Quicklinks to all course lessons: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Lesson 7 sections: 7-1 7-2 7-3 7-4 7-5 7-6 7-JFF 7-IDEA
Lesson 7 sections: 7-1 7-2 7-3 7-4 7-5 7-6 7-JFF 7-IDEA
A07-04: Review: Photoshop Brushes in Depth
Objectives:
- Review what you learned about Photoshop brushes in the beginning course, but in more depth.
- Learn how to create your own custom Photoshop brushes.
Learn:
Photoshop is an amazing painting tool - because of the power of brushes! The two optional speed-paint videos at right are fun to watch, and will give you an understanding of how Photoshop brushes are used to paint with. |
These two brush tool video tutorials will help you understand most of the options for using the brush tool. Please watch them. They will be a great review!
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I am going to assume you learned what we taught about brushes in the beginning course - lesson 3-7. If you need to brush up on that, please take some there to review.
Here is a quick review of brush shortcuts:
Here is a quick review of brush shortcuts:
- Make the brush size smaller - [ or larger - ]
- Make the brush softer edged - Shift-[ or harder edged - Shift-]
- Make the brushUse the HUD to make the brush harder/softer/larger/smaller (Control-Option-Click and drag (Mac)) (Alt-Right Click and drag (PC))
- Control the Opacity - use numbers 1-0 (1=10%, 2=20%, etc., 0=100%). You need to be in a brush tool (any tool that uses the brush) to do this - otherwise you'll be reducing the opacity of the layer.
- Control the Flow - use Shift + numbers 1-0 (1=10%, 2=20%, etc., 0=100%). Again, you need to be in a brush tool.
- Use the HUD color picker (Control+Option+Command-Click (Mac)) (Shift+ALT+Right Click (PC))
- Use the brush picker (Right-mouse-button click in the image)
- Open the brush blend modes menu (Shift+Control+Left-click (Mac)) (Shift+Right-Click (PC))
- If you need to paint a straight line - hold down the shift key as you make a stroke.
- Connect the clicks. Click a spot on the screen with your brush tool. Hold your shift key down as you click a different location on the screen. Photoshop will paint a straight line between the two clicked places.
- If you need a cross-hair instead of the regular brush view - press the caps lock key. Turn off the caps lock key to return to the normal brush view.
Not only can you use the brushes that come preinstalled with Photoshop, but you can create your own brushes and use them. The video, "How to turn ANY IMAGE into a custom Photoshop brush" will show you how. Please watch it.
You can also download Photoshop brush sets online. You can try this link out to see what I mean! Photoshop brush files have an .ABR extension. To load a Photoshop brush file, go to the Window menu and check Brushes. In the brushes panel menu, choose import brushes. Locate your brush file (.ABR) and click open. The new brushes will be loaded into the brush panel. |