Loading Brushes

[Adrasteia]

Loading Brushes by Adrasteia

Skill Level : Beginner

If you've been reading the tutorials here you probably have or are wondering where you can get some brushes from - and how to get them to work. This may sound like an obvious explanation, but for those new to photoshop, it can be tricky to figure out. So i'll take you through how i load /reload and where i find my brushes.

You might also try the "Making Your Own Brushes" tutorial. For this tutorial i will be using brushes by the following as my example throughout:
Xyber Tech by xyb3r [url=\"http://xyb3r.deviantart.com/\"]http://xyb3r.deviantart.com/[/url]

1. Make a Folder

First, your brushes are going to need to *go* somewhere. If you've been making your own brushes you probably know where to find them on your computer so thats ok. But for those you download, it can become cluttered and time consuming to find them.

On my desktop i have a folder named BRUSHES - you can name it and put it wherever you want -just make it easy to find....name it something obvious and put it somewhere you can find it without having to go through too many subdirectories etc.

2. Credit

If you've been making your own brushes then your part way there. Many people use another persons brushes to vary their art and give them new ideas. There is nothing wrong with this. However, you must always credit people if you use their brushes in your work. For example, if I enter the Wallpaper Competition and use someones brushes, or even use my own, i always note this in the post with a link back to where i found them, or the creators site. For example:

Title: Butterfly Girl
Brushes by : hair - xmember @ xlocation
butterflies -brushes by adrasteia

It is really handy to keep a list of the brushes you download. Eventually you wil end up with tons of them, and its really difficult to remember where you got each one from. So when i download a brush, i open an ongoing list i have in notepad where i put the brush name, artist, and link back to them. It saves me a lot of time trying to search out a particular aritst when trying to submit my work.

3. Get the Brushes

Killanet does have brushes for download, i will post a link here when that section of the site is 'live' .
In the meantime i recommend www.deviantart.com they have a huge library of brushes. Simply seach under RESOURCES>PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES and browse through until you find a brush you'd like to use.

[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut4.jpg[/img]

Many artists there, when you click on their name, have a 'portfolio' type page, you can use this web address to link back to them, unless they request you link to a different site.
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut3.jpg[/img]

If on deviant art, you will need to click DONWLOAD TO DESKTOP which is typically beneath the brush preview.
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut2.jpg[/img]

4. Save the Brushes

Once you have clicked to download the brush, you may be presented with a pop up box. In this case i always choose SAVE TO DISK
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut1.jpg[/img]

5. Move Your Brush into Your BRUSHES Folder

Brushes are typically downloaded to your desktop. This is where having written down the brush name comes in handy. If your lucky and dont have a cluttered desktop you can probably skip this part - if not, its time to find your brush.

Brushes for photoshop have a .abr extension....you need to find your brush, and simply click and drag it into your BRUSHES folder. Below is what the brush icon looks like:

[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut5.jpg[/img]

However, the brush i downloaded looks like this because it is a compressed (zipped) document:

[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut6.jpg[/img]

6. Why is the folder Zipped?

A brush set can be quite large, to cut down on the space it takes up and download time creators often have to zip them. While you may be able to skip ahead because the brush set you downloaded is not zipped, many of those you download in the future will be, so if you dont know how to unzip a file i suggest you read on.

7. Unzip the Brush

For a zipped folder you will need to right click and choose EXTRACT ALL
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut7.jpg[/img]

You will need to click NEXT when the Wizard pops up, and in the next window click BROWSE and choose the folder you want your burshes to go to - for me this is BRUSHES. Then click finish and you should see in the BRUSHES folder your brush set with the .abr icon.
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut8.jpg[/img]

8. Loading Your brushes

Click your brush tool:
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut10.jpg[/img]
If you dont see a brush tool there, right click the pencil tool to select the brush tool
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut9.jpg[/img]

On your tool bar you will then need to select the small down arrow next to the brush tool displayed (bottom right highlighted square below). Then click the small arrow to the right (highlighted with a square also) which is in the top right of palette that is displayed. Then select LOAD BRUSHES
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut11.jpg[/img]

9. Choose Your Brush

Choose the folder that has your brush in it (BRUSHES) and click LOAD-this will load your brush.
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut12.jpg[/img]
You can CANCEL at any time you wish. Notice you are searching for .abr files....Photoshop cannot load any other format, ie zip as a brush set.

Your brush will be displayed in the brush palette you saw earlier. You will probably have to scroll down through the basic brushes photoshop provides you with to see them.
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut13.jpg[/img]

Click on the brush you want to use. You can use the MASTER DIAMETER bar above to change the size.
You can change the color by choosing through this option on your toolbar
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut14.jpg[/img]

Have fun with your brushes and dont forget to give credit where due.
Nem
[img]http://www.killanet.net/uploads/brushtut15.jpg[/img]

[Josh]

Very informative! I\'m sure this will be used by a lot of beginning Photoshop users!