What is meant by a brush?

A brush is simply a drawing, quite like a stamp, that someone else has created for the purpose of importing it into a programme like photoshop, so that other people can use it. You can find brushes for almost everything. You can change the colour of your brush to whatever you want and, by clicking in the same place you make the shade of the colour darker.

Video Tutorials.

Here is an example of an average tutorial video.

Here is an example of a much shorter video. I found this more helpful because it reminded me how to get to 'Load Brushes'. I'd been shown that day but when I tried it again myself I found myself clicking on the wrong arrow.

Print Screens Of How To Download A Brush.

The tutorials you find on YouTube are sometimes helpful but this is the way I was shown.

I generally start off with google.

Type in 'deviantart' and click on the first link (http://www.deviantart.com/).

This is what should come up.

Whatever you search for, make sure you always type 'brushes' or 'brush' after your chosen item otherwise you'll come up with numerous other things.

I have chosen 'Old Stamps'. No matter what you search for, how to download the brushes will always be the same method. To the right there will be a button that says 'Download File'. Click it.

This box will come up, you want to click on save.

It is a good idea to create a new folder for all your brushes so that they are easy to find and kept all together.

I have named my new folder 'Brushes'.

Double click on your new folder to open it, followed by simply clicking on the save button.

A box will immediately pop up and when the download is complete it will look like this.

Open Photoshop. The Photoshop I will be using is CS5.

Click on the brush tool.

Click on the arrow as shown, this is where you always change the size of things so it is easy to find. Then, as the arrow directs click on the smaller arrow.

Up comes this long list, you want to find and click on 'Load Brushes'.

You want to then find your brushes folder and the new brush you have just downloaded will be in there.

Either double click on it or click on Load.

Scroll down and you will find your newly downloaded brushes. Simply open a new document or a photograph and start adding your brushes!

This is the easiest way I have found to use brushes and it's easy to remember too. I think that some of the tutorials are a bit more complicated than this.

Experimenting With Brushes.

This was the first time I've ever used downloaded brushes before. At first I found it quite hard to figure out what to put. Thinking of brushes to download was relatively easy but using them was actually quite hard! Here is just my first experimentation.

Print Screens.

These are my print screens, showing you how I made an image purely out of brushes.

To start off with, I chose some foliage that specifically had a line at the bottom. It would not have worked well if I had chosen say, a Willow branch as naturally, this would grow downwards.

I quickly found that, the more you click, the darker the brush becomes. So, I continued to click until it was completely black and then moved the brush slightly above the main print and clicked once to create a shadow-like effect.

I proceeded to do this across the entire bottom of the page.

I then selected my next brush and changed the size to 2500 px (the biggest it would go).

I tried it in this position and made two or three clicks so it became a darker shade of grey. However, I personally thought the figures were too close to the foliage...

...so I positioned it a bit closer to the top. I am happy with it here, it looks much more balanced.

I then selected my next and final brush...

...and completed my image.

The Final Image.

I was never really interested in brushes until I actually used them. My favourite type so far are the more natural ones like leaves and feathers. I like how when you use them, they present themselves firstly with a lighter shade and the more you click, the darker the brush becomes. It means you can be more creative with them. A lot of people will be using the same brushes as you, but that doesn't mean you can't come up with something unique to you. I thought of many different brushes to download including: feathers, clocks, Eiffel tower, women, luggage, kiss, scratches, the list goes on. I did try to think outside the box but I couldn't help but use basic brushes like leaves. After playing around with numerous new brushes, I eventually came up with a much more basic idea for an image. I noticed how the woman on the far left was staring up at the sky so, immediately I thought of birds. I found a great brush too. I didn't fancy copying the same bird or group of birds over and over and luckily I found the perfect brush, a long stretch of birds. I also put some foliage at the bottom of them image so there wouldn't be a huge gap. I find this image to be simple, yet effective. I think if I had added anything else it would have ruined it.