Brushes 101

[Lindsay]

When I was looking at the "I wish I was better" thread, I saw a lot of people talking about brushes. I'm totally illiterate at these things, it doesn't stop me from buying them though LOL! Now I have tons of brushes on my computer but don't really know where to start. I visit a lot of sites and have found that Designer Digitals totally rocks the brushwork. You guys do such amazing work with them. So does anyone feel up to challenge of helping some of us newbies out???? Pretty please!

[Scrap'N Girl]

sure! any questions?

of course, i like using brushes as a brush. but i also use them as a clipping mask sometimes (in fact on 2 of my last 3 layouts here).

have you tried that?

[tiabennett]

i love using them at different opacities on different layers to create a feeling of depth!

i also tend to use my brushes more as "stamps", rather than dragging them.

[kateteague]

There are so many things you can do:

Stamp one single brush- put it on it's own layer and then you can use another brush as an eraser to remove bits of the brush to make it look stamped- I like to use a texture brush set at a lower opactiy and then remove parts of my stamp.

You can drag your brush across the page- you can change how far apart each brush is in the drop down menu. This is perfect for making borders etc..

You can Making alphas into brushes and then stamp them

So many different things- I love them! The best part with digital is that you can undo it so easily and just play play play!!!

[Lindsay]

This post made me laugh, this is where I say huh? What's a clipping mask? What's dragging? How do you make a brush into an eraser? See, I'm at a total loss, this is opening up a whole new world for me. First, I use Photoshop 3.0...are brushes even compatible? Is there a good tutorial out there that might get me started on using them? Thanks so much for all of your help, I look at everyone's layouts and they look so awesome, just trying to figure out this new thing!

[kateteague]

I use Photoshop Cs so I'll check around and get back to you Lindsay- I sure hope brushes are compatible in PS3- they are fun!! And there are a lot of tutorials out there too- the main one to get started is how to load your brushes into your progam- PS3- once they are loaded it is just a matter of selecting them and using them. OK I'll check around for you and see what I can find.

[Scrap'N Girl]

Lindsay, are you using photoshop elements 3.0 or the 3.0 version of photoshop? (which would be very very old)?

[kateteague]

Lindsay- I am assuming (hoping) you have elements 3 and found this page with a tutorial:

http://www.graphicxtras.com/products/psbrush.htm

There is a section in the middle where it is says documention and downlaod the brush info- this has a whole tutorial on how to install brushes.

[Lindsay]

Yes, I have Photoshop Elements 3.0. Thanks for the link Kate, I didn't even know that you had to install them, so that shows just how green I am. I'll have to give that a try and see what I can do.