Gesso Brushes for Affinity

These 8 RASTER BRUSHES are crafted to bring a traditional painted gesso texture to your artwork in Affinity (V2 and V3 only)

In days gone by illustrators worked on art boards which were first painted with gesso in order to prepare the surface to accept paint and pencil. This technique gave the completed artwork a rich hand-crafted feel as the gesso strokes would be visible beneath the finished art, adding texture and depth.

Gesso is a THICK PAINT, with highlights and shadows visible in each stroke. Realistically replicating this technique was not possible in Affinity… until now!

To add this traditional gesso to your AFFINITY art:

1: Install the GESSO BRUSHES pack ( brushes panel > import brushes > Gesso Brushes - CS.afbrushes )

2: Create a new PIXEL LAYER above your artwork

3: Set this layer to OVERLAY blend mode

4: Select your preferred GESSO BRUSH paint brush tool and paint away

NOTE:

These paint brushes are fixed to a neutral grey colour. THE BRUSH COLOUR CAN’T BE CHANGED. This is necessary so the overlay effect works correctly.

PRO TIP:

If you want the gesso strokes to appear in areas that are wholly black or white, experiment with a different layer blend mode such as HARD LIGHT or LINEAR LIGHT and adjust the layer OPACITY to suit.