My first Water Photoshop brushes set remains one of my most popular sets for photo-manipulators. But it was made back before I was taking all of my own reference photos, and so some of them are simply not the size that I would have liked. Now, I’ve been able to take all of my own photos, so all of these are high resolution and exactly what I wanted.

This Water II brush set is made up of the same kinds of brushes that were the most used in my first set. It is made up of several splashes, falling water, water spouts, some shimmers, several reflections (like those on the bottom of a pool), and much more!

Most were made to be used with a white or very light color on a darker background, by the way.

Go Now to the Downloads Page!

Random Brushes Tip:

Ever tried to paint with a brush and thought that the edges didn’t seem as clean and smooth as they could be? The way that the hard-edged brushes in Photoshop’s “Basic Brushes” are set, that just may happen when you’re working at higher resolutions.

So, how do you fix that?

• Click on your brushes tab (or hit F5 to bring it up).

• Click on “Brush Tip Shape” and look at the preview image of the brush at the bottom. You’ll be able to see those bumpy edges if you set the diameter at a high size.

• Now change the “Spacing” so that it’s set to about 15% or lower. You can set it to 1% to make it perfectly smooth for those ultra-high resolutions, but if you have a slower computer, that may slow the brush down when you go to use it. So just find a nice percentage where you don’t see all the bumpy edges.

That’s it! I don’t expect many of you to need this tip, but I remember back when I was first learning to paint digitally in Photoshop, and I couldn’t figure out why the edges were coming out so bumpy sometimes. So I thought I’d share!

Another request this week! I’ve been behind on those, and trying to catch up a bit. This was a fun set to try to brainstorm ideas for! It’s a unique set… I’m pretty sure I’ll be the only site out there with Earth Friendly Vector Brushes! Hope that some of you can find some uses for it.

This set includes all kinds of images, mostly involving the earth and nature. Kind of a “green” set of brushes, if you will. Ecologically friendly, earth friendly… whatever you want to call it, these should help you represent it! These are all vector images, and the average brush size is about 2000 pixels - so they’re high resolution!

Includes: various earth images (an earth inside a giant set of hands, nestled safely in a leaf, with a heart around it, inside a flower, next to some leaves, with a tree growing out of it, etc), flowers, 2 sets of grasses, several leaves, a leaf and a water drop, 2 regular recycling images, 1 water recycling image, and some trees!

Go Now to the Downloads Page!

Brushes Tip:

Want these images to show up in several colors? Like the earth, for example.

1. Create a new layer (the button on the layers palette or Shift-Ctrl-N… CMD-SHIFT-N on a Mac).

2. Use the “earth” brush that on that new layer, using a blue color (we’re using blue because the “earth” brush will fill in the water portions of the earth).

3. Use the magic wand tool and click somewhere outside of that earth. It should select the space around the earth.

4. Choose Select > Modify > Expand, then put in 1 or 2 pixels (1 pixel if you’re working on a small scale, 2 if you’re working high-res).

5. Select > Inverse. You should now have the earth itself selected, minus a pixel or two at the edges.

6. Click on the layer beneath the one with the earth on it, and create a new layer again (Shift-Ctrl-N or Cmd-Shift-N).

7. Using the paint bucket tool, and with a green color selected, click once inside the earth to fill the rest in with green.

8. Voila! You now have a multicolored earth.

9. You could also have just painted in that green color beneath the earth, if you’re good at painting “between the lines” like you would with a coloring book!

10. When it comes to using more than 2 colors, however, I’d suggest checking out my multiple colors with photoshop brushes tutorial (with vectors like this, though, you don’t need that top, black layer - you can just erase it when you’re done).

Okay, this set is based off a request I got…. quite a while ago. I get some requests that I just don’t know quite what to do with, at first. This was one of those. I started out collecting photographs to make it an image-based set. But since then, I’ve decided I really don’t LIKE image-based sets. And most people don’t really use them. Why would you use a Photoshop brush for something that you could get a stock photo of, and add it already in color? I can think of very few exceptions that would make you do this. So, while I will still be doing image-based sets… they’re mostly going to be the kinds of things that you would add to something. Not the “thing” itself. (Like, the Distressed brushes - those are great! And image based. But the Sports brushes, which are all kinds of sports equipment and balls… not-so-great. Not many more of those kinds of things coming.)

Anyway, my point is that I wanted to still do the whole beach-themed thing, and wanted to try something new. So, I’ve started a new section for sketches brushes. These will be, well, just what they sound like! Actual, hand-drawn sketches of various things. I AM an artist, I figured I may as well start using it!

So, to whoever requested the beach themed brushes (I believe a lighthouse and a message in a bottle were specifically named), my apologies for this taking so long! But here you go!

This set includes: a beach ball, a pail (bucket), an umbrella, bubbles, a conch and various other shells, a dolphin, a heron, a lighthouse, a lounge chair, a couple messages in a bottle, a palm tree, a pelican, a sand castle, a sand dollar, a sea turtle, 2 ships (one sailboat, one galleon), a starfish, a stylized sun, sunglasses, and waves. They’re all high resolution, with the average brush size being about 1900 pixels.

Go Now to the Downloads Page!

Random Brushes Tip:

I’ve showed you in various other brushes tips how to get brushes to do things like scatter, change their angle, size, and color, etc. So, what happens if you want to SAVE a brush like that, once you’ve created it?

Well, first off, make sure that you have the set open that you want to save the brush to. Because it will be added to whichever set you have currently open.

Once you have the brush settings how you’d like them, click on your Brushes tab (or hit F5). Up in the VERY upper right hand corner, there should be a small arrow (facing right). Click on that arrow. (Alternately, you can click on the small arrow next to your currently selected brush’s thumbnail to open the brush preset picker, and then choose that small arrow on the top right.)

You should see a list of all your current brush sets, etc. Near the very beginning, there should be a “New Brush Preset..” option. That’s the one you want! Choose that, name your brush, and it will be added to your current set.

How is this different from choosing Edit > Define Brush Preset from the top menu? Well, if you do it that way, all it will save is the brush shape, based on what is on your canvas. “New Brush Preset..” will save the brush that you’re currently using, including all the extra options you’ve added.

Hope this helps!

This newest Photoshop brush set is made up of silhouettes of people. Babies crawling, little girls holding a teddy bear, children walking or standing unsteadily, pregnant women, fathers holding children, mothers holding children, men in suits, women in dresses or in sexy poses… you’ll find all of them in this latest brush set!

Most of these were drawn by hand, using minimal references. They’re all vectors, and all very high resolution… about 2200 pixels in size on average.

Go Now to the Downloads Page!

Random Photoshop Brush Tip:

You know how the grass that comes with Photoshop fluctuates in color, each time that you use it? You can do that with any brush that you want! Here’s how.

• Hit F5 to bring up your brushes tab
• Choose “Color Dynamics”
• One way to control the color is to choose two colors for your foreground and background colors. In the case of a blade of grass, say… light green and dark green. Then set the “Foreground/Background Jitter” bar somewhere between 25-75%. When you use your brush, it will now vary in color between the foreground and background colors that you chose!
• Another way (or you can do the former and then ALSO do this) is by using the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness Jitter sliders.
  • Hue will change the color itself. Set it at about 10%, and your green will become both a blue-green and a yellow-green sometimes.
  • Saturation will change the intensity of the color. Set it at 20% or so, and your green will switch between a bright, vivid green to a slightly grayed-out green.
  • Brightness will change the darkness of the color. Set it at 20% or so, and your green will range between a light green and a darker green.

Play around with these settings, and you can achieve all kinds of color variations!

This week’s set is made up of all kinds of distressed images. I went all over the place looking for cracking paint, rust, drainage stains, etc. If it looked distressed, I took a picture of it! Was fun, but got me quite a few odd looks! This set is what came of it!

These work great for adding that distressed look to a wall or floor, and also work great for grunge textures.

Includes things like: rust, scratches, rusty holes, drainage stains, dirty and grungy textures, canvas holes, cracking and peeling paint, etc.

Sizes vary from about 600 (some of the smaller “rust holes”) to 2300 pixels.

Go Now to the Downloads Page!

I’ve also updated my “Terms of Use” page to be a bit more clear about what is an acceptable use and what is not an acceptable use of my brushes. I’m pretty understanding and giving, but taking one of my brushes and slapping it down onto a plain page all by itself and then selling it on iStockPhoto.com is NOT an acceptable use of my brushes! That’s basically the same as redistributing the brushes/images themselves. Now, if you were to use the brush(es) to make your own design, that’s just fine! Basically, your gut will tell you if it’s YOUR creation or MY creation… follow that, and you’ll be just fine.

Most of you have been great, by the way. It’s just a select few that have made me clarify.

I’ve also added the capability to purchase a commercial license to use my brushes.  If you do that, you will NOT need to credit me - you will have full rights to use the set(s) that you purchase licenses for.  To find out more about commercial licenses, feel free to contact me!