Can we talk about the obsession with 5000-layer brush packs

I used to think you needed a massive brush library to make good digital art. Last month I spent an hour watching this artist on Twitch who works mostly in Clip Studio Paint and she only uses like 6 brushes total. That got me thinking so I went through my own collection of over 200 brushes I downloaded from Gumroad. Turns out I actually use maybe 10 of them on a regular basis. The rest just sit there clogging up my menus and slowing down my workflow. Now I'm convinced that most of these huge brush packs are just preying on beginners who think they need fancy tools to make good art. Has anyone else trimmed down their brush library and actually felt more productive?

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claire9581mo ago

That part about the 200 brushes from Gumroad clogging up your menus really hit home for me. I did the same thing a few years ago and ended up deleting like 180 of them after realizing I kept scrolling past the same 8 brushes every time. Now I keep a strict folder with maybe 12 favorites and it's so much faster to just pick one and go. Honestly, those huge packs just make you waste time hunting for the "perfect" brush instead of actually drawing.