Hey You~
Photoshop. It's an amazing and powerful tool for photographers and other artists alike. In some ways, it's limitless... In other ways, not so much. I find that idea especially true for the brushes, more specifically, the kind you make yourself from a picture. You know. Those brushes come out flat, and they only exist in monochrome negative imagery. I would say it comes out looking like a stamp, but even then, you have to do some finagling to the settings so it can function like a stamp. Don't even get me started on the transparency issues from the resulting brush! Clip Studio users, we envy your décor brushes and their ribbon effect! Blah. Art is problem solving. So, here's where I start brainstorming ways to help with this. My first few hundred attempts involved using the RGB channels and/or RGB colors combined with custom auto actions. This is how I created my realistic pearl brush set.
Now, that same method did NOT work for my attempt at creating a different brush. My next few hundred attempts lead me to try patterns of my image, more auto action attempts, and clone stamps. Still not the results I wanted and after a few weeks of trial/error, I found a solution in the mixer brush! Until my research on some random forum that answered a completely different question, I didn't give the mixer brush a second thought. Someone said that the mixer bush can clone images so I thought to myself, I can save the cloned image as a brush. Not long after dabbling with the settings, I recreated a full colored brush version of my image. Figuring out how to save my new brush took a little more research but, in the end, voila! Saving as a tool preset does just the thing.
Now let's get creating!
1. Get the image you want to use. Uncheck the lock pixel icon and add a white background (for clarity purposes).
2. Cut out the background until transparent.
3. Scale the image down to a reasonable size for copy/cloning. We'll readjust the size later.
4. Click the white layer's eye icon to hide it from view. Select mixer brush, and choose a round brush from the menu. I chose a basic size 80 round brush.
5. Resize your brush until your image fits inside and alt-click. Your image will appear in the mixer brush preview window.
6. In the mixer brush settings, select one of the dry mixture options. Any will work for your brush.
7. Go to the brush settings. Adjust the sizing then adjust the spacing to your preference. I made my brush size 80 with 90% spacing after testing it.
8. If all is well, go to tool presets and save your brush as a new tool preset. If you can't find tool presets, go to the window tab and click tool presets. Select no on the pop up, then give the brush a name. Check include color. We're Done!
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