Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Defining a New Brush

For some seriously creative fun, try making your own brushes. You can make them out of anything—a stroke that you’ve drawn with another brush, your logo, even an image that you’ve scanned into your computer to use as texture (like a leaf). Some folks call brushes that you create yourself sampled brushes because you sample part of a pattern, object, or image to create them; in other words, you have to select the pattern, object, or image you want to base the brush on.

Table 13-1. Suggested brush customizations

BRUSH NUMBER IN Figure 13-31	DESCRIPTION	OPACITY[a]	SPACING[b]	SHAPE DYNAMICS	OTHER DYNAMICS	USES
1	Round, hard-edged brush	25%	0%	Size Jitter = Pen Pressure	None	Shading, blocking in color, sketching
2, 3	Rough-edged brush	25%	0%	None	With (2) or without (3) Flow Jitter = Pen Pressure	Shading, adding texture, making hair
4	Rough brush (custom)[c]	30%	0%	Angle Jitter = 20%; Control = Off	None	Adding texture, shading
5	Small dot brush (custom)[d]	30%	0%	Size Jitter = Pen Pressure	Opacity Jitter = Pen Pressure	Making hair, shading
6	Round, rough-edged brush	100%	20–25%	Size Jitter = Pen Pressure	Opacity Jitter and Flow Jitter = Pen Pressure	Shading, blocking in color
7	Textured round brush	30%	0%	None	Flow Jitter = Pen Pressure	Adding texture, shading
8	Textured round brush	100%	0%	Size Jitter = Pen Pressure	Flow Jitter = Pen Pressure	Sketching, creating line art, adding fine details in small areas
9	Scattered spot brush (custom)[e]	70%	25%	Scatter = 20%; Size Jitter = Pen Pressure	Opacity Jitter and Flow Jitter = Pen ...