Beginner Section
The Infamous Brush Palette
It has come to my attention that I may be guilty of pre-supposing that everyone knows that they have more
than one brush palette, & where they are in the Adobe program folder.
So I've written this page to hopefully rectify that.
What is the purpose of 'custom' brushes?
Do you have a brush that you would use to create a painterly hair
effect? No?! Look at this example photo here. Except for the
eyebrows, all the hair on that guy's head was 'painted' on using a
specially designed set of brushes. The different colours and
colour depth were painted on in stages. The brush is nothing
more than a bunch of 1-2 pixel dots, spead out loosely &
randomly over a given amount of space - base hair:tight spacing /
mid-tones:medium spacing / colour highlights(greys):tight
spacing. The brushes are no more than 20 in diameter (loose
spacing).
THAT'S what 'custom' brushes are for. 'Personalized' brushes is
what they are - specific to you and you alone, for your specific
uses. And don't forget though too, custom brushes can be ANY
type of image: any shape/size/even a photo or just a small
section from one if you like! They can also be made from type as
well. Experiment with creating some, i think you'll start to see a
specific use for making your own, once you're in need of a
specific type of painted effect; hair is just one example of this.
Remember though too that brushes can only be various shades
of greyscale colours; including black.
