Skip to Main Content
Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition
book

Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

by Lesa Snider
August 2014
Beginner content levelBeginner
989 pages
34h 23m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Customizing Brushes

Once you get comfortable with the Brush tool, you can experiment with changing the way it behaves. For example, maybe you’d like to adjust the spacing between brush marks in a single stroke, or have the brush apply a texture. Happily, the Brush panel (Figure 12-22) gives you an amazing amount of control over brushes. To open it, click the Brush panel icon that you see in the Options bar whenever the Brush tool is active (it looks like a tiny panel), or choose Window →Brush.

The Brush panel gives you a gaggle of options for changing the way brushes behave. By mastering these controls, you can create some super-cool brushes that make your brushstrokes look realistic (not too perfect).Start by choosing one of the brush tips in the top-right part of the panel (the number beneath each tip represents its default size in pixels). If you don’t see any brush tips, click the Brush Tip Shape category on the panel’s left side. And if the panel’s settings are all dimmed, simply switch to a tool that uses a brush cursor, like the Brush tool (obviously) or the Eraser tool.Here, one of Photoshop’s Erodible brush tips is active. These tips wear down as you use ’em, just like real chalk or graphite (pencil lead), though you can use the Softness slider shown here to control how fast the tip melts away (a setting of 100 percent prevents it from wearing down at all). After using the tip, you can restore it to its original shape by clicking Sharpen Tip (circled). For easier access to this command, assign it a keyboard shortcut by choosing Edit →Keyboard Shortcuts; set the Shortcuts For drop-down menu to Tools, and then scroll down until you see the Sharpen Erodible Tip command (see the box on page 31 for more on customizing keyboard shortcuts).

Figure 12-22. The Brush panel gives you a gaggle of options for changing the way brushes behave. By mastering these controls, you can create some super-cool brushes that make your brushstrokes look realistic (not too perfect). Start by choosing one of the brush tips in the top-right part of the panel (the number beneath each tip represents its default size in pixels). If you don’t see any brush tips, click the Brush Tip Shape category on the panel’s left side. And if the panel’s settings are all dimmed, simply switch to a tool that uses a brush cursor, like the Brush tool (obviously) or the Eraser tool. Here, one of Photoshop’s Erodible brush tips is active. These tips wear down as you use ’em, just like real chalk or graphite (pencil lead), though you can use the Softness slider shown here to control how fast the tip melts away (a setting of 100 percent prevents it from wearing down at all). ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Lesa Snider
Dreamweaver CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Dreamweaver CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Chris Grover, David Sawyer McFarland
Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, Fourth Edition

Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, Fourth Edition

Katrin Eismann, Wayne Palmer, Dennis Dunbar

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781491905593Supplemental ContentErrata Page