Making Textures and Shapes with Adobe Capture and Adobe Fresco

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Trying to find ways to relax. So I’ve been using adobe capture to vectorized textures for fresco and making quick abstract painting with those custom shapes and the pixel brushes. #adobecapture #adobefresco

A post shared by Megan Frauenhoffer (@meganfrau) on Sep 3, 2020 at 4:14pm PDT

I want to share my newest obsession of late: making easy digital abstract paintings in Adobe Fresco. They’re relaxing to create compared to the more thought-out illustrations and comics. I often make these in 10 minutes while my drawing students work on the gesture warm-ups at the beginning of class.

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More abstract paintings. Will probably add them to my second Society6 store later this weekend.

A post shared by Megan Frauenhoffer (@meganfrau) on Sep 3, 2020 at 9:39pm PDT

I’m planning to add them to my second Society6 store since they fit right in with that aesthetic, and I had no plans originally on making newer pieces. It’s a great way to expand on those designs.

Example of some of the textures I photographed to use in Adobe Capture.

Since I love making them, I wanted to share my process with those interested in trying it. It’s a great way to add textures to illustrations and more. Adobe Fresco’s recent updates of clipping masks and using vector shapes made from Adobe Capture have opened up many different ways to create exciting art.

How the vectorization looks in Capture. I inverted this ink wash on highly textured paper t get this result.

Adobe Capture is a great way to make custom brushes and patterns. Adobe recently updated Capture also to include a shape pattern maker. I’ll make another post in the future to show my adventures with that feature.

You can rename your shape and place them in a creative cloud library, which can be used in other apps. I use mine mostly in Fresco, but I will have to check out the other CC app possibilities in the near future.

To start, find, and create textures. I use to make a bunch of ink splatters, washes, and dry brush experiments to expand on my drawing backgrounds. I had sketchbooks and sketchbooks of these to photograph in texture. It’s also easy to take some paper and charcoal and create texture rubbings on any surface. Get creative! Photograph anything you think would be interesting: lace, wood, toothy paper, concrete. You name it!

One of my texture libraries, most of my scans are from texture paint experiments, charcoal rubbings, and photos.

Once you have a decent collection, you can open up Adobe Fresco, or any other program that can use these SVG files and stamp these shapes onto the layers. Alternatively, you don’t have to use Capture to vectorize. You can also use raw photos or scans to create texture layers in your photo program.

Here you can see the vector shape used in Adobe Fresco. You can enlarge it and rotate the image. Use it as a fill, eraser, mask, or section.

After you use the shapes, play with the brushes, transparency and layer settings, clipping masks, and layer masks to make the layers look less digitized. I use many the default Fresco brushes, imported a lot of the Photoshop Kyle Webster brushes, and bought a few collection packs from True Grit. The True Grit Dead Subtle and Distress Press packs immensely help make layers feel more like traditional art.