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Using Photoshop Brushes
So you can edit photos in Photoshop, but can you create art? Photoshop is a robust image editing software. When I started using it, I was like most and thought it was just to manipulate photos. Boy was I wrong! Photoshop is much more, and it has the tools to make some truly fantastic works of art out of nothing - like what this tutorial will show you.
In this tutorial I will take you through some of the basic techniques of using brushes in Photoshop to make a spectacular piece of art. If you follow along, and have the curiosity to explore and try new things, then you will do just fine.
We will start out by opening up a new document of 450x550 and 300dpi. On the tools pallet you will find the brush icon (B). When you click on it, the toolbar above the work space will have several options. We will be using one of the brush sets from my favorite digital artists - Emerald De Leeuw. Download the Emerald De Leeew Brush Pack and extract it to C:\Program Files\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Brushes or wherever else you have Photoshop installed.
From the brush pallet you can click the little arrow icon on the top right as shown in the previous thumbnail. Select her brush set and pick one. I am going to choose the blades of grass. With a meter diameter of 327, it is going to fill up the screen nicely. Next, we want to choose 80 percent opacity in the toolbar above the work space. This will allow us a little room to play with. Once you have done that, make a new layer in the layers pallet and click the foreground color on the tools pallet and put in #135a67.
Now we are ready to start designing! Click inside the work space and you should get an image like this one. Next, we are going to select the "mode" option in the top toolbar above the work space. You can choose a variety of options here to alter how the brush color will affect items in the work area on the layer you are working on. We are going to choose "Linear Burn" at the moment. This will darken all the colors in a linear fashion.
Once you get a few of the grass brush dabs on the canvas of varying dark shades, it is time to choose a foreground color of white and set the brush mode to "Linear Dodge." Repeat this several times and you should have something like this thumbnail.
Now that you have a few new concepts under your belt, it is time to really get with this tutorial. I am going to dab a few more blades of grass, and then repeat the process a couple more times with varying colors using each of the modes shown previously using a couple of the other brushes in this brush pack.
I linear burned some dabs of color around the canvas after creating a new layer and dragging it under the first layer in the layers pallet. I chose the "paint texture 1" brush for this, and then started using a linear dodge applying the same color. As shown in the image for this step, it is slowly taking shape into a surreal scenery.
Now, to make this scene more like a hazy surreal world it will become, we need to add a bit of life to the horizon and sky. While still on layer 2, click "Filter" from the top navigation of Photoshop, and choose "Distort." From here you will choose "Ripple." On the new "Ripple" window that comes up, choose the max setting of 999 percent. Ripple glosses the colors in varying directions and brings out different hues. It is similar to "Ocean Ripple" without the loss of clarity. You will get a new view on canvas similar to this when you are done.
There you have it! You have used the brushes of Photoshop to make a nice little scene. We took a would be dab, and turned it into an immersive, and yet boding scene that is found now in only the most "modern" of art galleries. There are so many possibilities with brushes that your imagination is your only limit. Here is the finished product after saving it as a PNG file. If you would like to try out more brushes, there are some good sites out there on the net. I will walk through making your own brushes in another tutorial.
In this tutorial I will take you through some of the basic techniques of using brushes in Photoshop to make a spectacular piece of art. If you follow along, and have the curiosity to explore and try new things, then you will do just fine.
We will start out by opening up a new document of 450x550 and 300dpi. On the tools pallet you will find the brush icon (B). When you click on it, the toolbar above the work space will have several options. We will be using one of the brush sets from my favorite digital artists - Emerald De Leeuw. Download the Emerald De Leeew Brush Pack and extract it to C:\Program Files\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Brushes or wherever else you have Photoshop installed.
From the brush pallet you can click the little arrow icon on the top right as shown in the previous thumbnail. Select her brush set and pick one. I am going to choose the blades of grass. With a meter diameter of 327, it is going to fill up the screen nicely. Next, we want to choose 80 percent opacity in the toolbar above the work space. This will allow us a little room to play with. Once you have done that, make a new layer in the layers pallet and click the foreground color on the tools pallet and put in #135a67.
Now we are ready to start designing! Click inside the work space and you should get an image like this one. Next, we are going to select the "mode" option in the top toolbar above the work space. You can choose a variety of options here to alter how the brush color will affect items in the work area on the layer you are working on. We are going to choose "Linear Burn" at the moment. This will darken all the colors in a linear fashion.
Once you get a few of the grass brush dabs on the canvas of varying dark shades, it is time to choose a foreground color of white and set the brush mode to "Linear Dodge." Repeat this several times and you should have something like this thumbnail.
Now that you have a few new concepts under your belt, it is time to really get with this tutorial. I am going to dab a few more blades of grass, and then repeat the process a couple more times with varying colors using each of the modes shown previously using a couple of the other brushes in this brush pack.
I linear burned some dabs of color around the canvas after creating a new layer and dragging it under the first layer in the layers pallet. I chose the "paint texture 1" brush for this, and then started using a linear dodge applying the same color. As shown in the image for this step, it is slowly taking shape into a surreal scenery.
Now, to make this scene more like a hazy surreal world it will become, we need to add a bit of life to the horizon and sky. While still on layer 2, click "Filter" from the top navigation of Photoshop, and choose "Distort." From here you will choose "Ripple." On the new "Ripple" window that comes up, choose the max setting of 999 percent. Ripple glosses the colors in varying directions and brings out different hues. It is similar to "Ocean Ripple" without the loss of clarity. You will get a new view on canvas similar to this when you are done.
There you have it! You have used the brushes of Photoshop to make a nice little scene. We took a would be dab, and turned it into an immersive, and yet boding scene that is found now in only the most "modern" of art galleries. There are so many possibilities with brushes that your imagination is your only limit. Here is the finished product after saving it as a PNG file. If you would like to try out more brushes, there are some good sites out there on the net. I will walk through making your own brushes in another tutorial. 