Using brushes in Adobe Photoshop Class - 12 [Adobe Photoshop for Beginners]

 Using brushes in Adobe Photoshop Class - 12 [Adobe Photoshop for Beginners]:

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In Photoshop, one of the most creative tools

is the brush tool.

As you create in Photoshop,

you will find the brush tool being used

in all sorts of creative scenarios,

such as drawing, painting, erasing,

refining, creating textures, and masks.

In this tutorial,

I will be introducing you to the brush tool,

demonstrating how it works,

and giving you some tips

on what to look out for when using it.

So in this tutorial, I will be referencing

and using specific panels.

To follow along, you till need your brush panel

and your brush presets panel visible.

If you cannot see your panels,

simply come up to window and select the brush

and the brush presets panel from there.

Now, for the sake of this tutorial,

I'm just going to drag them out of my panel set on the right

so you can see exactly what I'm doing here.

Notice that currently these panels are grayed out.

These panels are currently inactive,

and that is because I currently have the move tool active.

So the brush tool can be found

in the main menu about a third of the way down.

Now, you can either select the brush tool from the menu,

or use the keyboard shortcut.

By pressing B on the keyboard,

you can quickly activate the brush tool.

It's important to mention, at this point,

that if you wish to use the brush tool,

you will first need an existing layer to work on,

or create a new layer for your new brush stroke.

In this case, if we look in the layers panel,

I have this layer called practice layer.

Currently, this is a transparent layer,

and we know this because we can see

the grid texture in the image thumbnail.

So I'll select this layer for now.

Now, upon pressing B to activate the brush tool,

notice the brush panels have now become active.

So before we look at using the brush tool,

I'm going to first touch on what these panels are,

so you understand how these will work later.

So the first panel here is the brush presets panel.

Now, this panel is like your pencil case.

This panel contains a variety of brushes you can use.

The nice thing about this panel

is that it's a good visual reference

giving you a good idea

of what effect a particular brush will make,

should you use it.

When you install Photoshop,

it will come with a wide range of brushes pre-installed.

As we scroll down in this panel,

we can see the variety we have on offer.

To activate the brush, simply select one.

To change the size of the brush,

you can simply toggle the size

on the top of the panel, like so.

So with the brush tool active,

you will notice the mouse cursor change.

With the brush tool active,

it will display what type of brush

you have currently selected, and what size,

in the form of a thin outline.

This here has given you a good visual indication

of what you're about to use.

For example, I'll select a hard round brush

and set the size to 40 pixels.

If I move my mouse into the white area,

the canvas area, I can see what size the brush is,

represented by a circle outline as the cursor.

Now, I'll come over to my foreground color

and make sure this is black.

Then, if I click and draw quickly,

I can see that the mouse cursor

shows a good representation

of what the result will be.

I'll just press Comman + Zed to undo that.

If I come back into the brush preset panel

and push the size up to 200,

then move my mouse cursor into the white area,

the canvas area, we can see a bigger outline.

This is Photoshop telling me

that this is how big the brush is going to be next.

So I'll click and draw,

and we can see that's a bigger brush.

I'll just press Command + Zed to undo that.

This time, I'll come into the brush presets panel,

I'll scroll down, and select

a different kind of brush, a chalk brush.

I'll push the brush size up,

move my mouse cursor into the canvas area,

here we can see a very different brush from the last.

If I click and paint, like so,

we can see the effect that brush has.

So the first thing to remember with the brush tool,

when the tool is active,

the mouse cursor will always display the brush

and the brush size you're about to use.

This comes in very handy.

So next, we have the brush panel.

Now, this panel works

to customize a particular brush we have selected.

Up in the top right here,

we have a reference to all the brushes contained

in the brush presets panel,

and over on the left here,

we have quite a variety of settings

we can toggle to change the nature of a brush,

and we shall be getting into that

a little later in this Blog.

So it's important to know

that these two panels go hand in hand with each other.

Notice, as I select a brush from the brush preset panel,

we are loading these details into the brush panel below.

Now, when using the brush tool,

it's also important to keep an eye on the control panel,

so at this point, I'm going to close

the brush preset and the brush panel

so we can no longer see them.

Now, I have just demonstrated

how important these panels are,

to choose a brush, and potentially customize a brush.

But we can also do this up in the control panel,

very quickly and easily.

We don't necessarily need

the two panels visible at all times to do this.

When you have the brush tool active,

you will notice the control panel

will display a variety of details

regarding the current brush selected.

As a beginner, in the control panel,

the main things you need to pay attention to

are the brush preset toggle,

here we can see at a glance which brush we have selected

and at what size.

Now, if we wish to change the active brush,

we can do so swiftly by clicking on the dropdown.

From here, we can choose any brush we like,

just like in the brush presets panel.

On this occasion, I'll select a hard-rounded brush.

Now, also, in the menu, we can tweak the brush size.

I can either click and drag the handle,

or click inside the value and type in a precise value.

Next to this, on the control panel,

we have an icon that looks like a folder.

Now, if we click this,

this will activate the brush panel.

As mentioned earlier, it's this panel we can use

to toggle the current brush settings.

I'll close this for now.

We will be coming back to this shortly.

The last big one we have to pay attention to is opacity.

When using the brush tool,

it's crucial to pay attention to this.

If this is set to anything other than 100%,

when you draw, you will have transparency.

Now, this can be very useful depending on your task.

So remember, when using the brush tool,

always keep an eye on the control panel,

and it's from there

you can customize your brush settings quickly.

So now let's take a look

at this exercise document I have open.

Here, I have a number of brush strokes

I have previously created in various colors.

We have stamps, a freehand stroke,

a straight line, a pointed line, and a custom brush.

So let's have a go at creating these

over on the right.

This will be a simple exercise,

just to get to grips

with the basics of using the brush tool.

So first, we are going to create these stamps.

So here we have six simple stamps

of various brush sizes.

So we are going to start

with the hard brush set to 20 pixels.

Now, before you use the brush tool,

you will need an existing layer to work on,

or create a new layer for your new brush stroke.

So I have just been demonstrating the brush

on the practice layer in the layers panel,

but now I'm going to create a new layer

specifically for each brush type.

So with the practice layer selected,

in the layers panel, I'll just press Command + Shift + N

to create a new layer,

I'll call this stamps, and click okay.

So I'll press B to activate the brush tool,

I'll come up into the control panel,

click on the brush preset panel,

and make sure to select a hard brush.

Now, I'm simply going to click into the size area

with my mouse, and type 20.

Then I'll simply press Enter on the keyboard.

So now I can see I have the right brush.

I can see the mouse cursor

displaying the right brush size in the document layer.

Next, I'll make sure the opacity

is set to 100%.

Now I'm ready to come over and click on the guide.

Before that, I want to change the color of the brush.

Notice in the menu, the foreground color

is currently set to black.

Now, up here, in the top-right, I have a color palette,

and this will be where we can source our color.

So I'll press I on the keyboard

to activate the eyedropper tool,

I'll select the blue color from the sample,

and now my foreground color has been set to blue.

Now, I'll press B again to activate the brush tool.

In Photoshop, when you set a brush,

then use other tools,

when you come back to the brush tool,

Photoshop will remember your last brush.

So here we are back to our hard brush, at 20 pixels.

Excellent.

So next, I'm simply going to come over

to the guide, and click once.

Easy.

By clicking once, we will create a small, solid circle,

as the brush is a hard, rounded brush.

So next, I'm going to create a stamp at 60 pixels.

Now this time, instead of coming

all the way back up to the control panel,

if I right-click on the mouse,

up will pop the brush presets panel.

This is a quick way to select or edit a brush fast.

So in the popup menu,

I can type into the size value

and type in 60 pixels, and then press Enter.

Now, unless I change anything else,

all my other settings should be the same as before,

and my foreground color is still set to blue.

So I'll just click on the next circle in the guide.

Easy.

Next, I'll change my brush size to 150.

Again, I'll right-click and type in 150.

Press enter, and click on the guide.

And there we have three stamps

in various sizes, in the hard brush.

So that's how you can quickly change the brush size

to create various size circles.

Very simple.

So next to this hard brush sample,

we can see we have a different kind of brush.

With my brush still set to 150 pixels,

I'll right-click and change the brush

to a soft, rounded brush.

I'll come over and click on the next guide.

So in Photoshop, we also have

this nice, soft, feathered brush.

This brush can come in very useful for soft brush effects,

glows and gradient effects,

all of which we will be learning about

later in the course.

Now, unlike the hard brush, that is solid throughout,

this feathered brush fades to nothing,

from the center of the circle out to the end,

across the radius.

The hard-rounded brush and the soft-rounded brush

are the two basic brushes.

So I'll right-click, change the brush to 60 pixels,

and again, quickly click on the next guide.

And lastly, one more time,

but this time, change the brush to 20

and click on the end, like so.

So now I have these brush stamps

I just created on a single layer.

If I press V to activate the move tool,

I can click and drag these around like so.

Easy.

So next, I'm going to look at using the brush tool

in a freehand way.

So the foreground color is still set to blue,

and I'm going to press I to activate the eyedropper tool,

and I will select the purple up in the right,

to set my foreground color to the new color, like so.

Great.

So currently, I have the soft rounded brush still active

from the previous task.

Well, that's okay,

as for this task,

I want to use a 50-pixel soft rounded brush.

So I'll right-click, change my brush size,

and next I'll attempt to draw a freehand stroke

over my guide here on the left.

But before that, I want to create a new layer.

Now, I don't have to create a new layer.

I could simply continue to draw on the stamps layer.

But if I do so, I will not have the flexibility

to move them around separately.

So I'll press Command + Shift + N

to create a new layer,

I'll call this new layer freehand, and click okay.

So with my new layer created,

I'll click and draw a freehand stroke over the guide.

If I press V, I can again move this layer around separately.

Nice.

So up until now, we have looked

at how the brush tool can create stamps

and be used in a freehand manner.

Next, I want to demonstrate some techniques

with some keyboard commands.

So next we have a straight line here.

In some creative instances,

you may need to create a straight line

w

hen using the brush tool.

We can do this rather easily.

So first, let's set up the brush.

For this, I'm going to use a hard-rounded brush

set to 20 pixels.

I'll press I to use the eyedropper tool

to select the green color.

I'll press Command + Shift + N to create a new layer.

I'll name this straight line.

So this time, I'm going to first

place my mouse cursor at the start location,

this being the beginning of my guide here on the left.

Now, I'm going to press and hold Shift on the keyboard,

and then click once to put down a starting point.

With Shift still held on the keyboard,

I'll move my mouse cursor over to the right

and click once at the end, like so.

Upon click, I will draw a straight line.

So by pressing and holding shift on the keyboard

when using the brush tool,

you can click once, then click again,

and wherever you click, it will join them seamlessly.

Okay, so for the next task,

I'm going to use the same principle

but take it one step further.

So I'll change my brush color to red,

I'll change my brush size to five,

I'll create a new layer and call this "Point,"

and come over and focus on the new task.

So this time, I'll move my mouse cursor

over where I would like to begin,

I'll press and hold shift just like before,

I'll click once to start,

move my mouse to the next point,

and click again to create a seamless line.

This time, I'll keep the shift button

held down on the keyboard,

then I'll move to the next point, and click once more.

And the line will continue seamlessly.

I'll still keep shift held down

and continue to click once again, and again,

until I move to the very end, like so.

So by holding shift,

not only can you create a seamless line stroke

in a straight line,

but you can continue to click and draw

straight, seamless lines, however long you like.

Simply release shift to finish.

So the last task I would like to demonstrate,

and for you to have a go at, is a custom brush.

Up until now, we have been using rather simple brushes

to experiment with simple stroke effects.

Now, in Photoshop,

you can customize a brush quite drastically.

So I'm going to create a new layer

and call this custom brush.

I'll use the eyedropper tool

to pick the orange from the color reference,

to change the foreground color,

I'll press B to activate the brush tool,

and I'm going to keep the brush size set at 20 pixels,

but this time I'm going to click on the folder icon

next to the preset up in the control panel.

Upon click, this will activate the brush panel.

Now remember earlier,

I mentioned this is where we can customize the settings

of a particular brush.

So let's take a look at how we can customize a brush.

So at first glance,

we can see there are a lot of things we can toggle.

For this example, I'm first going to start

with the spacing.

So I'll click and drag this like so.

As I drag left and right,

this will toggle the smoothness of the stroke line.

Now, if we keep in mind

that a brush is made of a simple unit

and replicate it seamlessly to create a single line,

if we alter properties, such as the spacing,

we will begin to treat each unit separately

to create an interesting outcome.

On this occasion, I'm going to push this

right up to 350%.

Now, on the left here,

we have some more categories we can toggle.

So I'll click on shape dynamics,

I'll push size jitter up to 70%,

I'll push the angle jitter up to 70%,

and I'll push the roundness jitter to 70%.

So these will randomize the size,

angle, and roundness of each individual unit in the brush.

Next, I'll click on scattering.

Now, I'll push scatter right up to 960%,

I'll toggle the count to three,

and toggle the count jitter to 20%.

So here I have toggled the potential value

to scatter each unit

and how many units will be generated.

So with that, I'll come to my guide,

click on the left, at the start point,

and draw to the right.

Upon release, I can click and draw

back over the left, on top, and draw more.

Here we have this interesting effect.

So by toggling the various brush settings,

we can get some interesting results.

Now, should I wish to keep my settings for this brush,

to use again in future,

I can simply save the brush settings.

So save a new brush,

I can come back into the brush panel,

come to the top-right of the panel,

and click on the top menu icon.

From the dropdown, I'll select new brush preset.

Upon click, a menu will appear where I can name the brush.

I'll call this brush scatter brush, and click okay.

Now, if I come into the brush presets panel

and scroll down to the bottom,

we can see the new brush.

So this will be here to use again and again in future.

Excellent.

So that is a brief introduction

to brushes in Adobe Photoshop.

Be sure to practice those exercises

and explore more brushes in the brushes panel.

Now, in Photoshop, not only can you customize a brush,

but you can also create a custom brush from scratch.

In this Blog, we learned about the brush tool

and how we can use it to create.

In the next Blog,

we will be seeing an example

of how the brush tool can be used

to refine and manipulate images in Photoshop.

In the next Blog, we will be looking at techniques

to erase and manipulate images in Photoshop.

See you in the next Blog.