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Photoshop Brushes

What is an Art Tablet?

An Art Tablet is a piece of computer hardware - a pad - that plugs into your computer. You draw on it using a special pen (or other tools you buy for it). Not only is this easier than the mouse, but the tablet can detect how hard you press which allows it to simulate a real pencil, pen, brush etc. Note that not all tablets are the same quality and some of the really cheap ones are not properly "pressure sensitive". Most professional artists recommend WACOM brand tablets. Even their cheapest tablets provide a decent pressure sensitive range. A tablet is required to make the brushes shown here work properly, and really is a requirement for any kind of digital painting.

What software should I use?

There are a number of painting programs out there from free to costly. The program I use mainly is Photopshop. This tutorial uses Photoshop, but you may be able to get some of the same ideas to work in other programs. In many cases you can get student versions of photoshop for a cheaper price, or get a discount when you purchase a tablet

Configuring Dynamics

Learning to configure the settings for your Photoshop brushes is the key to taking advantage of your pressure sensitive tablet. In your "Brushes" menu (Window>Brushes) a brush can have many different settings turned on or off for it. The image below shows the Brushes menu with some basic settings I suggest trying to start with:

The first window shows what a brush is like with no Dynamics on

The second window shows the same brush with Shape Dynamics turned on. As circled in the image I find it helpful to set the Roundness Jitter control to "Pen Pressure" the Minimum Roundness all the way up to 100%.

The third window shows the same brush with both Shape and Other Dynamics turned on. I set all settings here to "Pen Pressure". I also find turning on "Smoothing" can sometimes be helpful.

The settings above create simple brush that will "fade" out at the end of my strokes as I lift the pen. This makes a HUGE difference. You can also experiment with the Color Dynamics settings (as shown below). You can have the actual color you draw with change depending how hard you press - mixing foreground and background colors, becoming darker/lighter, changing it's hue and saturation, or any combination of these options.

Creating Your Own Brushes

Creating custom brushes is very easy. Let's take a look at how to create your own brush "tip" shape:

First create a new white canvas.
Next select a brush to draw your new brush shape with. I normally use pretty small brush configured with Dynamics that I like as shown in the sample above.
Now draw the new brush shape. In this example I did some grass shapes.
Now use the Marquee tool to select the area with your brush shape
Go to the edit menu and select "Define Brush"
A window will open where you can name your new brush!

Now you have a new brush to draw with! This will appear at the end of your current brush menu. By adjusting the size and/or color it's very easy to draw clumps of grass as shown below. You will probably want to set/adjust the Dynamics of your new brush too - remember after you've done this to click the "New Brush" icon on your brushes menu so you can save a brush with your specific settings.

My Basic Brushes

These are the basic 3 brushes I use for most of my paintings and how to create them:

THE BLENDER:

Select a stock "Hard Round Brush" that comes with photoshop and use it to draw a shape for your blender. Something that looks like a small puffy round cotton ball or cloud works best.
Use the selection tool to cut out the shape and then pick Edit>Define Brush Preset. Name it something like "Blender Shape". Deselect the shape when done.
Select the smudge tool and pick the "Hard Round Brush". This is just to make sure you start with the same settings before you make the changes below. With the smudge tool selected open the brush window (Window>Brush).
Under "Brush Tip Shape" find and select the shape you just made
Turn on Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Transfer, and Smoothing
Click Create new brush in the lower right corner of the window and name it something like "Blender". Note this brush is designed to be used with the smudge tool, not the brush tool.

THE PAINTBRUSH:

Select a stock "Hard Round Brush" that comes with photoshop and use it to draw a shape for your paintbrush. Start with a circle and then use the eraser tool to "chip" the edges. This will make it more brush like.
Use the selection tool to cut out the shape and then pick Edit>Define Brush Preset. Name it something like "Paintbrush Shape". Deselect the shape when done.
3. Select the paintbrush tool and hard round brush (again just to make sure you start with the same settings before you make the changes below). Open the brush window (Window>Brush).
Under "Brush Tip Shape" find and select the shape you just made.
Turn on Transfer and Smoothing.
Under transfer both Opacity and Flow should be set to "Pen Pressure"
Opacity for the brush should be at 60-70%.
Under brush tip shape adjust spacing. 10% usually is good, but you may need to experiment.

THE DOT BRUSH: This brush is made exactly like the paint brush above except for the brush shape. Try making a series of very solid dots and make sure you set the spacing down for this to work. This brush is great for hair, fur, grass etc.