Digital Painting and Textures

Found out today that I’ve been going about digital painting in totally the wrong way. Or rather, the very laborious way. I'd painstakingly spend upwards of 30 or 40 hours drawing out the intricate details of some texture within the image. And then I’d find that I didn’t really like the location of something, or some detail about the object in the image, and then would have to spend that same out of time repainting the whole thing. Apparently, a lot of time can be cut out of the process my creating my own brushes. While I had modified brushes in an attempt to get the look I want, often they fall just short of the goal. Apparently, though, I can take photographs of the texture that I am trying to simulate. Then, with some adjustments to the contrast and minor editing, I can a section of that image into a brush. The result would be that with a single stroke of the pen, I could paint something that looked like concrete. I used to draw every little ding and put when trying to make the texture by hand. I will have to try out making my own brushes. Hopefully it will save some time, and allow me to produce art at a faster pace.