trishacal

How to make a custom Brush for photoshop (PSD)

If you have photoshop you are already aware of the awesome brushes you can use to customize your online work for scrapbooking, templates, and pictures. There are hundreds of sites online with pre-created brushes like:

But what happens if you want something more personalized or to use for commercial purposes? I wanted to show you a quick and easy way to create your own brushes that you have rights to. You can package these brushes for download for others or use for a personal creation.

I also happen to think its a fabulous way to Copyright your photos with your site logo or name.

This can be especially useful as a momĀ  blogger with pictures of reviews and children on your site. It looks a ton more professional and takes a lot less time than typing text over each photo.

A few before thoughts: Anything white is transparent, so its not necessary to be overly thoughtful on cutting out images with a ton of white around them like the sample below.

Step one:

Pick a photo or text to use for your brush. You can create something by hand in a sheet or use a photo you have taken. Its common sense to know that you need to have rights to the image you use.

I picked an image of MomDots Header Logo.

Make a Custom PSD Brush

Step 2: Your photo or image needs to be turned black and white for best results. CNTRL + SHFT + U = black and white.

Make sure you fine tune after that and sharpen/darken your image.

custombrushPSE

Step 3: Click on the LASSO and select the part of the image you are turning into a brush. For this image, we want the full word of MomDot. You may have a picture where you are cutting out a flower from a group of flowers. This is where you would do that.

makeaPSEbrush

createcustombrush

Step 4: Go to your EDIT on top and scroll down to you reach this:

custombrushinstructions

Step 5: Name your Brush.

namecustombrush

Step 6: Now to test it out!

Go to your brushes and select your new brush. Dont forget to adjust the size and if you want to change the opacity and color.

I pulled a picture of Charlotte to put the logo on.

custombrushtutorial

copyrightphotos

Use for quick and easy marketing of your site or twitter account!

findmeontwitter

And the end result with a copyright that is hard to remove off of your images:

charlottewithpsdbrush

Last but not least, don’t forget to save your new brushes in a preset so they are there next time!

savebrushesinpreset

I hoped this tutorial helps you in continuing to protect and create awesome images and custom designs for your site!

~Trisha

About Trisha-admin

Trisha Haas is the head of MomDot; a sometimes controversial (but always fun!) mom blogger community. Trisha has a beautiful daughter, Charlotte and an often crazy (but lovable) husband named Chris. Her family encourages and inspires her to blog in this personal and professional online dialogue. You can follow Trisha on twitter @MomDotRocks.
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12 Comments

  • 12
    October 23, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    I need PhotoShop!

  • 11
    October 23, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    Thanks Trisha! I was wondering how to do this with photoshop.
    Great tutorial…so easy to follow!

  • 10
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    You are so smart. And I so wish I had Photoshop! Santa, are you listening???

  • 9
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    Never used photoshop nor do I own it :-( But great tutorial!!

  • 8
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    NICE! it’s been a while since I have used Photoshop brushes… This is a great post – thank you for the short/quick tutorial! Diane

  • 7
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    Thanks for the great informtaion Trisha. I’m very new to photoshop and was wondering how to place my logo on my images. Now it’s time to play!

  • 6
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    I love making photoshop brushes – the possibilities are endless!

  • 5
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    You ROCK!!! (Mwah, Mwah!)

  • 4
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    Thank you so much for that easy tutorial. I can’t wait to try it!

  • 3
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    Trisha, ok I have a question. I did this an existing piece of art I had just to play with it and it worked great then I built a new piece of art and saved it as .jpg and black and white (grayscale) and on this one I can’t do it, the brush presets (what it’s called on mine) is grayed out.

  • 2
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    That is a great Tutorial Trisha and spot on! Something that i think anyone who puts a photo online needs to be able to do!

  • 1
    October 22, 2009 | Permalink | Reply

    Thank you a ton Trisha! I am off to try these out…

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