Tutorial on Making Brushes in Photoshop CS2

Photoshop gives the user great control over creating custom paint brushes with the Brush Window.

Creating brushes and adjusting their appearance is one of the valuable features inside Photoshop. The newer versions of Photoshop display a larger window for brush options with more controls, and all versions of the program let you create a custom brush from an existing bitmapped image or vector graphic. You can adjust the size and diameter of a brush as well as whether the brush is soft (blurry at the edges) or creates a hard edge. Opacity, fill, angle, color blending, scattering and texture are some of the options available when creating brushes.

Things You'll Need

• Wacom Tablet (optional)

Instructions

Creating your Brushes

1. Select the "Paintbrush" tool.

2. Go to "Window," "Brushes." This will display your brush-creating options.

3. Choose a brush preset from the displayed default brushes to start with. Do this by clicking on the icon of the displayed brush tip.

4. Slide the "Master Diameter" to the right or left to change the size of your brush. You can test the brush diameter by making a stroke on your canvas.

5. Click "Brush Tip Shape" at the top of the Brush window. This will bring up a sub-menu allowing you to adjust the spacing, the angle and other options.

6. Adjust other options in the "Brush tip shape" category, such as scattering, texture, dual brush, color and other dynamics. You will be able to see a preview of your brush displayed below the options, but it is useful to test the brush yourself.

7. Adjust other paintbrush options such as noise, wet edges, airbrush, smoothing or texture. These options are located below the "Tip" sub-section.

8. Adjust "Opacity," "Fill" or the paintbrush's blend-mode effect in the primary brush sub-menu.

9. Save your custom brush. Go to the brush window's drop-down arrow menu and select "Save Brushes." Enter a name for your brush and click "Save."

Creating a Brush from a Design, Shape or Photo.

1. 

   The Brush Window allows you to adjust settings to recreate artist effects found with traditional paintbrushes.

   Open your design. Photoshop will take your shape and transform the outline of it into a paintbrush.

2. Select your shape with the magic wand tool.

3. Create a paintbrush from the object. Go to "Edit," "Define Brush" and enter a name for your brush in the dialog window.

4. Click on the brush window. Your new brush will be displayed.

5. Adjust any settings and preferences on your new shape brush as described in Section 1.

Tips & Warnings

• Shape paintbrushes function like a rubber stamp, showing the outline of your object but not much detail inside.

• Shape paintbrushes can be adjusted like any other brush.

• Save your brushes if you like the effect you create; they will load into Photoshop each time you use it.

References

• Creating Brushes tutorial
• Custom Brushes
• How to Create Brushes in Photoshop