Audrey Bagley produces audiovisual work under the moniker Esper Star @esperstar and currently enjoys living in beautiful sunny St. George, Utah. Her Cubebrush store, Manga Brushes, has been trending for weeks, with a rare offering of Photoshop Manga Brushes, and we wanted to ask her about it. 

Can you tell us a little about yourself? 

Hi! I’m a former Pixar and Disney Look Artist, developing tools for comic artists who want to feel inspired while they work! I lived in Japan for a bit and speak conversational Japanese. I create and sell comic brush packs for Photoshop and Procreate!

What made you decide to sell these brushes? 

I draw comics and couldn’t find the brushes I needed to get the look I wanted. I was working as a texture artist at a few animation studios and made brushes regularly, so one day decided I needed to make myself a set specifically for a comic series I was working on called Esper Star. 

Once my brush set reached over 500 brushes, I decided I probably wasn’t the only one who needed these : )

What do you think sets them apart from other options? 

I obsess over traditional manga Japanese screentones and saw how there wasn’t anything out there digitally that compares to real screen tones from the 80’s and 90s. 

Traditional Manga Artists would use hundreds of screentones in their comics and the only brush packs I found online for digital screentones only had max about 30 brushes- and even then they weren’t high quality. There was a serious lack of variety. 

My Manga Brush packs are (as far I know) the only Photoshop/Procreate options that cover every type of screentone genre a comic artist would need to illustrate action, fantasy, romance, the whole shebang! 

What does your process look like to create a package to sell? 

When I create a brush, it’s usually because I was reading an old manga and found a cool pattern to derive inspiration from. I draw a pattern with a Wacom tablet in photoshop and make sure it matches the feel of my retro inspiration material and make the brush! Then I add it to the category (Such as flowery, aura, action, etc) it best fits in with the thousands of brushes in my Manga Brush Megapack.

Where do you get your inspiration? 

Retro manga! All current manga art uses inspiration from the masters of old so that’s what I do! 90’s manga had a ton of fascinating patterns and screentones that really helped the plot of a story. Takes some time to make them but it’s so worth it- Manga Brushes are super fun to use.

Have any future goals you’d like to share? 

I sit down about once a year and evaluate how I can add a few more hundred brushes to the Megapack and finesse it. Anyone who buys the Megapack gets future versions for free so it’s a great chance to get it before the price rises with future brush additions. 

The Megapack started around 500 brushes for about 20$ initially and now is over 1500 brushes for 49$. There are smaller versions of the pack starting at 1$ and those come with coupons for the larger packs ; )

What do you think is the best way for an artist to better their skill?

Learn from the masters. Figure drawing is huge because after you learn from life, you can tweak it any way you like. Lighting is especially helpful to learn for using screentones for proper shadows. There are some great books, for example, “Color and Light” by Gurney. Also the “How to Draw Manga” Series by the manga distribution of Japan is great for artists seeking to get that 80s/90s anime vibe. 

I’m thinking of doing a video series that covers principles from the “How to Draw Manga Series” since the vintage books are hard to come by, and would be a great way to show how to use my manga brushes too! 

What made you choose Cubebrush?

First off I was drawn to the fun title of this website. “Cube” feels digital and “Brush” is what I’m selling so it was a perfect opportunity when this site was getting started to join in and sell alongside so many talented artists. 

Thanks for the interview! I hope everyone enjoys using the brushes! Happy drawing!