Creating Brushes

 

I like to do a lot of work with skies. It is a tedious process to start from scratch all the time. With Paint Shop Pro 7 I don't have to anymore. I've created a brush to make creating my skies as easy as using a custom brush.

Create a new blank image 200 X 200 pixels.

Using the Spray Paint tool with the color set to what you see below, spray your canvas similar to below.

Using the Smudge tool set to size 13 and opacity 48 with a left slash as the style push and pull the colors back and forth to get the wispy look of clouds similar to below.

Since my skies usual are large I want to make this a seamless tile before creating my brush. Make a rectangular selection in the center of your image and then go to Selections>Create Seamless Pattern.

Go to Selections>Select All and then choose any paint tool so you can get to the tools palette.

Choose the Custom brush and the following dialog will appear. Click on create. Your new brush is automatically added to your custom brushes. You can now use your brush to create your art work.

Create a new image 200 X 200 pixels.

Add two new layers.

Using the Paint Brush tool set to a size of 220 place the brush cursor in the center of your image and click once on the second new layer.

Using the flood fill tool and a color similar to the color you used for spraying above, flood fill the first new layer.

Adjust the layer opacity of the first new layer to get the desired effect.

Below is what my brush looks like after following the instructions above.

You are not limited to tiled brushes. You can create simple and complex designs and convert them to a brush. I tend to create brushes for repetitive objects like my sky or logos. The key is to have the shape selected, choose a paint tool, choose custom brush and then create.

Creating new brushes couldn't be easier.

Copyright Vikki Olds, All Rights Reserved