Techniques-Digital - Page 12

Brushes - Making Backgrounds, Organizing




Image 1


Image 2
Easy Brush Background

  1. Open a new image and fill with any color (I used peach)

  2. Add a layer, set your Foreground color to a darker shade than your background.

  3. Choose a Grunge brush and cover the image. You can click each time to "brush" the texture, or click and hold down your mouse button while dragging the mouse around the canvas. Each technique will give you a different look

  4. In your Layer Pallette, click the "Grunge" layer to make it active

  5. At the top of the box, you will see two small boxes; the first is to set your Opacity; the second is to choose your Blend Mode. Drag the slider on the Opacity box to lighten the grunge (I used an opacity of about 40).

  6. Save your file as a .psp to preserve the layers, and again as a .jpg
The first image shows one click of the Grunge brush. The second image shows more coverage. The third image shows yet more coverage. The fourth image is the final paper.

        
Image 3                                             Image 4

Here are several more samples of background papers created with brushes. Clicking on the image will take you to the tutorial page for making that particular background:

                 

Okay - here's the boring but necessary section - how do you organize your brushes? First, let's talk about how PSP stores brushes. (This is for versions 9 and 10)
  1. Brushes that come with the program are stored in the program itself. The path is C://Program Files/Corel/Paint Shop Pro X/Brushes (so the brushes are in a folder called Brushes, which is in a folder called Paint Shop Pro X, which is in a folder called Corel, etc.).

  2. When you install the program, a folder called My PSP Files is created in your My Documents folder. Inside My PSP Files are many folders, such as Gradients, Masks, Selections, and of course, Brushes.

  3. I created sub-folders in this Brushes folder titled Grunge, Asian, Floral, etc.

  4. When I download my brush files, I save to the appropriate folder, and when I unzip the files, I keep them in that folder.

  5. Note that in PSP 9 and 10, an installed brush will have TWO files, one with a .PspBrush extension and one with a .PspScript extension. BOTH files are needed, so if you move a brush from one folder to another, make sure you move both files.

I have so many brushes that it takes a long time for PSP to load, so here's the solution. Keep the brushes that you use the most in the PSP Program folder. Keep brushes you don't use as frequently in the My PSP Files Brush folder. (Brushes can be moved from one folder to another - just be sure to move BOTH files). In PSP, you can choose which Brush folders you want the program to access.
  1. Go to File Menu, Preferences, File Locations
  2. On the left you will see File Types - click on Brushes
  3. The folders that PSP will search to find your brushes are listed in the box to the right
  4. Click the line that says C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My PSP Files\Brushes and UNCHECK the box under Folder Options that says Enable.
  5. Now, when PSP opens, it will only load the brushes in your Program files. To access these additional brushes, just go to Preferences and check the enable box. (You may have to restart PSP - usually I don't).

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