Create a natural-media brush
Who knew a brush could have so much personality? All the new brush features in Adobe® Photoshop® CS have opened up a whole new range of possibilities for creating artistic effects. With the Brush palette options, you can create imagery that looks as if it was painted using natural media. Follow along and learn a few of the ways you can customize the brush tool.
1. Choose a brush tip.
Open a new composition, or open an existing image. Select the Brush tool and choose Window > Brushes to display the Brushes palette. Select Brush Tip Shape on the left side of the palette, and then select a brush tip.
When you’re exploring the options in the Brushes palette, it’s best to choose a simple tip, such as Hard Round or Soft Round, so you can clearly see the effects.
2. Specify Shape Dynamics for the brush tip.
Select Shape Dynamics on the left side of the Brushes palette. Click on the words, rather than the check box, to view the Shape Dynamics options; if you click the check box, the dynamic will be added, but you won’t be able to control the effect. Drag the Size Jitter slider to change the brush stroke. You can preview results at the bottom of the Brushes palette.
Now try adjusting some of the other shape dynamics. Drag the sliders to add randomness to brush elements. (At 0%, an element does not change over the course of a stroke; at 100%, an element has the maximum amount of randomness.) Choose options from the Control pop-up menus to control the variance of brush elements.
3. Add scattering to the brush.
Select Scattering on the left side of the Brushes palette. The options in this section of the Brushes palette determine the number and placement of marks in a stroke. Adjust the Scatter percentage to specify the maximum percentage of scattering in a stroke. Adjust the Count value to specify the number of brush marks applied at each spacing interval. Adjust the Count Jitter percentage to add variance to the number of brush marks applied at each spacing interval.
4. Add texture to the brush.
Select Texture on the left side of the Brushes palette. The options in this section of the Brushes palette let you make strokes look like they are painted on textured canvas. First, click the pattern sample at the top of the palette, and choose a pattern from the pop-up palette. (You can load additional patterns by clicking the triangle at the top right of the pop-up palette, and choosing a pattern library from the bottom of the palette menu.) Use the Scale slider to adjust the size of the pattern.
Now you’re ready to use your brush.
