Photoshop Elements Tips: Using Brushes

[1gr8muggle]

Many of you new to digital scrapbooking may see brushes in the store or in a downloaded kit and wonder, “What are these things, and how do I use them?”

Don’t worry. We’ve all been there.

Here are the basics:

1. Launch Photoshop Elements
2. Go to Edit>Preset Manager
3. Click the “Load” button
4. Locate the brush file from your kit (it has the extension .abr)

To use the brush:

1. Create a new layer
2. Select the brush tool (also works with many other tools like eraser, clone, healing, burn/dodge, etc.)
3. Choose the brush shape you wish to use.
4. Set your foreground color.
5. Position the cursor (now the shape of the brush) and click to “stamp” the shape or click+drag to make a stroke with the shape.

Tips:

• You can make your brush larger or smaller with the [ ] keys.
• You can make your brush softer or harder by using Shift+ [ or ] (if the brush has hardness control)
• Hold down the Alt/Option key to activate the eyedropper and select a color, while still using the brush tool.
• To paint in a straight line, click on your start point, hold the shift key, then click on your end point.
• Try adjusting the opacity or blending modes of your brush layer to create unique backgrounds or watermarks for your layout.

For information about creating and saving brushes from png files, here's a link to the DD Photoshop Brushes 101.

[sissarena]

ok- now i have no excuse! i need to learn these. thanks for making it all so manageable!

[shhbabymine]

wow - cassie - i can already tell these are going to be so helpful as i begin to explore this wonderful world of photoshop!

[betsyfru]

Cassie,
Is there some way to make a brush look distressed or aged?

[1gr8muggle]

Yes, but it's not just a quick step. You have to use other brushes with some of the other tools to get it to work. If you get Anna's Distressed ToolSets in the store and use them as erasers, you can get some good results.

[rubia]

Hey, Cassie -- I remember a thread about this awhile back but don't remember the answer -- how do you adjust of the # of brushes that show up in the brushes dropdown?

[1gr8muggle]

Well, as far as I know any brushes you have loaded will show up. You can click on the drop down arrow by the shape in the options bar, then you can click on the little arrow within that palette, then you can choose the View mode (list, thumbnail, size, etc.).

Is that what you mean?

[rubia]

for some reason, mine doesn't show all of the brushes I have loaded. It seems to be just a set #. But I do have a ridiculous # of brushes, lol.

[kathye]

I'm having problems with my brushes in PSE 5. The ones I've loaded don't show up and the libraries are messed up. I keep getting error messages. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling but that didn't work either. You'd think doing that would have deleted everything but it didn't. If anyone gets what I'm trying to say and has any ideas, I sure could use the help.
I'm soooo frustrated!

I just found someone in another thread that is having the same issues with her brushes. It turns out she also has vista. Do you by any chance also have vista?
I'm pulling my hair out because nothing seems to be working.

[1gr8muggle]

Have you tried resetting to the defaults and starting over?

When you launch PSE, hold down the Ctrl+Shift+Alt keys and you will be prompted to reset. Then when you restart PSE, try to load again. I think that when you load brushes in PSE, it behaves differently depending on whether you use the Edit > Preset Manager method or if you load them by using the flyout menu in the Brush Shape drop down menu from the options bar.

[kathye]

Thanks, I'll try again. I did download an update for vista from adobe. Maybe I just royally messed things up. But even with the download I'm still getting not compatible with this version of photoshop messages. I need to take a longggg walk.

[prazdance]

Thanks for this info! Seems so much easier the way you've broken it down. I can put my book down and try it out now!

[jiller33]

I'm so glad I just found this thread cuz I have a question. Since I'm new to pse on a Mac, the brushes come out differently than they did on my pc with vista. On the mac when I 'stamp' my image, the image has the marching ants all around it in an outline. Don't remember seeing this happen on my pc, so what do I do from here, once I stamp and get the marching ants, how to you get them to stop marching and become a solid outline of my selected brush? Thanks!

Jill

[1gr8muggle]

Jill, it sounds like you're using the selection brush and not the regular brush tool. Double check your tools palette. If you click and hold an icon, you'll get a flyout menu with the name of the tool(s) in that location.

[rusty rake]

Before I get too far gone... that's the how... but why ? do you need them or use them for? They come with all the alpha sets, but can't figure out why the brush?
Louise

[1gr8muggle]

Brushes are the MOST versatile tool in your digital scrapbooking stash. They are like the "rubber stamps" of digi, but you can use them in so many more ways than that. You can resize, recolor, rotate, etc. the brush before you ever "stamp" it on the page. You can also create a variety of effects with blending modes and clipping masks.

For an in-depth overview of using brushes, check out "Brush Tool Basics."