How to Make a Gun Brush on Photoshop

A gun brush made in Photoshop can be resized easily.

One of the most popular features in this graphic editing program is the ability to make your own brushes to use in illustrations or altered photographs. Fortunately, you can choose almost any image and create a brush from it, giving you the option of applying the image later as a grayscale brush. In this manner, you save your own custom graphics. Making a gun brush is fun way to learn Photoshop. Read on to learn how to make a gun brush in Photoshop.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Photoshop
• Digital gun image

Instructions

1. 

   Choose the image of a gun to make into a brush. While you can pick any image you like, consider the most frequently viewed angle of a gun for future use. You will probably use the brush in a sideways position so the image is identifiable. An image where the gun points towards or away from the viewer is limited in usage. You can rotate the image later but will be limited when altering perspective.

2. Use a high resolution for a larger brush. Perhaps you need only a small brush now, but by using an image with high resolution; you have the option of using the gun brush later at a larger size. You can always use a small version by selecting the size on your brush pallet but you can’t make a brush bigger than its maximum resolution.

3. 

   Select a gun image where the gun, itself, is clearly identifiable from the background. If you have to erase the background, do so before proceeding. Take some time to learn the Photoshop background removal tools. It will help you create advanced brushes from your selections.

4. Open your image and convert it to black and white. You can easily do this by opening the “Image” menu and selecting “Grayscale” from the Mode choices.

5. Increase the contrast of your image by applying an adjustment layer from the bottom of the layer’s pallet and choosing “Contrast.” Adjust the sliders until the gun image stands out sharply from the background.

6. Flatten your Image and make a duplicate copy of the background layer. Turn off the visibility of the background layer and select the top layer.

7. 

   Go to the Edit menu and choose “Define Brush Preset.” A dialog box will open asking you to name your brush. Give it a memorable name.

8. 

   Test your new brush by opening a blank canvas in Photoshop and select the brush tool. In the Brush Pallet, choose the drop-down arrow and look for your new gun brush. Select it and adjust the size to fit your image.Use your left mouse button to make gun brushes all over your canvas. Try enlarging the brush size and reducing for different size images.

9. Close your original gun image and your brush will be stored indefinitely in your Brushes Pallet. You can add as many different brushes as you like.

Tips & Warnings

• As you learn Photoshop, you will find yourself using custom brushes more and more because they offer flexibility and you don't have to select and remove the background every time you want to duplicate an image.