How to use the Procreate RossBob Wet Oil Paint Brushes (I)

The RossBob Wet Oil Paint Brush Set is available as a stand-alone set and free MegaPack update. It contains more than 30 new wet paint brushes for Bob Ross style oil painting in Procreate 4. I also included my new ROSSBOB color swatches to get you started painting right away!

For beginners, I recommend watching and following one of the numerous Bob Ross videos on YouTube & Co. There are also many good tutorial videos for iPad/Procreate, some of them are quite funny too:

General Tips

Try out the brushes with different pen pressure, tilt, and stroke speed to get a feeling for their stroke details and dynamics.

Use the brushes in “Wet Paint” mode for smooth, blurred and distant elements. Use “Normal” or “Glaze” mode to add bigger, crisper and more detailed elements to the foreground.

(You can switch between the 3 brush rendering modes using the respective buttons in the “Dynamics” tab of your brush menu.)

Use separate layer groups for the foreground, middle ground, and background.

Think and paint in layers: Build up your colors, structures, and forms step by step, working from dark to light colors.

Paint shadows and highlights on separate layers and try different blending modes:Highlights: Brighten or Negative MultiplyShadows: Multiply, Darken or Color Burn

The names of the RossBob brushes only represent their primary function (like painting grass, leaves, water, bark etc.). Feel free to experiment with them, combine different patterns for a natural look, and spot “happy accidents” to elaborate details you find interesting.

Use layer masks to hide areas and work on selected areas while keeping the underlying layers intact (non-destructive painting).

Merge layers when you reach the maximum number of layers for your canvas size.

Make copies of your artwork. If you mess up a certain area, you can always go back and copy details from the previous versions.

The RossBob Brushes

One of the main brushes of the RossBob Set is the PAINT KNIFE. It is a very versatile paint, wet mix, and texture brush, which produces lots of “happy accidents” that can be used as natural structures for your scene.

Use the PAINT KNIFE to paint some basic forms and define areas like the sky, mountains, hills, water etc.:

Use the VEGETATION, SPIKEY, HAPPY SHRUB, BRUEGEL, and HAPPY BUSHES brushes to paint vegetation, bushes, shrubs etc. Mix the different brushes to add variations and create an organic look.

The BRUEGEL brush is one of the main texture and pattern brushes: a versatile allrounder for brushes, leaves, and vegetation. Use different color shades to define lights and shadows of your scene.

The RAGGED brush is great for natural surfaces like grasslands, embankments, rivers, paths etc.

Use the RIPPLES brush to add highlights, shadows, and accents for bumpy, rough, and wavy surfaces.

Use the GRASS brushes and the HAPPY FLOWERS to add details to the foreground:

Here are some demo strokes with the other leaves, grass, and tree brushes:

The FAN BRUSH is great to paint details like pine trees, vegetation, grass on distant hills etc:

A quick concept demo for painting pine trees with the RossBob FAN BRUSH (“Wet Paint” brush mode):

The WATER CLOUDS brush can be used for clouds as well as water surfaces (transform to match perspective):

The SCRIPT LINER is great for adding details, accents, highlights, and linework:

The ROUND BRUSH is a textured multi-purpose tool for all kinds of painting techniques:

Here are some demo strokes in “Wet Paint” mode with some of the classic paint brushes:

Use the ROSSBOB MIXER and TEXTURE BLENDER brushes to blend colors or create rough edges. Use low opacity for soft blending and wet color mixing.

Import the RossBob COLOR SWATCHES included in this set if you want to use the classic palette of the great Bob Ross.

Happy Painting! :)
–Georg