Pro tip: I saw an artist use a 50% opacity brush for line art and it changed my whole process

I was watching a speedpaint from an artist named Loish, and she started her whole piece with a soft, see-through brush for the first sketch. She said it helps her keep the lines loose and not get stuck on making them perfect right away. I tried it on a portrait last week and it made fixing the face shape so much easier. Has anyone else tried starting with a low-opacity brush for their initial drawing phase?

3 comments

3 Comments

perez.cole1mo agoTop Commenter

That point about taking the pressure off is exactly it. I started doing this after seeing @matthew_morgan mention a 30% brush, and I've pushed it even further. Now I begin my sketches with a brush set to just 10% opacity, almost like a ghost drawing. It forces me to just map out the big shapes and flow without seeing a single hard line. I only bump up the opacity to clean things up once the whole pose or layout feels right. It completely changed how I approach the early stages, making everything feel more like exploration and less like a test.

matthew_morgan1mo ago

That Loish speedpaint convinced me to try a 30% brush for blocking in figures. It really does take the pressure off.

seth_nguyen1mo ago

Wait, you start at 10%? That's basically drawing with a whisper! I can't even see my lines that faint, I'd lose track of the whole sketch. How do you keep the shapes clear enough in your head to build on them?