Photo shop Brush | Custom Brushes

Photo Shop Brushes - Custom Brushes

by: Sherry Holub

Making custom brushes in Photo Shop is one of the easiest things in the world.

Seriously! I don't know why I've read some tutorials that make it out to be this multi-step, intimidating process. Creating your own brushes helps to customize both your artwork and the Photoshop work environment.

The Hard Part
"But ... you said this would be easy!!" Technically, yes, but I've found that some people actually reach a little stumbling block when trying to think of what would make a good photoshop brush. Well, the short answer is ANYTHING! I've made brushes out of fuzzy leopard slippers, bananas, old trash cans, fabric swatches, dirt ... hundreds of things. It helps to have a scanner and/or a digital camera ... that really opens up your possibilities.

Just a quick walk around your house might yield dozens of fun textures you can make Photoshop brushes out of.

But, even if you don't have either of those, you can often snurch some good textures off the internet. Try a google search for marble tile and see what comes up. Sometimes you'll get a nice big image to work with. I'm not condoning stealing someone's art photos to rip a brush off with, but if it's just a sample photo of tile, or fabric, or screen, or whatever, I think it's perfectly fine ... you'll be drastically changing the image in the next steps anyway.

The Next Steps With Photo Shop
Okay, so you've got some good textures then? Right, let's make a custom brush out of 'em! Open up your image in Photoshop. The first thing you'll want to do is desaturate the image (Shift+Ctrl+U in PS7). Then cut and paste what you've got into a new layer.

Now delete the background layer. Once you're down to just the single layer, mess with the brightness/contrast until you get the desired effect (this will require you to think a little bit about how you might use the brush in the future - will you be wanting to use it as a 'grunge' effect ... something more technical ... etc. etc.)

http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog/img/tutorials/brush_tut1.jpg ( The starting image)
http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog/img/tutorials/brush_tut2.jpg (The desaturated image)
http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog/img/tutorials/brush_tut2.jpg (After messing with brightness/contrast)

Photo Shop Brushes - Custom Brushes

Making custom brushes in Photo Shop is one of the easiest things in the world.

The Next Steps With Photo Shop Okay, so you've got some good textures then? Right, let's make a custom brush out of 'em! Open up your image in Photoshop. The first thing you'll want to do is desaturate the image (Shift+Ctrl+U in PS7). Then cut and paste what you've got into a new layer.

The Next Steps With Photo Shop
Okay, so you've got some good textures then? Right, let's make a custom brush out of 'em! Open up your image in Photoshop. The first thing you'll want to do is desaturate the image (Shift+Ctrl+U in PS7). Then cut and paste what you've got into a new layer.