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the brushes panel was introduced in photoshop 7. this feature
gave users the ability to create brush presets. it was one of the
most exciting features to come along in quite some time. they
were also not your ordinary, everyday, run-of-the-mill brushes,
but instead were tools that would allow you to perform tricks
and create effects like never before. in previous versions of
photoshop, i created dense foliage by clicking—for what seemed
like an eternity—with a brush the shape of a single leaf or leaf
cluster. i devoted an entire chapter to this technique in my
book Photorealistic Techniques with Photoshop & Illustrator
(new riders, 2000) that covered version 6 of photoshop. with
the brush engine you now had the capability to create an entire
forest of trees with a single stroke.
you could always make new brushes, but with the brushes
panel you have an avalanche of ways to modify brush tips for
color, spacing, texture, and randomness. each brush can have
an infinite number of subtle variations, and all can be saved for
later use. in this document you will be studying the extraordi-
narily flexible brush attributes feature in the brushes panel and
learning some practical uses for all that power.
brushes
what brushes Are All About
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Brush tips can still be selected from the options bar for any
of the tools that use a brush tip. Clicking the drop-down
menu displays the tips available for the tool (Figure 1).
Some controls can also be used in this menu. The
Master Diameter allows you to set a size for the brush
tip. Hardness is the other control available. Hardness
allows you to set how soft the edges of your brush
tip will be. This feature is not available for complex
brushes such as the maple leaf tip.
Once the menu is exposed, accessing the drop-down
menu on the upper right gives you viewing options
Figure 2 the drop-down menu gives you options for managing your brush tips as well as access to additional presets.
Figure 1 brush tips can still be accessed via the options bar below the menu.
Figure 3 the brushes panel can be accessed via the window menu.
Figure 4 the brushes panel in the docking pane.
for the panel as well as management tools (Figure 2).
At the bottom of the menu are additional sets that can
be opened to append the current list of brush tips.
The real power for controlling the brush tips and their
performance comes from the Brushes panel. The panel
can be accessed from the Window menu (Figure 3).
Once opened, it can be docked like any of the other
panels in the docking pane where it will appear, as
shown in Figure 4.
This panel is where you are able to create brush tips.
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pdf : Brushes photoshop studio with bert monroy : digital painting �
brush tips Before I explain the panel in detail, let’s look
at how to create a brush tip.
You first need to understand what constitutes
a brush. Anything that is selected can be
turned into a brush. It can be the eye on a
person’s face, a signature, a cloud—whatever.
One detail to consider is that the values of the
colors within the brush shape will determine
its opacity. Where the selected shape is black,
the brush will be 100% opaque. Anything
other than black will be transparent based
on the value of the color. Where the brush
is white, it will be completely transparent.
These situations hold true regardless of the
Opacity setting for the tool that is using
the brush tip. Let’s say you created a brush
with a 50% gray. If the Paintbrush Tool is
set to 100% Opacity, the stroke will have an
opacity of 50%. If the Opacity for the brush
is lowered to 50%, the resulting stroke will
have an opacity of 25%.
In Figure 5 I have created a shape that
consists of three bars. The first is black, the
second is a shade of red, and the third bar is
a level of gray. I selected the shape, leaving
some white area around it. When the brush
is created, it will consist of only the three
bars. The white area within the selection will
be disregarded.
Choosing the Paintbrush Tool and a bright
blue for the color, the Spacing was increased
to see distinct brush tips as I stroked the
canvas (Figure 6). Painting over a grid you
can see that the bar that was black produces
an opaque area, whereas the other two bars
are transparent, allowing the grid to show
through (Figure 7).
With the concept of brush tips covered, let’s
now look at the Brushes panel.
Figure 5 A brush shape is created with three bars of different color values.
Figure 6 A stroke is created with the brush tip.
Figure 7 the effect of the three bars of different color values.
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pdf : Brushes photoshop studio with bert monroy : digital painting �
brush presetsWhen the Brushes panel is opened, it defaults to the
Brush Presets section. The controls here are limited to
the selection of a particular tip and the diameter for
that tip.
One of the most valuable features in this window is the
preview area at the bottom. Any attributes assigned to
a brush are reflected in the preview box, making it very
easy to see how brushes you are creating will behave.
Figure 8 the brushes panel and the drop-down menu allows you to customize the way you view the available brushes. this is also where you save, delete, rename, and load brushes. A sec-tion at the bottom of the menu, starting with Assorted brushes, allows you to quickly load presets that perform specific functions.
The only drawback is that any color controls can’t
be viewed.
A drop-down menu in the panel (Figure 8) contains all
of the items that are also accessible through the drop-
down menu in the options bar with the addition of a
few extra controls that pertain exclusively to the fea-
tures of the Brush engine.
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pdf : Brushes photoshop studio with bert monroy : digital painting �
brush tip shapeBrush Tip Shape is the second section of con-
trols within the Brushes panel (Figure 9). This
section deals with the basic tip controls. These
controls were formerly found in the options bar.
You can choose a particular brush shape in this
section. I’ve chosen the maple leaf shaped brush
to demonstrate some of the next few features. I
can boast that this particular tip plus the two to
the left of it were designed by yours truly.
The first control in the Brush Tip Shape section
is the setting for the diameter of the brush.
This control plus Hardness are the only con-
trols available in the toolbar Brush drop-down
menu, as shown in Figure 1. The open and close
bracket keys on the keyboard also control the
diameter. Due to the limited space of the pre-
view box, very large brushes can’t be displayed.
The Use Sample Size button appears if you have
a Custom Brush shape selected. It becomes
active if you have modified the size of that
Custom Brush. Click the button to restore it to
the original brush size. At other times the but-
ton is grayed out. The original size of the brush
is indicated by the small number that appears
below the Brush icon in the panel. This number
represents the size in pixels.
The Spacing slider at the bottom of the panel
(Figure 10) controls the amount of space that
separates the brush tips as a tool is stroked
across the canvas. Setting the amount to 100%
produces a line where each tip is seen as a
distinct shape touching its neighbor on either
side. A higher percentage produces a dotted line
effect. The minimum percentage (1%) produces
a solid line.
Figure 9 the brush tip shape section of the brushes panel. here the diameter of the brush tip can be set.
Figure 10 spacing controls the amount of space between the tips as they are applied to a stroke.
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pdf : Brushes photoshop studio with bert monroy : digital painting �
You can adjust the Angle and Roundness of
the brush either numerically or visually. Note
that the adjustment I’ve made is reflected in
the preview box (Figure 11).
The Hardness is also controlled in this win-
dow. This is the control for the edge of the
brush tip. A setting of zero produces a soft-
edged or blurred brush. A setting of 100%
produces a hard-edged brush tip. The par-
ticular brush I’ve selected can’t be modified
in this way so the control is inactive.
The controls I’ve covered up to now affect
every tip of the entire stroke equally. As you
saw in the preview of each figure, all the
leaves were being modified in the exact same
fashion. The true beauty and power of the
Brushes panel lies in the following sets of
controls.
Notice that these controls, starting with
Shape Dynamics, all have check boxes to the
left of their titles. If you click the check box,
the default settings will be applied to your
brush tip. If you click the title, all the con-
trols appear.
Figure 11 Angle and roundness control the shape of the tip as they are applied to a stroke.
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pdf : Brushes photoshop studio with bert monroy : digital painting �
Figure 15 the roundness Jitter set to randomize the shape of the tip.
shape dynamicsShape Dynamics is where the Brushes panel starts to
take off. I use it quite often in the various chapters in
the book.
Size Jitter is the first control. This feature allows you
to make the brush randomize the diameter of the
brush tip as the tool is stroked across the canvas. I’ve
set it to 100% (Figure 12).
Figure 12 the size Jitter is adjusted.Figure 13 All settings can be controlled by a tablet stylus.
Figure 14 the Angle Jitter randomizes the angle for each tip.
Minimum Diameter allows you to set a limit to the
smallest size a brush tip can be. This is useful if you
don’t want some of the tips to become tiny dots.
Figure 13 shows the Control settings. It is important to
note that these settings can be set to respond to a stylus.
My Wacom Cintiq and other tablets take full advantage
of these settings.
Angle Jitter allows you to randomize the angle the brush
tip will have. In Figure 14 the Angle Jitter has been set to
100%, and you can see that each tip is a different angle
from the tips on either side.
Roundness is like the Roundness setting under the Brush
Tip Shape window (Figure 11) except in this case it is ran-
domly changed as a stroke is applied. Minimum Roundness
sets the limitations for the amount of the flattening effect.
The preview in Figure 15 shows the flattening of the tips
along the stroke.
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pdf : Brushes photoshop studio with bert monroy : digital painting �
scatteringScattering distributes the brush tips away
from the actual stroke being applied to the
canvas (Figure 16). The higher the percent-
age, the farther they will travel.
The scatter will be applied up and down from
where the stroke is drawn. The scatter can be
applied to both axes, which causes the tips to
be applied left and right as well as above and
below. Like all the other functions, scatter can
be controlled by the input device.
Count controls the number of brush tips
that are generated (Figure 17). A high num-
ber makes a dense brush stroke. If the Count
is left at “0,” the stroke will use the current
Spacing parameters set in the Brush Tip
Shape. Count can also be controlled by the
input device.
Count Jitter randomizes the Count amount
along the stroke as it is applied over the
canvas and can be controlled by the input
device (Figure 18).
Figure 18 Count Jitter randomizes the count over the length of the stroke.
Figure 16 scattering spreads the brush tips away from the stroke.
Figure 17 Count increases the number of tips applied by the tool.
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Figure 20 the drop-down menu gives you options for the texture.
textureTexture applies a user-defined texture to the
stroke (Figure 19). This texture is any pattern
that has been created and saved. For this
example I’ve changed the brush tip from the
maple leaf to a large, soft-edged, circular-
shaped brush.
Scale controls the size of the texture within
the stroke. Depth controls the strength of
the pattern over the stroke. The higher the
percentage, the more the texture will be
seen. A low percentage allows the original
brush shape to show through.
As mentioned above, the texture choices are
the patterns currently available to the pro-
gram. You can open saved patterns the same
way you can within the Pattern controls.
Figure 20 shows the menu of the texture
chooser where you can customize the set-
tings. Notice that there are some groupings
available at the bottom of the menu for
quick access to often-used textures.
The Texture Each Tip option makes the
Minimum Depth and Depth Jitter controls
active. The Texture Each Tip control adds
the randomization to the application of the
texture over the stroke as it is applied to
the canvas.
Figure 19 texture applies a pattern to the brush tip.
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dual brushDual Brush uses a second brush to create an
effect over the currently selected brush tip.
The second brush is randomly rotated over
the main brush. The effect is controlled by
the Mode that is applied to the Dual Brush.
In Figure 21 you can see a canvas where two
strokes have been applied. The first stroke is
not using a dual brush. The second stroke
is using a soft-edged brush tip as the Dual
Brush. In Figure 22 the third stroke is using
a Spatter brush as the Dual Brush.
The controls at the bottom of the Dual
Brush window are the same as the con-
trols found elsewhere for the main brush.
Modifying these settings will affect the Dual
Brush’s effect over the main brush as the
main brush is stroked over the canvas.
Figure 21 the dual brush is using a soft-edged brush tip.
Figure 22 the dual brush is using a spatter brush tip.
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pdf : Brushes photoshop studio with bert monroy : digital painting ��
Color dynamicsColor Dynamics is a very useful section,
although it lacks a color preview for the
settings.
Foreground/Background Jitter switches
between the colors that are currently selected
for the Foreground and Background in the
Tools panel. In Figure 23 the tips are switch-
ing between two shades of green.
Hue Jitter introduces other colors to the
stroke, much like the Add Noise filter intro-
duces colors to the noise if Monochromatic
is not selected. In Figure 24 the Hue slider
has been pushed to 100%, and you can see
the result in the second stroke. Setting a low
value will introduce slight variations to the
currently selected colors.
Saturation Jitter randomizes the amount
of saturation the colors will have along
the stroke.
Brightness Jitter randomizes the amount
of brightness the colors will have along the
stroke. Some of the brush tips will be darker
or lighter than they would be if this option
was not selected.
Purity shifts the colors toward or away from
the neutral axis. Figure 25 shows the third
stroke where the Purity has been lowered to
–92%. Unlike Saturation, which deals with
individual brush tips being applied, Purity
affects the entire stroke.
Figure 23 the brush tips are randomly switching between the foreground and background colors as the stroke is applied.
Figure 24 the hue slider intro-duces additional colors to the brush tips.
Figure 25 purity controls the satu-ration for the entire brush stroke.
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pdf : Brushes photoshop studio with bert monroy : digital painting ��
other dynamicsOther Dynamics sets a jitter for Opacity and
Flow. Opacity is the level of translucency of
the brush stroke, which allows layers beneath
it to show through. Flow is the amount of
paint being applied. Jittering randomizes
these effects as the stroke is applied across the
canvas. Figure 26 has the Opacity Jitter set to
0% but the Control is set to Fade. This causes
the stroke to lose opacity as it is applied to
the canvas.
The options in the bottom section of the
controls are not adjustable.
Noise applies noise to the stroke. Unfor-
tunately, the amount of noise can’t be
adjusted.
Wet Edges lightens the central portion
of the stroke, creating the effect of paint
buildup at the outer edges. You will find my
use for this feature in the book in Chapter 5,
“Old Chair.”
Airbrush simulates the airbrush-style
buildup to a stroke. If the brush is held in
one position, the paint will be applied slowly
as if building up the amount of paint.
Smoothing eliminates any hard edges or
bumps added to a free-hand stroke across
the canvas caused by a shaky hand.
Protect Texture preserves a chosen pattern or
texture for the overall image and ensures that
any brush chosen will conform to that pat-
tern or texture. If a particular Brush Preset is
chosen that has its own texture, that texture
will be overridden by the texture applied to
the image.
Figure 26 the opacity set to a fade makes the stroke become transparent as it is applied to the canvas.
Excerpted from Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy: Digital Painting by Bert Monroy. Copyright © 2008. All rights reserved, Pearson Education, Inc. and New Riders.