It’s a nice thought and it gives people hope (myself, included, at the time), but it’s just not true. I have written a little about why the my-path-could-be-your-path message is misleading (see this previous article). I want to write a little more about this today.

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Here are just some of the things that were outside of my control, between 2013 and 2017, leading up to the sale of my business:

1. The internet didn’t just exist, but millions of people were already connected and buying things online. The necessary environment for a business like mine to succeed had been created and I had nothing to do with it.

2. Thanks to Sahil Lavingia, Gumroad launched in 2011 and had been developed enough by 2013 to enable me to very easily sell digital products worldwide, maintain a customer mailing list, and pay almost no overhead.

3. Hardware and software for digital drawing had come far enough by 2013 to allow my custom brushes to not only exist, but to perform with minimal (or no) lag and give artists a great experience.

4. Animation and gaming studios had mostly adopted completely digital workflows and artists working in these studios needed premium brushes and tools.

5. Social media platforms (particularly Twitter and Tumblr) were not yet awful and people really did support each other and promote friends’ creative projects and products (like, a LOT), thus enabling rapid organic growth for my brand.

6. The economy in The United States was steadily recovering from the Great Recession and growth was good in the years I was building the KyleBrush business. Jobs in illustration and animation were growing during this time. Pros, students, and hobbyists in the digital art space were not opposed to spending a few dollars on custom brushes to enhance their digital art experience.

7. Digital brushes were simply files that could be exported and imported into drawing apps without friction. Anybody could (and can) make and sell brushes and they would just work — I didn’t need any special coding skills or have to work directly on a software team to make it possible for my brushes to exist in Photoshop, Procreate, or Sketchbook. How lucky was that?

There are other factors, of course, but I will stop here. I understand the impulse to gloss over luck and timing when describing one’s path to success and glory, especially on a main stage at a creativity conference; it’s true that a lot of hard work, invention and creativity goes into building a business that succeeds. And that stuff is interesting, for sure. But none of it amounts to a hill of beans if the economic conditions are wrong, the customer isn’t quite ready to embrace the product, or a global pandemic suddenly hits.

All this is to say, simply, that I love writing about my story and sharing everything I learned along the way with you, dear readers. But I never want to give you the impression that the specific journey I stumbled through is a formula for achieving whatever goals you may have. I think I made some good decisions based on the conditions and trends I observed and I’m happy about those choices, but the only real pride I feel, deep down, comes from knowing I spent a lot of hours developing a set of skills. At the end of the day, that’s all I can take credit for.

Thanks for reading, and if you have some thoughts of your own to share, leave a comment below. Here is a recent drawing I left behind at a restaurant — it’s something I started doing last year and I am really enjoying keeping up the habit. I’ll write about it next time.

Take care of yourselves and each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

— Kyle

Instagram / Website / Shop / My Wife’s Book / Meditative Drawing

I have articles I have been sitting on and editing— one of them has to do with the importance, at least for me, of keeping this “no stakes” drawing practice alive. For now, I will keep this short and simply share a few recent sketches. Some are observed, some invented, and some a combination of the two. If you want to see more of this kind of thing in this newsletter, let me know, and thanks for looking.

Unrelated, but I always like sharing cool things with you, so if you dig mid-century illustration, check out this treasure trove from illustrator Zara Picken.

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What the heck, why not?

I remember everything about that trip to New York: my tiny hotel room, the crowded party at the Society of Illustrators building, the famous artists gathered together in the galleries and by the bar, located in front of a big, fat Norman Rockwell painting on the wall. It was the start of something for me; a big step in the direction I wanted to travel as a commercial artist.

But it was not fun — no! It was mostly awkward, confusing, and anxiety-inducing. I was young, inexperienced, unknown, and friendless. The imposter syndrome was crushing.

Don’t get me wrong. I was thrilled to be there, of course, but my excitement over having a drawing in the show (hanging on the main floor, no less!) could not quiet the voice in my head that insisted this was all a fluke.

And I remember, very clearly, having the feeling that I couldn’t wait to be older and further along in my career, with friends and colleagues, a great list of clients, and a “name” in the game.

“Yeah,” I thought, “when I’m one of the older people in the room, I’ll feel right at home. I’ll have made it. It will be sooooo great.”

So last year (roughly 20 years after that Society of Illustrators show), I attended six conferences in six different cities: VIEW in Torino, OFFF in Barcelona, Pictoplasma in Berlin, Lightbox in Pasadena, International in Glasgow, and Annecy Festival in, well, Annecy.

And by this point, I had a “name” in the game. Great! I had arrived where I had hoped to be and was now surely living that easy, breezy life of an established artist, just as I had imagined, complete with friends and colleagues, great clients, and all the rest. Right?

Nope.

In fact, I discovered that my old insecurities were simply replaced with new ones!

20 years ago, I worried about not knowing anybody.
Now, I worried that I only knew older people! Was I out of touch? Uncool?

20 years ago, I worried about not having a body of work.
Now, I worried that my latest work might not live up to my earlier work! Did anyone care about what I was creating?

20 years ago, I was unknown.
Now, I worried that my moment in the sun had passed and I was racing towards irrelevance!

I find it both frustrating and comforting that insecurity is just part of existing, whether in a professional context, or in general life. I naively assumed I would be so relaxed at industry events as an older guy with a couple of decades of experience. It never occurred to me that those more established artists I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with at the Society of Illustrators back in 2004 likely had internal monologues that were every bit as shaky and timid as my own.

It is nice to know, though, that we’re all in the same boat.

Do you have similar thoughts or experiences to share? Please comment below.

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Thanks for continuing to subscribe to this newsletter. I know I have been away for a bit. I have some ideas for what The Accidental Expert could become — a podcast (I’d like to chat with other artists …), maybe some tutorials, more frequent and smaller posts with some behind-the-scenes info about art and brushes. And for paid subscribers, I’m interested in maybe hosting some live Zoom meetups from time to time for open question and answers. Any of this sound good to you?

Resources

• Here is a link to the Etherington Brothers’ amazing blog, which has been serving the illustration community for years with fantastic FREE mini tutorials about drawing anything and everything. Check it out here.

• My first-of-its-kind meditative drawing app, Lines of Zen is now available as a one-time purchase. No more subscription. I decided that subs just aren’t ‘zen.’ So, please go check it out here (free to download and includes six exercises, no charge).
Here is a testimonial:

“I feel calmer after just two minutes. This app is a great way to take your mind off of the world and catch your breath. It’s easy to do and totally effective in slowing down my heartbeat and getting oxygen to my brain.”

I’m still really proud of this app and want more people to enjoy it, which is another reason for lowering the price and ditching the sub. Hope you try it and please let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading. Take care of yourselves and each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now. — Kyle

Over the last 13 months, I was focused on one singular task: designing the new library of 180 brushes for the (free!) Procreate 5.4 update that was released last week.

At first, I was excited to play with new toys; in this case, the ‘toys’ were the Procreate brush settings, which were different, exciting, and powerful. I spent a couple of months experimenting, learning, and trying to break things, as well as collaborating with the brilliant engineers in the home offices to add some new capabilities to Procreate’s Brush Studio, thus expanding the possibilities for my work, and the work of all brush-makers.

Then, I settled into the more intentional work of brush development for specific categories (we decided on 18 categories for the final update, including natural media like Oils, Pencils and Inks, as well as diverse sets like Comics, Lettering, and Street Art).

It was during this phase of the project that I started to feel some real pressure to deliver something extra special to Procreate artists. After all, a full brush library update had not happened for nearly a decade.

After about six months, I visited the Procreate offices in Tasmania and we looked at my rough draft for the full library. The brushes were feeling good, but I knew (and so did the team) that we could do more. So, after two weeks of close collaboration, I flew back home to begin the challenging job of making each brush the best it could be.

From January through April, I worked through every brush category and made over a hundred new brushes in the process. Dozens of my first passes at many brushes were deleted in favor of newer and better versions. And a couple of months later, the same thing happened again. By mid-July, only about a third of the original library remained and nearly all of those remaining brushes had also been improved with small refinements. Amongst the ten pencils that made it into Procreate 5.4, there were easily 25 other contenders. Same with the oils, inks, etc.

The final two weeks were spent on micro-adjustments — some brushes were being fine-tuned right up until a few hours before our submission to the App Store.

And now the brushes are done, and I’m excited and proud. And relieved.

And nervous.

When I’m busy designing the brushes, I can enjoy the safety of knowing that only my colleagues and I can judge the results. It’s comforting to wake up every day with the knowledge that I still have time to tweak things, experiment, and change my mind.

That all ends with the public release. While I’m confident we are giving artists the best library of default brushes they could ever want, I’m also now open to criticism from strangers. Millions of them.

No matter how many years I have spent in the world of product development, there is still an uneasy feeling that comes with knowing I can’t please everyone. And the internet is not the kind of place where people hold their tongues.

Over the last week, I have taken screenshots of a lot of the positive comments I have seen from Procreate artists who are being introduced to the new brushes. As these screenshots pile up, it helps me, mentally, to refer back to them whenever I’m confronted with a negative or nasty message.

I have been using this simple device since I first started making brushes in 2013 and was confronted, for the first time, with the aggressive or mean-spirited comments of internet strangers. It may sound like too simple a thing to collect all the good stuff to drown out the bad, but it works for me. So, try it if you find yourself on the receiving end of mixed comments. It might help.

From what I have seen so far, the majority of artists like the new brushes a lot, and a good number are quite thrilled with them. This is wonderful and I’m encouraged by all the love. Thanks, sincerely, to all of you who have reached out to me on Instagram or email and written such kind words. Every single message really makes my day.

Now that the brushes are in artists’ hands all over the world, I will be creating demos in numerous forms to help everyone make the most of their new tools. You can come see me in person at the View Conference in Turin on October 12th and October 14th, or at Lightbox Expo in Pasadena, October 25th. More to come.

Meanwhile, check out my Instagram stories each week for drawings that show off specific brushes from the collection. I will also be creating short videos with brush tips and tricks. And you can follow the official Procreate channels on Instagram and YouTube for more info on the release and the brushes.

Expect issues of this newsletter to come a bit more frequently. I hope you understand why I have been absent for a while.

Finally, if you update Procreate and realize just how fun custom brushes can be, then please do yourself a big favor:

Buy some brushes!

Yes, the brushes I have designed are a well-rounded collection and there is a lot to explore there. But, there are dozens of incredible and inventive independent brush-makers out there creating some truly mind-blowing stuff. And, when you support these makers, you support fellow artists who are contributing great things to our community. Without that kind of support in the early days of my brush career, I never would have wound up here at Procreate. Check out the links below for just a few excellent brush-makers.

Resources

• Brush-making friends: Max, Lisa, SnoozeOne, True Grit, Vegalia

• An overview of Procreate 5.4 with Mr. Smooth-Voice himself, Will Robinson.

• I collected 375 of my favorite drawings into an E-Book. You can get it here.

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Until next time, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

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This is a pencil
Made of wood and graphite
It feels nice to roll it between your fingers

A pencil is strong
But very light
And maneuverable

If you have a pencil
And you have some paper
Then you are unstoppable

You can invent anything
A building, a tool, a creature,
A better world

You can make puzzles
Or play games
Alone or with a friend

You can figure things out
Like 3 multiplied by 17
Or how to get to the moon and back

With a pencil, you can record your thoughts
Or help others to record theirs
Or record history

You can tell someone you love them
Or you miss them
Or you’re sorry

You don’t need a lot of pencils
One pencil will draw a line 35 miles long
One pencil is usually enough

Pencils are portable
They fit in your pocket
Or behind your ear

You can draw a map to your house
A map to your heart
Or buried treasure

Pencils do not need batteries
They work in good times
They work in dark times

Pencils keep score
And lists
And secrets in diaries

You can capture the face
Of a friend from school
Or someone gone too soon

Maybe you’ll write an idea
That changes someone’s mind
Or vote and change the world

If you need to pop a balloon
Or tie your kite string around something
A pencil is good for that

This is a pencil

Because every personal achievement, no matter how small, contributes to the strengthening of our community, be it local, national, or even global.

How? It comes down to this: personal achievements produce positive emotions.

I don’t know if true happiness even exists, but the concept of happiness is tied to positive emotions, like love, joy, pride, confidence, and feeling valued. Personal achievements automatically gift the achiever with one or more of these positive emotions.

And along with these immediate and personally felt positive emotions, there are usually correlating emotions; emotions that have the power to positively impact people other than the individual achiever. These include feelings of generosity, patience, sympathy, and a willingness to compromise.

Scenario A: You just lost out on a painting commission and are now waiting in a long line at the grocery store. A man behind you has fewer items, and you could let him jump in front, but you’re feeling grumpy and impatient to get back home, so you remain in your spot in line.

Scenario B: You just found out one of your logos was accepted into a design annual for publication and you’re now waiting in a long line at the grocery store. Seeing the man behind you with only a handful of items, your feelings of accomplishment and pride more easily bring out feelings of generosity and you invite him to jump in front.

He thanks you, explaining that he’s trying to get home as quickly as possible to relieve his wife who is looking after their sick toddler. You discover that you both have children in the same preschool. You share your respective professions, a common small-talk topic, and after hearing that you are a designer, the man shares that his sister-in-law, Sonja, is a commercial photographer in town. After glancing at her Instagram profile, you discover she would be a perfect collaborator for an upcoming project at your studio.

The work Sonja does for your studio lands her a bigger commission with an international agency. Sonja (whose aunt uses a wheelchair) now has the financial security for the next month to spend time on a personal photography project that raises awareness about much-needed funding for more accessibility ramps in town. Her powerful photography for this project pushes fundraising efforts over the goal line and dozens of new ramps are installed where they are most needed.

This domino (or “butterfly”) effect is well-trodden territory, so I won’t go on, but there is hard truth in the notion that positive emotions experienced by the individual will often spread to others, both near and far, like the most wonderful virus.

Right at this moment, you may be feeling like your creative work doesn’t matter. You may be feeling like there is no point in learning a little more about color theory, or composition, or trying to better understand the anatomy of a hand. Phooey.

It’s not that your work, itself, will change the world; no, only a few people in history will create something that resonates so strongly that it forces people to stand up, pay attention, and actually act on the feelings your masterpiece has stirred within them.

Instead, it’s the mini-milestones you achieve while doing your work that matter because each of these little ‘wins’ makes you feel good. Feeling good is the foundation for doing good. Positive emotions facilitate cooperation, unity and understanding in a community.

We are living in a time where there are forces at work that are explicitly engineered to make you feel inconsequential and helpless; there are systems in place that are designed to promote apathy and inaction. But the moment you feel even a flicker of optimism — the tiniest twinkle of a positive emotion — you have the advantage.

You don’t have to be an activist, a community organizer, or president of some board or another. It’s enough to just get a little better, day by day, at the thing you love to do, and let the positive feelings you derive from this improvement move outwards from the source.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to carry on making a slightly better digital pencil, I’m going to feel good about it, and then I’m going to go out and smile at a stranger. Let’s see what happens.

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Apologies for my absence here. Several things prevented me from taking the time required to write something I considered worthy of your time:
1) I had to cram for my German driving theory test (failed it, though).
2) I traveled to London with some lovely Procreate colleagues for InMotion.
3) I was deep in ‘brush world’ both here at home and then in Tasmania for a couple of weeks.
4) I had to cram for my German driving theory test again (passed a few days ago!).
5) I reached 10,000 subscribers for this newsletter and honestly, I just felt so much pressure to write anything “good,” I had writers block for a while. Seriously, thanks for all the support and, wow.

Glad to be back. More writing is on the way. Here is some random art that came out of my brush-building experiments over the past month.

Until next time, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

Kyle

Here eat this.

What is it?

It's new. Just eat it.

What's it made from?

Everything.

How can it be made from everything?

It just is. Don’t worry about that. Eat it. It's great. It's new.

So what's in it?

I told you. Everything.

How's that possible? I don’t understand how everything can be in one thing.

Why are you asking so many questions? Just eat it.

But I don't understand why it’s good, or why I should eat it.

Everyone's eating it. It's easy. You don't have to cook it. Just eat it.

What does it taste like?

Kind of like everything and nothing. It's definitely full of stuff you have had before. Like, all mixed together. You should eat it.

I don't think I would like this.

If you don't eat it, you're gonna be left behind. This is the new thing. Everyone's eating this and if you don't eat it, you'll starve.

Well there are apples in a tree in my backyard. I won’t starve. I can eat those. And I know how to bake sourdough bread, like most people who were stuck at home during Covid.

You really wanna spend time and effort doing all that? You could just eat this thing right now. It’s so easy. It's totally legal.

Wait, why are you telling me it's legal? I thought we were just talking about food, here.

No, we totally are. I'm just saying, it's not hurting anybody, or at least not people that matter. It's not breaking any laws, probably. But don’t you understand? It’s just gonna be better for everybody in the long run. You should eat it.

Wait, WHAT exactly IS it?

I told you it's new. Eat it. It's going to change the world.

How?

It's going to solve all our problems.

But how?

Look, it's new, it's amazing, and you just have to trust me that it's the best thing there is. For everyone.

Well, then, tell me: who is eating it and benefiting from it right at this moment?

Lots of people are eating it. Heaps. But only a tiny handful are benefiting from it.

How tiny?

Less than one percent of the people eating it, probably, but like I said, it's new. Look, don’t worry about it. Eventually, we're ALL gonna be so well fed and so happy and so nourished. And we won't need to work anymore. Isn't that amazing?

I don't understand. What does this have to do with work? And if we don't work, how are we going to earn money to live?

Don't you know what Utopia is? Get on board, man — this ship is sailing.

I think I'm just going to eat my apple.

I tried to help you. It's your funeral.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for subscribing. And thanks for supporting human-made work.
I’m including some recent Procreate brush experiments below the Subscribe and Share prompts. Things are going very well and I’m looking forward to a good number of these brushes making an appearance in the app in the future so you can all enjoy them.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with a friend (link below).
Some longer form stuff is coming soon, as well as some new kinds of content for you all. In the meantime, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

Kyle

If an artist I admire tells me they like one of my drawings, I get a dopamine wallop like a mallet to the face.

This happens from time to time, but not so often that I can count on it to buoy me for the rest of the month, much less the rest of my life.

And really, isn’t it strange to expect such praise on a regular basis?

Yes, of course.

But we live much of our lives in a virtual wasteland dominated by platforms that present us with infinitely scrolling timelines, training us to worship at the altar of likes and thumbs-up. It’s horrific, but normalized.

No matter how accomplished you become in your field, your professional peers won’t always be there to provide you with encouragement and validation. They have to nurture their own creative processes, promote their own work, and often, compete for the attention and commissions you, yourself, are seeking.

But there is a group of people in your life that have been cheering for you from day one, and will never stop cheering for you for as long as you live.

I’m talking, of course, about your friends and family.

“My friends like my stuff, but that doesn’t count ...”

Have you heard other artists, musicians, or writers say this? Have you uttered these words, yourself? Have you said the same words and replaced the word, ‘friends,’ with, ‘family?’

You may have, and you needn’t feel guilty about it. It’s perfectly normal to take your friends’ and family members’ praise for your creative work for granted. After all, they love you.

But that love is everything. In fact, I believe it is the genuine love and affection of your family and friends — not the admiration of your peers, heroes and colleagues — that will sustain you over the course of your creative life.

Consider this: who are the first people an actor thanks when they win an Academy Award? Mom, Dad, children, grandparents. Even if these are the not the first people they thank, when they do get around to thanking family members, this is always the moment they start crying.

Why? Because it is the support of the people who are closest to them — the ones they took for granted — that actually means the most, in the end.

Your closest friends and family are the only ones who tell you that you are great when others ignore you. They are the ones who tell you that you CAN, when others dismiss you. They make up the true foundation of your confidence and determination.

Friends, family, spouses, partners — they genuinely want you to succeed for no reason other than to see you happy and fulfilled. Can you say this about anybody else in your life?

It may be nice to earn the recognition of your peers, and it may help you to feel like you are ‘in’ or that you have made it. But fashions change, opinions change, and such praise can never be counted on to arrive when you hope for it.

The next time a loved one tells you they adore your latest creation, remember: these words they have spoken a thousand times before are like a thousand tiny gusts of wind in your sails, carrying you to here and now and beyond.

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Thanks for reading, and thanks for subscribing. If you really (really) like my writing, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription for $36/year — I was an art major, and not a math major, but I’m pretty sure that’s about the cost of one coffee per month. Either way, I’m just glad you’re here and I really appreciate the support. You can also help me keep up this project by sharing this, or any, article I have written with a friend or on social media.

Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

Listen to the full episode for more.

Reminder: full audio episodes are available for paid subscribers to The Accidental Expert. A paid subscrip…

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If I evaluated my year as an artist, or more importantly, as a PERSON, based on this one metric, I would be doing myself a gross disservice.

But it’s easy to fall into this trap. Looking at drawings I did a year or two ago, I see a lot of better choices, easier handling of difficult technical challenges, and so on. Getting through a drawing and finding my way to a satisfying result was often a struggle over the past 365 days.

To not investigate and explore the reasons for this stagnation, or even regression, is a mistake everyone makes from time to time. You see the result, you feel like you failed, and simply stop there.

And what are you left with? Feelings of disappointment, despondency, and defeat.

The simple fact is that you cannot cover all the bases at all times in your life; if you notice an extended pause on progress in one area, this almost always means that you experienced meaningful growth elsewhere.

Last August, I moved to Germany. I didn’t speak the language. Now, I can get through ordering a meal, basic transactional conversations in shops, navigating public transportation, and other bits and pieces. Could I have learned more? Sure, but it’s important for me to acknowledge this growth.

New home, new environment, new rules and regulations. New school for our kids, new challenges as parents, new social network to navigate and nourish. New healthcare system, new financial complications (we STILL haven’t finished our 2023 tax returns because of the mid-year international move and all that entails!), new unexpected expenses …

New everything.

You think it’s easy to make friends as a late-40’s male in a foreign country with a language barrier? It’s hard enough back home. Men are terrible at this and a lot has already been written on this topic, so I won’t go into all the details. Happily, I find myself now with a couple of ‘real’ friends in town, some good dinner parties under my belt, a regular tennis partner, and some you-might-be-a-guy-I-can-hang-out-with-regularly possibilities on the horizon.

And on the creative side? My drawings may not have improved, but let’s look at the growth in another area: I can confidently say I crushed it with brushes.

Even before joining Procreate, I did some of the best work of my life on the digital brush front this past year, creating the default brushes for Express, four quarterly brush updates for Photoshop, and a few special one-offs.

And now that I have a new brush engine to play with, I have been on an absolute tear, barely able to keep track of all the exciting ideas I have, and building some of my favorite brushes ever since visiting the Procreate team in Tasmania. If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen some previews of my latest experiments and I hope you’re looking forward to drawing and painting with these new tools. I am impatient to get them out into the world.

By noticing how much I have grown as a parent, a new resident of a foreign country, and a brush-maker, I can easily understand why growth in other areas, like drawing skill, just wasn’t possible. In fact, this actually gives me new appreciation for completing a few good drawings, at all, amidst the other things I had to figure out over the past twelve months.

🌟I encourage all of you to do the same exercise. If you see things slow down in your creative life in some way, there is a good chance you’re growing and improving elsewhere. With a little self-reflection, you can identify these areas; notice them, celebrate them, and give yourself some props.🌟

And keep rolling.

Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now. - Kyle

Resources

• Trying to get through a long-term creative project? This conversation about how to successfully do this is excellent.

• I am embarrassed to say that I waited a long time to download Procreate Dreams (downloaded it in early July). Why did I wait? If you have even the slightest interest in animation, and you own an iPad, go download it now. The app completely reinvents how an animation app works. It’s addictive.

• I’m proud to once again be an affiliate with Sarah Watts, who is beginning a new session of her popular course for people who want to create pattern art for licensing and products. While much of the course focuses on Photoshop workflows, you can apply the bulk of the techniques and workflows to Procreate and other digital art apps.

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If you don’t leave the house, you’ll probably never use Shazam*. Sitting in a café, walking through a shop, or waiting in a hotel lobby means you will hear music you don’t hear at home. Sure, you could try a new playlist while you’re making eggs in your kitchen, but let’s be honest — you know you’re more likely to put on something familiar. Humans are creatures of habit.

(*Shazam is an app on your phone that allows you to identify songs instantly by using the device’s microphone to record a few seconds of audio. I love it.)

When you’re sitting in that café, you’re not in control of the playlist, and that’s a good thing. A song you’ve never heard before might come on that you absolutely love. Shazam it. Now you have something NEW in your life and believe it or not, this one song could inspire all kinds of creative work. The lyrics, the instrumentation, the mood … who knows? Whatever hooked you could also conjure up images in your mind that lead to your next comic, painting, novel, or film. It’s not crazy to think that a single song could rev up your creativity engine; artists have been spurred to action by less.

What’s the point? Simply put: creativity is directly tied to new experiences. And most new experiences happen outside the home.

I am writing this from Hobart, Tasmania. It’s just about the most remote spot on the planet from where I live (reaching the actual farthest spot would require that I be floating in the ocean a few miles south).

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I’m here for a new job at Procreate, and that’s clearly enough newness, in itself, to inspire a lot of creative thinking. But let’s set that fact aside for a moment. I want to talk about birds.

Throughout my life, I have heard the same bird sounds, morning and night. The birds in our Heidelberg neighborhood don’t sound much different from the birds in North Carolina (or Taipei, Nicosia, Rennes or anywhere else I’ve lived). Maybe it’s because I have lived the majority of my life above the Tropic of Cancer? I don’t know.

Anyway, the sounds of the birds in my environment have become an indistinct part of the background. I never think about them.

But here in Hobart, the birds sound very different. And by simply hearing these strange new sounds, I am suddenly curious about birds, a species that hasn’t been on my radar before. I have been looking in the trees, enthusiastically trying to spot which ones make the specific sounds I hear as I walk down the street, wondering what they are communicating to one another, and looking them up on the internet.

It’s all new to me.

Newness is the thing! And can you guess what I started doodling on my iPad my first day at the Procreate offices? Yup. Birds. I almost never draw birds! But now I want to learn to draw them better, find cool ways to stylize them, and on and on.

New experience = new creative energy.

Young children are constantly suprised, amazed, confused, and energized by whatever is happening around them. It’s easy to be creative when your life is a daily series of new experiences.

Not so much for you adults. Life becomes mostly a daily blend of ‘been there, done that,’ and this is to be expected: you have literally been there and done that!

Does this mean you are doomed to grow less creative with age?

No! But you must choose to introduce a bit of ‘new’ into your life and do it often. And no, you don’t have to travel to Tasmania. But I do think you have to start by leaving the house.

I already gave the example of hearing new music, which is an easy thing to find when you’re not at home. What else? Here are a few very simple ideas:

• Walk to a place in your area that you’d normally drive. This will force you to notice details in your environment you would miss in a car. You may also have to change the route to one that is more pedestrian-friendly, and this means you will see and hear new things.

• Watch a subtitled movie in a language you have never heard before. It’s amazing to see how different the art of filmmaking can be in the hands of those whose cultures differ greatly from your own, and to hear new voices.

• Have you actually visited the next town over? We so often feel it’s necessary to travel far, far away from homebase to have new experiences, but there may be something wonderful within a 50-mile radius of your front door. (Bring your sketchbook!)

• See if you can find a used bookstore that has older fashion magazines or books, preferably anything from at least 30 years ago or older. Paging through older fashion has multiple benefits: first, there is the great photography. Second, the shapes, colors and patterns in the clothing designs (and the sets and locations) can inspire you to recycle them in interesting ways. And third, some of these fashions will conjure up strong visual memories for many of you, and memories are valuable creative resources. Clothing from the past can remind you of older relatives, of your own earlier years, of certain places — these may be memories you would not have accessed without the visual reference.

In the subheading of this piece, I wrote that one could actually get more creative with age. I absolutely believe this is possible, but the key is to accumulate a veritable mountain of new and different experiences, big and small, as you age. Less is not more. Here, the adults have the advantage; the older you get, the more years you have under your belt (if you choose to seek out the new!) that are packed with places, people, ideas, conversations, art, music, and so on. In other words, you have more of everything to draw on when making your work.

Or, you could just find a comfortable routine and stick to it for fifty years. Your choice!

🌟In case you’re wondering, here are the five most recent songs I Shazamed (I guess that’s a verb now):

1. The Kill, by Maggie Rogers (Rock, I guess?)

2. West Coast, by Coconut Records (Rock/Pop)

3. Dream Feeling, by Moxy. (Synthwave)

4. Experience, by Victoria Monét (Dance/R&B)

5. Great Southern Land, by ICEHOUSE (Pop)

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Quick thank you to those of you who recently chose to upgrade to a paid subscription. It means a lot and I’m glad you like my writing enough to support this project with your hard-earned money.

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Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

Kyle (find me here, here, here, and here) // Download my app here

PS - Because I don’t have my recording equipment here in Tasmania, audio recordings of this issue (and the previous one) will be sent to paying subscribers when I return to Germany after next week. Thanks for your patience and continued support!

Most artists I know do not enjoy looking at their older work. “I would do that so differently today,” they’ll sometimes say with an air of mild disgust.

This is natural. If things go as planned, your latest work should be your best because you continue to grow and improve in numerous areas: craft, technique, concepts, originality, and so on. And, as is often mentioned, your ability to notice improvement in these areas is a powerful motivator to continue on the learning path.

It’s easier to be a fan of your current work because you are, in theory, the best you’ve ever been. The subjects or themes of the work of the present moment play a role, as well. It’s all right here, right now— the “newness” keeps you productive and engaged.

But, have you ever had a person tell you how much they love something you did five years ago? Ten? They may even say it’s their “favorite.”

Depending on the work they reference, you may be tempted to blurt out, “That?! But that’s so old - my new work is much better.”

I think this is a mistake.

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First, no good comes from invalidating the enjoyment somebody else gets from your work. For them, this older work of yours has value— sometimes, there may even be deeper personal reasons behind why somebody likes a piece of art, such as the particular circumstances in which they discovered it. A drawing, song, or film you made — on the way to making something better, in your opinion— could hold special meaning for somebody else.

A better response to a person’s praise of something you created in the past (and that you perhaps find inferior) might be, “Thank you. What do you like about it?”

Hearing their reply will help you to see your work differently. Instead of noticing all the flaws or “amateur” choices made, you can allow yourself to see things through the eyes of a fan. They are not looking for mistakes; all they see is beauty.

Why does this matter?

I believe we sometimes force ourselves to forget what was appealing about our older work in our quest to make work that is completely new. It’s a normal part of the growth we thrive on as creative people.

What gets lost in this process is the carrying forward of the elements in earlier pieces that are still successful. If people continue to respond to our “old” work, we should take a second look and mine these pieces for nuggets of goodness, taking them with us and finding ways to incorporate them into our present-day projects.

It’s also beneficial to develop a genuine appreciation for the fact that you were doing your best and were excited about the work you were making at any point in your artistic journey, whether it was last year or twenty years ago. What you made in the past must have given you a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction or you wouldn’t still be making things today.

Finally, at the very least, it’s just nicer to look at something you did a decade ago and instead of saying, “that blue color was a mistake,” you can say, instead, “I like the green I chose there.”

Put simply: take a look at some old work and ask, what would a fan say?

PS - This applies to other areas of your life. Not to get too deep here, but think of all the things you might do better now (parenting, being a partner, managing your time and your health, etc.). It’s easy to beat yourself up over how seemingly incompetent you were in days gone by, when it comes to any number of things, but it’s probably a better mental exercise to look for ways you got it right. I’m no therapist, but I think this is a sound approach. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and hello to all the new subscribers. If you like my writing, please consider sharing it with somebody via the ‘Share’ button below. If you *really* like my writing, you can also become a paid subscriber for $36/year.

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I’m traveling for the next two weeks, but will try to squeeze in a new issue in the middle of all that. I’ll end this issue with a couple of drawings I did with some new colored pencils I bought on a whim at a Heidelberg stationary shop. Each pencil has two colors and they are extra fat, the colors are brilliant and you can use them as watercolors. Lovely.

Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

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Needless to say, this is a unique opportunity for me to work with talented people on some very interesting things, and I am delighted and feeling most fortunate.

I have been inundated with messages over the past couple of days, so forgive me, but I will not be writing much about this new development today. I need a little rest! I’ll have more to say about it very soon, though.

In the meantime, let me quickly just make a few things clear and set the record straight, because I have seen some misinformation (mostly guesswork and assumptions) on the web that needs correcting. Here we go:

1. I did not leave Adobe because of the T.O.S. issues or FTC complaint. I officially resigned in April (a couple of months before these stories were in the news) and besides, my job at the company did not make me privy to that kind of information in the first place. I already wrote about why I left the company, but to sum up: the business changed and I didn’t like/support these changes, I wanted to reconnect with my community of art and illustration friends/colleagues, and I wanted to work on things that mattered to me. Ultimately, I was offered a wonderful new opportunity from a company I have long admired, so here we are.

2. I am not merely ‘bringing’ my brush sets to Procreate. That is not the job for which I was hired — it is far more interesting, more challenging and more exciting than that.

3. There is some confusion about why a Summer brush set for Photoshop and Fresco, designed by me, is being released even though I’m no longer at Adobe. These brush sets are created several months ahead of release for every season. I finished the Summer 2024 brushes quite a while ago.

4. My fingers are normal fingers — they are not flesh-colored Apple Pencils. This rumor must be quashed, now and forever. My kids are scared.

Thanks to all of you who already sent me such nice notes via email and on social channels, wishing me well on this new adventure. I’m sorry I can’t reply to each of them individually, but please know I read them all. I greatly, greatly appreciate the support and the kindness.

If you want to read Procreate’s official announcement, here it is.

More from me soon. In the meantime, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

Kyle / Find me here. Find my app here. Find my shop here.

PS - hello and welcome to all you new subscribers! Thanks for being here.

PPS - Attention, paying subscribers: don’t worry, audio issues are coming this week. The past couple of weeks have been, as you can probably imagine, a little nuts. 🙂

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I’m really good at making digital brushes. Actually, I’m one of the best.

Is it arrogant for me to write this? Or is it objectively true and therefore fine to state freely? Some people will argue that modesty dictates what we should or should not say about our own strengths, objectivity be damned. Others see no problem with being honest about one’s skills and abilities.

The level of comfort one has with such statements could depend on geography, culture, professional environment, and other factors. It could also simply depend on the context for such statements; writing about my achievement in brush-making here in my own newsletter is different from announcing it on a public bus!

But one thing is true: whether or not you decide to acknowledge your particular strengths and positive attributes publicly, you absolutely must learn to do so privately. Learn to look at yourself in the mirror and state, with certainty and authority, the things you do well.

Otherwise, you fail to build confidence.

Confidence is a necessary ingredient for success in any area of life. So is humility, but if you’re not careful, humility can morph into a kind of imposter syndrome that stops you in your tracks.

(And yes, yes, it’s normal to feel imposter syndrome and I have already written about it, as have thousands of others. Just don’t let it dominate your life!)

I took a train to Stuttgart a couple of weeks ago to watch the fourth round of the Boss Open tennis tournament. It was clear from the moment each player walked onto the court that they were confident they could win. I can’t explain it but something in their body language projected only one thing: belief.

Professional tennis might not seem to have anything in common with illustration, design, photography, or animation. But nobody gets ahead in any of these fields without confidence that they *can* do so.

Additionally, both professional athletes and professional artists have learned to identify and acknowledge their particular strengths and they lean on them to get ahead. In tennis, most players are striving to be good at everything (serve, volley, slice, drop shot, etc.), but they know what they are best at and use it to their advantage.

An important point: in the title of this newsletter, I wrote ‘Con’ in parentheses. This is to call attention to the danger of misplaced confidence. We have all met people who claim to be something they are not. There is a fine line between faking it until you make it and outright lying about your abilities. The former is a story of rising to the occasion and doing your utmost to live up to, or surpass, expectations. The latter is simply cheating others. Therefore, let your confidence arise from results, from the satisfaction of your clients and coworkers, and from a clear understanding of the quality of your work as it compares with the work of others in your field.

When it comes to illustration, I can confidently state that I’m good at storytelling and working with human subjects. I also know I’m fast. Leaning into these strengths made editorial and book illustration a natural fit for me and most of my assignment work landed in those markets.

This knowledge of, and confidence in, my own strengths is important not just because it helps me focus on certain clients or jobs, but because of the growth it promotes. Allow me to explain:

1. Confidence allows you to work without being hindered by self-doubt or uncertainty. Your clients are happy, they tell you so, and your self-belief grows.

2. You complete more assignments, your portfolio grows.

3. Through doing more work that plays to your strengths, these strengths get even stronger and your skills grow.

4. Bonus: the space previously occupied by self doubt can now be filled with creativity and new ideas … growth, growth, growth!

By the way, working with confidence is not the same as working without objectivity.

You can be confident and still see areas where you should improve. In fact, this balance is required for continued progress. I have met artists who are doing exactly the same kind of work today that they were doing 25 years ago. This work may pay the bills, and it may still be ‘good,’ but I am always curious to know what would have happened if they had pushed themselves outside of their comfort zones.

So, here is your homework for today: share this newsletter (please, and thank you!), then go stand in front of the mirror and tell yourself what you’re good at! Get comfortable with this and do it more often. Then, if you feel like it, say something nice (as long as it’s true!) about your skills in public. This can be done in a non-braggadocious manner, I promise. It just takes practice.

Are you honest with yourself about your strengths?

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Big news coming soon and I look forward to writing about it here.
Until then, take care of yourselves and each other, remember to be kind (that includes to yourself!), and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

Kyle (find me here)

PS - speaking of digital brushes, I’m excited about the one I made last week. Yummy!

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Recently, I resigned from Adobe. Photoshop was an app that helped me kickstart my career as a designer and illustrator. Its brush engine became a playground for me, eventually leading to an acquisition of my brand, KyleBrush, and an invitation to join a team of friendly people who wanted to build a drawing app that combined vector and pixel workflows (Project Gemini, later Fresco).

Because of my Adobe MAX keynote painting demos, a few colleagues even referred to me as the “Bob Ross” of Adobe. He’s a hero of mine, so you can imagine how nice that felt.

(Don’t worry. I’m not crazy enough to actually compare myself to a legend like Bob.)

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Anyway, the company was a positive force in my life, both directly and indirectly. I am very grateful for the opportunities I was given.

Everything changes, as the saying goes, and this certainly applies to technology companies. As Adobe’s business changed, I found myself feeling disconnected, discouraged, and sometimes even dispirited.

First and foremost, I’m an artist and a fairly prominent member of the illustration community. Having this strong sense of identity was certainly helpful in guiding me towards resigning from my job.

But also, my body told me very plainly, through pain, anxiety, insomnia, and fatigue that there was no other acceptable course of action. I have learned the hard way that my body knows best.

As usual, my body was right. I noticed a positive physical change mere minutes after resigning. Soon, I had no more anxiety or stomach aches, felt lighter, had more energy, more patience … and very importantly, I could feel my creativity rushing back into my spirit. No more slump.

Looking ahead, I’m excited about reconnecting with fellow artists, and focusing on doing what I love most: drawing and building tools for those who draw.

To my close colleagues at Adobe, I am sincerely glad to know you and to have worked with you. I made some good friends during my almost-seven years with the company.

I realize some of you might be saying, “Kyle, that’s all well and good for you, but some of us don’t have options.”

You’re right. I acknowledge that I am extremely fortunate. And to those of you who are feeling stuck at the moment, let me say this: I sympathize.

Please don’t lose hope, though. Small actions, done consistently over time, can lead to real change. Working towards a goal for 45 minutes a day will add up to 16,425 minutes in a year. What you accomplish over the course of that span of time could well be enough to open up opportunities that ultimately improve your situation: a new skill, a promotion, even a new business altogether.

I believe this kind of change is possible for many people — not all — but many.

Returning for a moment to Bob Ross, I want to single out one of the special things he did for me as a child. Through his 30-minute demonstrations, he simultaneously demystified the act of painting while still making it look like a magic trick. First, there was nothing on the canvas, then, in an impossibly short span of time, there was a landscape. But he told us how he did it, every step of the way.

To this day, I find this duality part of what makes art so special to me, as somebody who actively creates it. Even though I’m conscious of, and highly focused on the decisions I make, and the order in which I make them, while drawing, it’s still magical to see the art materialize on the page.

Nothing, then something. Presto.

If you are a person using Midjourney, you might read those last few sentences and say, “Oh, that’s like me! I type something and then an image appears. Nothing, then something. It’s the same.”

You’d be wrong, though.

Thanks for being here. I look forward to sharing more about my next adventure(s). I appreciate your continued support and encouragement, and I wish good things for all of you.

Hey, PS - I’m on Cara, now. Follow?

Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now.

Find me here👇

My meditative drawing app
My digital shop
My site

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Welcome to the latest audio edition of The Accidental Expert, narrated from this post.
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Over the years, I have seen some people celebrate fan art while others bash it.

As an art instructor for undergrads and grads for twelve years, I saw sketchbooks from my students that were filled with a good number of fan art drawings. I was always a little disappointed about this because I wanted them to push themselves to come up with their own ideas, their own stories, and their own visual styles.

Today, I believe that on balance, fan art is a good thing.

And my reason is simple: it gets people drawing.

With all the distractions assailing us daily and monopolizing our precious time, I think anything with the power to pull us into art-making is a positive.

That’s really the long and short of it for me, though if I could elaborate just a little, please allow me to provide just a few more thoughts on the subject.

Making Fan Art Count

1. Put your own spin on it. This could be anything: proportions or design of a character, fitting things into your own style, updating or altering a costume/outfit or hairstyle, etc. — just do something to make it more your own. This is a more creative exercise and the end result is also more interesting for the viewer.

2. Use the fan art drawing as an opportunity to practice the fundamentals you need to practice anyway, such as shape, design, proportion, composition, and so on.

3. Try producing multiple versions of the same fan art piece and see how great and/or original you can make it with each iteration.

4. Be thoughtful about selling work you produce of others’ intellectual property. Use common sense and be respectful.

At the end of the day, I think producing fan art from time to time is a good thing because, again, you are drawing. The act is what matters. The practice counts. And so what if the subject matter isn’t something you came up with entirely on your own? The tribute you are paying to the artists who created the original is an act of love and if you produce a great piece, you have added something positive to the fandom.

By the way, from a professional point of view, numerous artists have actually launched their careers by producing great fan art. So there’s that, as well.

Here are just a few of the Ninja Turtles I have drawn over the years. Thanks to Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird for creating these characters.

By the way, if you’re looking for a nice digital pencil, I have a free one available in my shop. And it has a special brush stamp with the message, “Support Human Artists.” In a way, you are sending a positive message with every brush mark! 🙂 Get it here.

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Have a great rest of the week. I will write another post in just a few days and share some news that will explain why I haven’t been writing as much as usual.

Until then, take care of yourselves and each other, remember to be kind, and I’ll say, Ciao for now. Kyle

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