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Making Brushes
By now I'm sure you have seen websites that offer Photoshop Brushes that can be used to create better graphics. There are a variety of ways and styles of brushes you can make. I decided to base this tutorial on a way that is easy and useful. Creating brushes from an image is an effective way to make brushes. I suggest following this example and then just trying to experiment until you create brushes the way you find easy and most enjoyable. To create brushes using Photoshop follow these simple steps
1) Assuming you have Photoshop open and running, open the file Ctrl + O you wish to use. I will be using this image of random flowers and butterflies, be careful what image you use images belonging to others may not be such a good idea. Note: My actual image is larger than the one posted below.
2) Select the Lasso tool
and set the feather to a value between 5 and 20 depending on how smooth you want your brush to be. I set mine to 5px.3) Now draw around an area that you think will make an adequate brush. I have chosen a large orange flower to start.
4) Time to define this image as a brush. To do this click Edit >> Define Brush... A box should appear showing your brush dimensions and asking you to name your brush.
Name your brush whatever you choose and hit OK
5) Now, continue and make as many brushes as you wish. You can also make changes with the brush options, under the Brush tab, you can change many of the characteristics of the initial brush.
6) Once you have finished defining and naming your brushes you need to make them all into one set. Click Edit >> Preset Manager... A box like this should now appear.
7)Hold down the Shift key as you click on each of your brushes to select them. Once you have selected them all click Save Set...
8) Your Brushes folder should have opened up in your Photoshop Presets folder.
Save your set with a name of your choosing and you're done!! You have just created your first brush set!
Make sure you test your brushes on a blank canvas, especially if you plan to distribute them on a website. If you do distribute it may be a good idea to make a credit brush and include it in your set. This brush should just state that these brushes were made by you and your site and brush set names. Be sure to state what version of Photoshop the brushes were made in. A good thing to know is that newer versions of Photoshop are able to use brushes from older versions. In other words brushes made in Photoshop 7 will be compatible with CS, CS2 and so on but will not be compatible in Photoshop 6.
