How to Make Photoshop Brushes from Garden Plants

Collect Plant Stems to Use for Your Brushes
I like to select plants that have tall stems and a distinct profile. You can see a set of plant cuttings that I collected from my garden in the picture below. This is the set of stems used to create the Meadow Plant Brushes.

Once you select the plants you want for your brushes, you need to photograph them. I always place my cuttings on a large sheet of white paper to help make it easier to manipulate the images in Photoshop.

Step #1: Adjust the Brightness of Your Image
The first thing I like to do when I am creating brushes from photographs, is to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. Just click on Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast as shown below. This helps to reduce some of the shadows that may be present in your photos.

Photoshop brushes are made from black and white images. The portions of the image that are white will be transparent and the portions of the image that are black will make up the brush. The object here is to manipulate the image so you end up with a strong black and white image that can be used for your brush.

Step #2: Desaturate the Image
Since brushes are made from black and white images, it is easier to see what you brush will look like be desaturating the image. To desaturate your image (which means to make it greyscale instead of color), just click on Image > Adjustments > Desaturate as shown below.

Step #3: Adjust the Levels of Your Image
Next, you need to adjust the levels of the image. This allows you to darken up portions of the image that will be used to create the brush. Again, what we are trying to achive is a black and white image to make our brush. Just click on Image > Adjustments > Levels as shown below. The amount you need to move the sliders will depend on the specific photograph and will be different for every different image. Just start by making sure that preview is selected and move the arrows in towards the peaks. Adjust the arrows until you are happy with the preview image.

Step #4: Copy the Portion of the Image You Want for Your Brush onto Its Own Layer
Once you have adjusted your image, copy the portion of the image you want to use for your brush. In this example, I am planning to use the garlic chive image on the far right end of the photograph. I select the image using the selection tool and copy it to a new layer.

Step #5: Define Your Brush
Once you have isolated the image you want to use for your brush onto a separate layer, it is time to define your brush. All you need to do is select Edit > Define Brush. A dialog box will pop up where you can enter the name of your new brush as shown below.

And that is all there is to it. Once you have defined your brush, you are able to access it from the brush palette and use it to create new designs. If you want to know how to better use the brush palette, just check out the brush palette tutorial HERE.

The last thing that I do when I make my own Photoshop brushes is to upload them into Adobe Illustrator and vectorize them. This allows me to turn the images into vector images instead of raster images. This way, I am able to create high resolution brushes that can be sized to the maximum allowable brush size which is 2500 pixels in Photoshop CS3 and CS4. This last step is not a requirement, but it is a nice extra step to make your brushes more useful.

Created by:  

Description:   This tutorial will show you how I make Photoshop brushes from plant cuttings I find in my backyard garden. These types of brushes are great for scrap book projects and card making.

Installing Photoshop Brushes Tutorial

This tutorial will explain where to place your downloaded Photoshop brush files so you can access them in Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop stores the brush files within a file having a .ABR file extension. To use the Photoshop brushes you download from the Internet, just place the .ABR file within the correct directory on your computer. The instructions below will describe the steps to take to be able to use the brush files you download. These steps should be fairly consistent whether you are downloading brushes from this site or any of the other great sites offering free Photoshop brushes for download.

Step #1: Downloading Photoshop Brushes
When you download brush files from BrushPortfolio.com, the files are compressed or “zipped” so they are smaller in size and faster to download. The first thing you need to do is uncompress or “unzip” the file. Generally, all you need to do is double click on the zipped file and you will be taken through a set of instructions. Be sure to pay attention where the uncompressed file is placed so you can find it again.

Some of the files you will find on the Internet can use different compression software. A common software that you will find creates files with a .RAR file extension. If you download files with a .RAR file extension, you will need to decompress these files using WinRAR or some other equivalent. There are a lot of options, many free. Just check Google for RAR file formats.

Step #2: Place Extracted .ABR Files into Correct Directory
Once you have extracted the brush file, it is just a matter of placing the .ABR file into the correct directory. One thing to remember is that if you are logged into Photoshop, you will need to close it and restart Photoshop in order to access new files that are added to the brush directory. I have no idea why, but if you look for a new file without closing Photoshop, it doesn’t show up.

Windows Users will need to place the .ABR file into the following directory:
C:/Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop CSx/Presets/Brushes

Mac OS X Users will need to place the .ABR file into the following directory:
{username}/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Brushes

And that’s all there is to it. Once the .ABR file is located into the correct directory, you can access the brushes using the brush palette. You can read more about the brush palette here.

Created by:  

Description:   This tutorial will teach you where to place the file containing your downloaded Photoshop brushes (file with an .ABR extension) once you have downloaded brush files from BrushPortfolio.com

Apply a Glow Effect in 4 Easy Steps

The first time I tried to use a set of light brushes, I was disappointed to learn that they didn’t look like the preview image. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t figure out how people got that great glowing effect. I soon learned that all you need to do is play around with the Gaussian blur and layer blends, and your brushes will appear to glow. This tutorial takes your through the steps you need to follow to get great glowing effects with light brushes.

Step 1: Open a New File and Apply Your Brushes

Open up a new file and set your background color to black and your foreground color to white.
On a new layer, apply your light brushes. I am using a great set of brushes created by
Edwin Cuadros Juarez titled Sui Generis v2.

Step 2: Duplicate Layer and Set Gaussian Blur to 65 pixels and Opacity to 50%

Now duplicate the layer containing the brushes and apply a Gaussian blur by selecting Filter>Blur>Gaussian . Set the blur to 65 pixels as shown in the image.  Set the opacity of the layer to 50% by selecting Layer>Layer Style>Blending Mode. You will end up with a fuzzy image like the one shown below.

Step 3: Apply Color to your Light Brushes

The next step is to apply some color to your light brushes. Create a new layer and set the layer style to “color” as shown in the image below. This allows you to apply color only to the active layer. I am using a bright pink (#FF00FF) and a bright blue (#0099CC) color for my design. Use a large soft brush to apply the colors. Each color should be applied to the same layer. You do not need to create separate layers for each color. Refer to the image below.

Step 4: Add some Texture using the Render Command

To add a bit of depth to your image, we are going to create a new layer. Set your foreground color to black and your background color to white (or select “D” for a short cut). Now apply a cloud texture to your image by selecting Filter>Render>Clouds. Set the layer blending mode to “Vivid Light”. Apply a 90 pixel Gaussian blur to the layer as well.

Our Finished Image

You can see the finished image below with the glowing light effects added to our brush.

Created by:  

Description:  

Photoshop Brush Palette

This tutorial introduces you to the Photoshop brush palette. The brush palette is a powerful tool inside Photoshop that allows you to change brush tip shape, diameter, and apply textures. You can create a huge variety of different styles using the same brush. All you need to do is modify the settings within the brush palette.

How to Access the Brush Palette

The brush palette can be access by either selecting Window>Brushes or by hitting the F5 key.

Settings Within the Brush Palette

The image below is a close up of the brush palette. As you can see, there are a lot of settings within this palette. The user has the ability to modify the brush tip shape, set different scattering levels, apply textures, modify brush diameter, and more.

The palette shows a small thumbnail image of each brush that is currently loaded in the upper right corner of the brush palette. There is also a preview image at the bottom of the palette that shows how the brush will look after you apply changes.

Brush Shape Dynamics

The shape dynamics settings are used to modify the shape and angular position of the brush.

Refer to the image below to see how the shape dynamic settings allow you to modify the appearance of the brush strokes.

I am using one of the Photoshop default brush tips for this demonstration. You can see in the preview image how the brush appearance changes as I modify the angle, roundness, and spacing of the brush.

Changing the Scattering Option

The image below shows how the brush stroke changes when you select different values for scattering. The larger the value used, the further away each brush stroke will appear relative to each other.

Applying Texture to the Brush Tip

Another great feature that you can control within the brush palette is the ability to add textures to brush tip. The image below show the different appearances possible using the same brush tip with texture and shading modes applied.

As you can see, the Photoshop brush palette allows you to modify your brush tips to help achieve some awesome results. Spend some time experimenting with the brush palette settings to learn how to achieve unique results.

Created by:  

Description:  

10 Steps for Making Cloud Brushes in Photoshop

Step 1: Start by opening a photograph of a cloud. It is important to select an image with good contrast.

I am using a photograph I download from the Morgue File Archive. Once I open the file, I duplicate the background layer by dragging the layer to the create new layer icon shown in the circle below.

Step 2: Use the Select>Color Range command to remove the cloud from the sky.

In order to make our cloud brush, we need to isolate the cloud image from the sky background. We do this by using the Select>Color Range command. Once you have selected the color range command, place the eye dropper within the blue region of the sky. Fuzziness should be set to 200 and the you should select the invert option as shown below.

Step 3: Once the cloud is selected, we need to copy the cloud onto its own layer.

Once you hit OK, the cloud will be selected. You will see the marching ant pattern around the cloud as shown in the picture below. Now we need to copy the cloud onto its own layer.

Step 4: Copy the cloud selection onto its own layer using the CTRL-C command. Paste the image onto the new layer using the CTRL-V command.

Create a new layer for the cloud. Use CTRL-C (Command-C on the Mac) to copy the selection and use CTRL-V (Command-V on Mac) to paste the cloud image onto a new layer. Once the cloud is on its own layer, we can delete the background and background copy layers. We will not need them to create our brush. The next step is to desaturate the image.

Step 5: Desaturate the image.

Desaturate the image using the Image>Adjustments>Desaturate command. We desaturate the image because Photoshop brushes are made up of grey tones. Any parts of the image that are white will become transparent when you create the brush. Desaturating the image makes it easier to visualize what the brush will look like.

Step 6: Invert the image.

Next we invert the image by selecting the Image>Adjustments>Invert command. We do this because white is treated as transparent when we create the brush. Since we want the white cloud to be the brush, we need to change the white to black. This is done by inverting the image.

Step 7: Erase any excess areas of the cloud image that you want excluded from your brush.

We need to erase any extra portions of the cloud that we do not want. Use a large diameter soft round brush to erase these area. A soft brush will keep the edges of the cloud wispy. You want to avoid straight, smooth edges because they will not look natural.

Step 8: Save the cloud brush using Edit>Define Brush Preset command and name the brush and store it in the brush pallet.

Select the Edit>Define Brush Preset command. You will see a dialog box where you can name your new brush as shown below. This will load the brush into the brush pallet so you can use it later.

Step 9: Open a new file and create a blue gradient background representing the sky.

I used a reverse gradient that moved from white (#FFFFFF) to deep blue (#006699) to represent the sky background.

Step 10: Make sure you set the foreground color to white and apply your cloud brush to the blue gradient backgroud.

Now for the fun part. Select white as your foreground color and place your cloud brush onto the blue gradient background. It’s as easy as that to create a realistic looking sky. Use this same technique to make cloud brushes of different sizes and shapes. Using various sized clouds helps create a more realistic sky. You can see what the brush looks like applied to the blue background in the image below.

And there you have it. 10 easy to follow steps to create a set of Photoshop cloud brushes.

You can download a complete set of 13 high resolution Photoshop cloud brushes at HERE. Happy Creating!

Created by:  

Description:  

Using the Brush Tool in Photoshop

This is a quick tutorial to show you how to open the Brush Tool in Photoshop. This tutorial will show you how to load brushes you download from the Internet into Photoshop so you can start using them. We also show you how to adjust the brush diameter and hardness inside the Brush Tool.

Select the Brush Icon
The image below shows you how to select the brush tool from the tool palette.

Load New Brushes into Photoshop

Loading brush sets that you find on the Internet is easy. After you download the brush set, you will need to extract the files from the .zip folder. Brush files end with an .ABR file extension.Once you have your files extracted, you will need to load them into the right Photoshop directory.

The brush files are stored in the Program Files>Adobe>Photoshop CSx>Presets>Brushes directory.

Once you have uploaded your brush files, they are loaded from the Brush tool palette. You select the arrow as shown in the image below and select LOAD BRUSHES>select the filename you want to try.

Adjust Brush Diameter and Hardness

You can adjust the brush diameter and hardness using the sliders that will appear when you select the brush tool.

Diameter will increase or decrease the size of the brush. Hardness refers to the feathering of the brush edge. If you want a crisp edge, leave the hardness set to 100%. If you want the edge to feather, reduce the hardness value.

It’s as easy as that!

Created by:  

Description: