, but she started Helm Literary and uh like fairly recently, I think. Um her last, let's see, three deals starting in December of 2025 are with Helm Literary, but as recently as October, it was still Galton Zachary. So, like just this past like six to eight months or so, I guess when this, depending on when this is released, she'll have been at her own agency that she started. And it's just her and one other agent um named Claire. And Claire is currently closed to queries, but she's open to queries. And she, let's see. Um, she is seeking conversation starters that pair high concept hooks with beautiful prose and unforgettable voices. And then she kind of like breaks everything down between like fiction, nonfiction, like other stuff, and then within that, like genres. So, for example, for fiction, you can look and see what she's looking for in contemporary and upmarket. She wants voice-driven stories with emotional depth and complex undertones. Um, she's looking for upmarket romance, speculative and cozy fantasy, literary thriller suspense, um, atmospheric and genre-bending books, fun and off-beat books, and graphic novels. Oh, oh God. It says she, I was looking at last 12 months. So it says she has a bunch of deals on publishers marketplace. So I think it's her back catalog that she's showing on her website. But she seems to sell pretty consistently. And she's ranked number four in Publishers Marketplace in television rights and number 12 in film rights. So I feel like she's gonna be like the person to like get your extra rights and like sign things um after your book deal and like help you get that extra money. Cause it seems like signing, yeah, like selling rights is like the next big thing you want your agent to be good at after the book deal. So yeah, um, you can go ahead and query her. You can sign up for the SCBWI Carolinas conference and maybe get a consultation with her. And I think that's it for now. Um, thank you so much for being here, and we will see you later. Bye.