I've been drawing portraits in Photoshop for about six months now, but the standard brushes don't really work for me. They just feel kinda unnatural, you know? Should I download some brushes from somewhere else or maybe switch to different software?
I'm a security guard, not an artist, but after 25 years on the job I've seen a lot of people with hobbies, including guys who draw. Here's what I picked up from their conversations - in Photoshop for portraits you need to use brushes with soft edges and low hardness, like a regular round soft brush at 30-50% opacity. The thing is, it's not really about the brush itself, it's how you set it up. Try playing around with the settings - lower the hardness to 0%, turn on size dynamics based on pen pressure if you've got a graphics tablet. Here's an example: when I go out for a run in the morning, I don't immediately pick up speed, same thing here - you need smoothness in how you apply the tool.
As for ready-made brushes from outside sources, yeah it makes sense to download a set of portrait brushes, like on sites such as CGTrader or Gumroad there's plenty of decent options, often even free. But I don't think you need to switch to different software. Photoshop handles it fine, the standard set is just limited. One more tip - check out the Texture option on brushes, add some canvas or paper texture, that'll immediately make everything look more natural and alive, I'm telling you.
I thought it was the brushes at first too, but then I realized - you just need to set up the parameters properly in Photoshop. I downloaded a ton of brush sets from other sources, half of them turned out useless until I started making my own brushes tailored to my style using Shape Dynamics and Texture. Honestly, the software isn't the problem here - I tried Clip Studio Paint and Procreate, and yeah, their brushes are more natural right out of the box, but in Photoshop you can get the same result if you figure out the pen pressure and opacity settings. Maybe you'll just spend time tweaking instead of hunting for the perfect software.
Not an artist, but I know a lot about software - I can tell you that what was said above about adjusting parameters is actually correct, and it's really more important than brushes you download. Standard round brushes work just fine if you adjust opacity, flow and spacing properly - try watching tutorials about that, maybe even on channels like Pronounce IT or similar ones where they break down the actual process instead of just brushes; for portraits people usually use a minimal number of brushes anyway, but they have complete control over pressure and layers.
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