Mastering Photoshop brushes: 6 top tips [PHOTOSHOP TIPS]
Photoshop is a complex bit of kit, which can take years to learn
properly. Thankfully, there's lots of Photoshop resources around to help
you out, including handy Photoshop tutorials and Photoshop actions to create impressive effects. But one of the essentials Photoshop features to know as a digital artist are the brushes.
Just
as with traditional painting, knowing what effects you can create and
what tools to use to do so is a great advantage to have. By mastering
your brushes, you can get the very most out of the software and once you
understand the basics, you can go ahead and create your very own.
01. Brush options
Getting started with brushes is fairly self-explanitoryOnce
you've selected the Brush icon from the toolbar, right-clicking
anywhere on the canvas will bring up a small menu with shape and size
options. Size is pretty straightforward, with a slider on the top right.
Each of the strange shapes located in the white boxes below are
alternate tip shapes, enabling you to create all kinds of different
marks.
02. Alter your brush edges
Tweak the brushes by moving the slider to the left or rightSome
tips, like the basic Round brush you start with, can also have the
hardness of their edges adjusted. Accessing the slider labelled Hardness
and moving it to the right will make for more distinct, hard-edged
brush strokes, while moving it to the far left will create a soft
airbrush effect.
03. Brush modes
Understanding layers can help you to get to grips with brushesWhen
the Brush Tool is selected, there'll be an options bar at the top of
the screen with Mode and Opacity drop-downs menus. These both work the
same way that their Layers window counterparts do, and the Mode settings
are exactly the same for both (Lighten, Darken, Overlay and so on).
Instead of controlling a whole layer, though, they're just applying
those settings to your individual brushstrokes.
04. Tip settings
Take time to know all the tip settings, as this will be invaluable to your artThe
brush is the tool you'll be using most often as an illustrator or
concept artist, so take the time to get to know its features. Go to
Window>Brush to open the Brush Window, where you'll see a list of
options such as Shape Dynamics (pressure on your drawing tool of choice
dictates brush size), Dual Brush (use two brushes at once), Color
Dynamics (use multiple colours at once) and Scattering (turns brush
strokes into a scattering of marks in the shape of the brush tip).
05. Create your own brush
Creating your very own custom brushes is simpler than you thought!Photoshop
comes with an impressive assortment of brush options, but when
something more specific is needed you can create your own custom ones.
Open
a new document, and then draw your desired tip shape. Go to
Edit>Define Brush Preset… from the top menu and it'll add the new
brush tip to your assortment, shaping it from the black and leaving
transparent any white parts of the canvas.
06. Loading custom brushes
If in doubt, why not download some other artists' custom brushes?The
internet is full of custom brushes available for download. I have some
Nagel brushes that have served me well over the years. You'll most
likely be downloading the files in .Abr format, which you can then move
to the Adobe Photoshop CS>Presets> Brushes folder on your hard
drive.
Open the Brush Preset window and click the drop-down menu
option to bring up the Load Brushes option. Navigate to the file,
double-click it and the new tip will appear in your menu.
Post a Comment