Introduction to Photoshop - Using and adding brushes

Using and Adding Brushes

The brush tool is located close to the cropping tool on the toolbar. It has several pre set brushes available to use, like an ordinary drawing tool you would find in Microsoft Paint and some more artistic tools that give a more aesthetic effect. The sort of brushes I like to use aren't available in the pre sets Photoshop offers, so I decided to use a website called Brusheezy to find my own.

I decided to choose a watercolour pack to use and practise with. I found these brushes by typing 'watercolour' into the search bar on Brusheezy, and picking the watercolour brushes I liked best out of all the search results that came up. I then downloaded them onto my computer, in a file called 'brushes' on my USB stick, and unzipped the .zip file the brushes came in. I then selected the brush tool on Photoshop, chose the option 'add brushes', selected the file I had just downloaded and the new watercolour brushes were ready for me to use.

I chose to overlap the different watercolour brushes to create a potential background for a poster or advertisement. I used colours that compliment each other, like yellow and green, and used two different brush types with the colour. The watercolour effect creates a nice base for a good piece of work, and is very decorative and pleasing to look at. I could use this sort of effect on any piece of work, but it would look especially effective on a poster advertising an art gallery or art event.


Due to the fact that one project we will be doing soon is creating our own Christmas cards, I decided to plan ahead and get some Christmas brushes that I could use when making mine. I selected several different kinds, and pasted them all on separate layers to see what they look like.


While using the brush tool, there is also an option to make your own brush. I did this using a picture I took of my friend at prom, and used his face as the brush. I did this by using CTRL C to copy the image from my Facebook, and then using CTRL V to paste the image into Photoshop. I then selected the lasso crop tool, and dragged my mouse and clicked around the shape of my friends' head. The shape I cut around his face had become a separate layer, so I  then deleted the layer with the original photo on. I then went into 'Edit' at the top of the page with the image still selected, and pressed the option 'Define Brush Preset', and then the picture was available to use as a brush when I opened the brush tool.
This tool is useful in situations where Photoshop may not have the correct shape I need to use in a poster or advertisement. I could create it myself, or turn some of my own images into brushes for the purpose of decorating my work.