Brushing tutorial In this tutorial we will make two sigs : one with abstract brushes and one with grunge brushes. For the sake of this tutorial I will provide the two brush sets I use for this tut (mainly 'cause i don't remember the link I got them from). Download: coll_brushes.zip (Zip file , 2.59 MB)Right-Click - Save (Target) As Sorry folks , can't seem to fix the link. But really , you don't need those specific brushes. Just go download some popular abstract and grunge brushes and you'll be fine ^_^ The deviantART link for downloading popular brushes is here Part 1 of this tutorial : installing brushes. Don't start Photoshop yet ! (If it is already up , close it.) (1.1) Open the zip package and extract it somewhere. (1.2) Now find your photoshop directory , probably .../windows/program files/adobe/photoshop or something similar. Now go to your Presets/Brushes directory and put the brushes you unpacked in there (there are other brush sets there , with the .abr extension) (1.3) Now you can start Photoshop for the other parts of this tut. Part 2 of this tutorial : grunge brushing. (2.1) Make a new ducoment (File -> New or Ctrl+N) , preferably 380x150 but it doesn't really matter. Choose a transparant background. (2.2) Go to Filter -> Render -> Clouds . This gets a cloudy effect. If there is to little contrast in it , keep pressing Ctrl+F to repeat the filter. Keep repeating until you get a nice contrast. (Not good ! Too little contrast) (Not good either ! Too much contrast) (This is how it should be) (2.3) Okay ! Time to get out those brushes. (pic - 800x600) (The brush list might not be that long in your case) Press ok to replace the brushes with the brushes from the blackfuse set. If you now press the down-arrow again , you get a nice list of all brushes in this set. Before we begin to brush , you should know that brushing usually means covering contrasts - so black is meant to let a little white slip through and white is meant to enlighten the picture. You should also try creating a focus point in your sig - a point that draws the attention of the viewer (usually is a bit brighter). You can divide almost every sig in a render and a focus point. (2.4) Choose a brush from that list. make your foreground color black (just press D to make your foreground color black and the background color white - so you'll have both colors at hand) Now make a new layer (Layer -> New -> Layer or Shft+Ctrl+N). This is very important , every time you brush you need to make a new layer . This way you can always delete that layer if you don't like what you did. When you made your new layer , search for a nice bright spot in your clouds , and click it once with your brush (don't hold your mousebutton !). Pick a different brush from the set , and make some more prints. (Watch the .gif to see what I mean) (2.5) Make a new layer and do the same , but with white. (2.6) Now you search your sig to see if you already have a focus point. On my sig , this is the left part where there is a lot of white. What you do now is very simple : you have to make the focus point more obvious by making the rest of your sig a bit darker. So make a new layer and brush with black again. Don't forget to keep switching brushes for more variation in your sig. (2.7) Now a little white to make the focus point stand out even more. (2.8) I add some pixie dust , you'll have to search for a tut on how to do that. (2.9) Now some text and color , and you're basicly done. Part 3 of this tutorial : abstract brushing. Hopefully , you've read part 2 , or you might not be able to follow. I will not go into detail as much as i did in part 2. (3.1) Start a new document again , with some nice clouds. Pick a little darker clouds this time. (You can also darken the pic with Image - Adjustments - Brightness/Contrast). (3.2) Take a brush from the Carebear set (from the zip file) , choose white as your foreground color and make some prints (it is very important that you switch brushes here). PS : layers 3,4 and 5 on the pic are not used in this tut because they don't change the end result. This happens to me sometimes when brushing ^^ (3.3) Like with the grunge brushing , make a new layer to brush black. Don't forget to make a focus point (or more , in my case). (3.4) Now (with a normal brush - not from the Carebear set !) , on a new layer, brush some white to make the focus point stand out. (3.5) Looks a little dark right now , but we'll get to that (It will be dark abstract anyway - switch black and white in this tut for light abstract.) On a new layer , I brush some white (regular brush again) to make my sig a bit more lighted. (3.6) Now I make a new layer , with some brushed white , and then I smudge it with the smudge tool (a regular Filter-Blur-Motion Blur will do the trick as well) This makes the darker parts of the sig look like the light is cast on them. (3.7) I admit it , I'm addicted to pixie dust. I added some for that extra bit of shwoong in my sig. But don't overreact off course. (3.8) Then the usual finishing touches (text , border , color) and you're done ^^ ! For the record : the lighter version ... a little failed because I just switched colors in the end. (Click for light version) --------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you learned something from this tut. I made it for those who always wondered HOW you brush , because usually signature tuts don't tell you how to brush (except for the better ones off course). For the pros : yes , it was slow , but I make tuts so that everyone , even the ones who have never touched Photoshop before , can follow them. I hope they can. Comments appreciated ^_^ . [/I][/COLOR][/FONT]
Pretty nice. I dont use the same way of brushing as you do, and i normaly end up whit twise(sometimes 3 times) as manny brushing layers as you did. But still, its a nice way.
uhmmm i found a tutorial for pixie dust, but do i have to use photoshop 7 in order to do pixie dusts?? pls help..:'( btw nice tut
Thanks for the tut man and the brushes they look pretty cool. Ill give it a shot later on and post my results
