How to Make Your Own Brushes in Photoshop CS2

The brushes functions in Photoshop CS2 adds to the aesthetic quality of a project by embellishing it and making it more unique through swirls and various shapes. There are plenty of brushes available online for free created by the expanding network of artists who use Photoshop as a primary tool for making art. But of course brushes don't come with the program, so these brushes were made from scratch. Creating a Photoshop brush isn't as hard as it seems. Here are the steps on how to make your own brush that you can start using in minutes.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Photoshop CS2
• Image to be made into a brush

1. Open the brush pattern you want to use or draw one using a brush. Keep in mind that objects should be 2500 by 2500 pixels or less. Keeping it under 2500 pixels will make your brushes easier to work with. Higher resolutions may work with other versions of Photoshop.

2. Convert your document to grayscale. Doing this will emphasize the contrast of the pixels. Black color will stand out, which is going to be the opacity of the resulting brush, while white color will disappear into the background. You may tweak these by going to the Hue/Saturation layer seen at the bottom of the layers palette. Play around a bit and adjust the settings to your liking.

3. Define the brush by selecting the image and going to Edit>Define Brush. A pop-up window will appear where you can type in the name of the brush. Hit OK. Your brushes can now be seen in the Brushes palette in the upper-right corner of the window.

4. Save your brushes by clicking the Brush Preset picker on the upper-left corner (as if selecting a brush), and when the box appears, click on the small arrow on the upper-righthand corner of the box. Click on Save Brushes. You now have your brushes saved, and they will appear every time you open Photoshop. Even when you replace your brushes with another set, it will be easier to retrieve your newly created brushes.