Ever heard of Gouache A-Go-Go or Kyle’s Megapack? If you are a digital artist, or even dabbled in digital art, chances are you’ve used a digital brush created by Kyle T. Webster. Since making his first brush in 2003, Kyle quickly became synonymous with quality digital brushes proving to be one of Gumroad’s first breakout creators with his extensive KyleBrush collection. Many of these were adopted as default brushes in Photoshop when Kyle joined Adobe in 2017, and eventually their iPad app Fresco. And now, Procreate is excited to welcome Kyle to the team to help innovate and design digital brushes across its range of creative products.
An accomplished and diverse illustrator well before discovering digital art and brush making, Kyle translates this extensive traditional art experience into his digital brushes. His first brushes were created due to a tight deadline for a series of Krispy Kreme annual report illustrations that needed to replicate acrylic paint on wood panels. The results were so realistic the CEO wanted to purchase the ‘originals’ only to discover the artwork had been created digitally.
In addition to his masterfully crafted analog-style brushes, the endless possibility digital art affords keeps Kyle excited about brush making, “Digital art lets you experience its full potential as a medium when you have a wide variety of exciting brushes to experiment and play with. I love opening up that potential to artists, that really is at the heart of it for me.”
This love for art and its process is a big part of what makes Kyle’s new career move so exciting. “There's no other company or brand out there right now that is as admired and gets people as excited about drawing as Procreate. So, to be a direct part of that just makes perfect sense to me. It’s the most natural fit for my interests and my own passion. It just feels right.”
Regardless of the current trends in tech and art, updates and features in Procreate never steer far from the essence of enhancing human creativity. From every individual’s innate desire to create, to experiencing the joys of the creative process, Kyle observes, “I think we have the same priorities for the community, which is to delight them and make their artistic lives easier and better.”
When asked what he was most looking forward to about joining the team at Procreate, Kyle enthused, “Fresh energy, fresh inspiration and different new challenges — it's just the best feeling. The kind of moment where I can jump into something new is just so exciting. Where I have a whole set of new things, not just to learn, but a whole new area in which to play, experiment and build stuff, that's when your brain comes alive! That's when your creativity comes alive, and you can really do your best work.”
Although Kyle hasn’t started at Procreate, he is already peeking under the hood and trying to reverse-engineer some of his favorite Procreate brushes. “I'm too curious to not have already started!”, he enthused. Our chat was full of excited imaginings and possibilities about what the future holds for Procreate and Kyle, a sentiment shared by the whole Procreate team who look forward to seeing where Kyle helps take our brushes next.