Last time, I showed you most of the different options in the Brushes Palette. If you haven’t read that yet, go check out Customizing Photoshop Brushes.

These last few features can also be found in the Brush Palette (F5, or Window>Brushes, or find it in the quick palettes in the upper right hand corner of the program window). They do not have any options, they are merely in an on or off state. Remember to select the Brush Tool (B) going to the Brush palette or the options will be greyed out.

Noise

I can’t tell a whole lot of difference when Noise is turned on for the hard brush, but for softer brushes it definitely makes a difference. Noise adds speckles (noise!) to the edges of the brush. It’s just like the Noise filter.

Wet Edges

Wet Edges makes the center a little transparent, which can be a cool effect (hmm, watercolors?). When you’ve decided on your other options, try turning this one on and see what you think. It can have a particularly nice effect when used in combination with other options, like the Dual Brush (shown above).

Airbrush

The Airbrush works almost exactly like the Flow option in Other Dynamics that we talked about previously. I wasn’t satisfied with guessing on this one (I didn’t come up with much in my experiments), so I looked it up in Adobe LiveDocs:

Applies gradual tones to an image, simulating traditional airbrush techniques.

That doesn’t say much. Then I thought about what an airbrush really is: if you hold a regular brush in one spot on the canvas, nothing happens after the initial application of paint. If you hold an airbrush over one spot (while it’s on) it continues to add more color. Ah, same thing here. First example is no airbrush, second is with airbrush. Notice the end of the stroke where I left the brush in place for a few extra seconds. You can toggle the airbrush on the context sensitive toolbar at the top of the screen, too.

Smoothing

I always keep smoothing on because it irons out the wrinkles that show up in the stroke—the little tiny bits that the nature of the pixel perfect detail of the digital medium pick up. Top squiggles are with smoothing, bottom without, and you can see the little jitters in the stroke. I’m sure there are reasons you might want smoothing turned off, but it’s on by default and I leave it that way.

Protect Texture

I experimented a bit and had a rather hard time figuring out what this option does. I looked it up on Adobe LiveDocs, too, and they say Protect Texture

Applies the same pattern and scale to all brush presets that have a texture. Select this option to simulate a consistent canvas texture when painting with multiple, textured brush tips.

Combining Effects

Often times I combine Shape Dynamics and Other Dynamics when painting. I use Scattering and Color Dynamics, too, though much less often. I don’t use the Texture and Dual Brush features very much, but it’s always good to experiment, turning options on and off, to get a firm grasp for what they do.

Here are a couple of brushes presets that I’ve saved because I achieved a look I really like. You are most welcome to use them, too! There are many ways to save a tool preset, but the easiest way is to

1. Go to the context sensitive tool bar at the top of the window (right below the menu)
2. On the left side, next to the picture of the tool, there is a drop down arrow (this is the very first button on the left side)
3. Click the arrow and click the New Preset icon (looks the same as New Layer on the Layers Palette)
4. A dialog box asks what you want to name it and at this step be sure to uncheck the Include Color box (unless you want to save the color along with the options you set in the Brushes Palette. I generally don’t)

Particle Trail

This is kind of a do-it-yourself sparkle brush that you can create without downloading any brushes. It’s also good for blanketing a night sky with stars! Here are the changes you need to make to a Soft Round brush (the default is 0% hardness and I used a 10px diameter):

• Spacing 75%
• Shape Dynamics: Size Jitter 30%, Control: Pen Pressure
• Scattering: Scatter 1000%, Control: Pen Pressure

Watercolor

I am always trying to get the perfect watercolor brush. I couldn’t dream of actually painting outside the computer (I cannot draw for the life of me!), but I can always paint on top of a photo! I recommend downloading the Watercolor II set from BittBox and selecting one of those brushes for this. Change the following:

• Shape Dynamics: Control to Pen Pressure, Angle Jitter 45% (Control Off)
• Scattering: 50% (Control Off)
• Color Dynamics: 20% (Control Off)
• Other Dynamics: Opacity Jitter 35%, Control: Pen Pressure

Also experiment with the Wet Edges option, as it can produce a nice effect. This brush can be used with a mouse, but I highly recommend buying a pen tablet, like the Intuos 3 for a higher degree of control and a better experience.

Want more helpful how-tos? Make sure to subscribe to the Creative Curio feed—it’s free! And don’t miss the third installment of the blog redesign on Friday! If you’re new here, why not catch up with week 1 and week 2 in the meantime!

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