Photoshop Elements > Brushes >

4 - Create a New Brush

You can create your own brushes.

Besides containing "paint," brushes can contain drawings, photographs, and ?

For example, here's a tutorial on making a brush to apply a copyright watermark to a photograph.

Here are some tips.

Use an existing brush as a guideline for a new brush.

For example, you could use the Scattered Maple Leaves brush, above, as a template to make a Scattered Dog Paw Print brush.

Look at the specifications of the existing brush in More Options, in the options bar, and adapt them for your new brush.

You can make a brush by first making a selection.

Then, to create the brush from the selection, go to Edit > Define Brush from Selection.

Your brush will be B&W, even if the selection was made on a color photograph.

Therefore, before making the brush, convert the color photograph to grayscale.

Go to Image > Mode > Grayscale.

Use Levels to optimize the photograph as a B&W photograph.

Then, make your brush.

Select the library where you want your new brush to be placed, before you make the brush.

If you don't, the brush will be placed in the last library that you used.

There's no easy way to move a brush from one library to another.

So, put the new brush in the right library, right away.

In More Options, in the options bar, increase the spacing.

Then, as you brush, the image will repeat with more space between the "dabs" of the brush.

Next, we'll look at the first menu in the Brush Picker window.