A word before we begin
Most of my tutorials so far have been targeted at the more advanced levels of photoshop users, but per a few requests, I have decided to make a more “low end” tutorial. After all, this website’s aim is to teach designers of all skill levels new techniques. Also, I know this isn’t the nicest looking tutorial either, it kinda looks like something you would see on about.com or the like (ha), but please bear with me, it is strictly for learning the technique of the brush tool, aesthetics will come after.
Styling with the brush
So, the brush tool can be used by basic means by just selecting the brush you want, the size, and the color. And thats fine, but there are so many more angles to using the brush tool that can make your designs so much better. Here is a quick rundown of the features that im going to show you:
- Shape Dynamics – Randomizing the size and shape of the brush
- Scattering – Making the brush “scatter” instead of drawing in a straight line
- Color Dynamics – Changing the color of the brush randomly (or precisely) in a stroke
- Using the pen tool in combination with the brush tool
Of course, there are many more things you can do with the brush, but this is aimed at beginners and I dont want to make heads explode. So this is very basic. Lets get started.
Shape Dynamics
Go ahead and create a document with a black background and select the color red as your primary color. Select the brush tool, and then go to Window>Brushes to pull up this box I have below. Check the box next to shape dynamics and look at the window it shows you. Here’s what it all means:
- Size Jitter changes the size of your brush randomly as you stroke or click
- The Minimum Diameter controls the smallest the brush can be. So if your brush size is 50 px and you set it to 90%, your brush will never be smaller than 45px.
- Angle fluxuates the angle of the brush, but we are using a circular brush so that doesnt matter, as well as the roundness jitter.
Here is what happens when I have the size jitter at 80% and click the brush a few times in a line. As you can see some are smaller and some are bigger, and it is completely random.
Scattering
Scattering literally scatters the brush as you stroke it. Normally you would want to keep the scatter below a 400% range or they tend to be way off course. The count setting is the number of times the brush will stroke per click, and the count jitter fluxuates that number.
Here is a regular stroke of a red brush with no brush styling on. Very plain.
And here is the same brush stroke with scattering of 350% applied.
great! I’ll share it to my friends.