Intro to Custom Brushes & Mixer Brush

Download this image

First: (Experiment with the Pre-Loaded Brush Tools)

1. Create a New File
   8.5 x 11 (is fine)
2. Set your Background to:
   Hex: #5a7d7e
3. And the Foreground color to:
   White: #ffffff
4. Unlock the Background layer and Fill with the Background Color
   (⌘ Delete)
5. Locate the Brush panel
   Find the various "Media" folders. Open them and experiment.
   These brushes will use 1 of 4 types:
• Brush
• Mixer Brush
• Eraser
• Smudge
  
  
6. Depending on the Preset Brush, the brush will add color, blend color, delete
7. Some brushes will use set opacity, soft edges
   Some will use special effects such as scattering
   And many will have a unique shape that could look like a stamp
8. Experiment with the Preset Brushes
   By using only one color, you will get a sense of how the brush behaves
   If you want to clear your work, use ⌘ Delete (to fill with Background Color)

Second: Download a Custom Brush

Use this site:
https://www.brusheezy.com/

1. Download, UnZip, and then Double-Click the file with extension .abr
   That will load the custom brush into Photoshop
2. Find your new brush in the Brush panel as a folder. Open the folder and experiment with each brush
3. As we experimented with the pre-loaded brushes, experiment with this new Custom Brush

Third: Experiment with converting a photograph into a custom painting using a combination of Filters and the Mixer Brush

1. Open the portrait photo that I have provided (or download / use your own)
   Copy the background layer
   Rename: paint
   Rename background layer: Original, and Lock it
2. On the paint layer:
   Filter > Filter Gallery > Brush Strokes > Angled Strokes
   (this will stylize the image, removing heavy detail and replacing it with a generic "painted" look.
   Then you will use one of the "Wet Media" brushes from the Brush Panel:
   "Kyle's Real Oils Flex Wet"
3. This brush is a Mixer Brush. It also has settings in place in the option bar.
   You can change the settings.
   I recommend to turn OFF "load solid colors only" in the Option Bar drop-down
   Also, I prefer to turn ON the "load" and "clean" icons
   Sample from an area of the image by Option Click, then paint onto the image.
   Essentially you are sampling and blending pixels, but with a paint brush effect.
4. This technique can also be used Non-Destructively: in the option bar, click the checkbox: "Sample All Layers"
   In the Layers panel, create a New Blank layer (paper icon), Paint on that blank layer.
   The new painted brush strokes will only be on that layer, so you could turn them off or even delete them if you wanted to.