Are brushes really that important in digital painting? So far

>>3113899
Hard round can do almost anything. If you want to go beyond that you can add in a soft round and maybe a chalk brush for some texture. That's all you really need. Of course if you want specific looks like fake oil brushstrokes you can use more but they're not really needed to make a good image. Artists like Craig Mullins use mostly the default brushes that come with photoshop. I've seen him use a chain brush to paint leaves, and I've seen Michael Komarck use a grass brush to paint clouds. You can use whatever.

You can do anything with the default brushes, but how kuch time do you want to spend doing it? They're just tools. Mostly made to save time and get a specific style/look without adding tiny details with a 1px hard brush.

i only use round brush, with varying opacity, flow, hardness. for some styles it works well with textured brushes, like simon stålenhag, but its not for me, use what feels best