Posts tagged brush

Creating grass in Photoshop

3
1357 days
by in General talk

A very beautiful resource for web designers is drawing grass, although it is usually hard. I've come up with this great tutorial on how to create grass, of any size, color, or anything.

This is the result you can get:
Grassy field:
Grassy field

Grass in a website header (This is actually a design I've done to add to this blog)
Grassy design
(Click to enlarge)

Step 1

In this tutorial we will be creating the first image, a grassy field.
So open up a new document (A medium size will do, I'll be using a 500x500) and fill it with a nice blueish gradient:
Step 1

Step 2

Download this set of brushes, which contain 5 different styles of grass, which will create the illusion of variety.
(To install this set copy the .abr file and go to C:\Program files\Adobe\Photoshop x\Presets\Brushes\ The x is your installed version of Photoshop )

Step 3

Select some tones of green, try to chose a light one and a dark one to start (And ones that look sort of natural) and with the fourth brush from the grass set (The one that looks darkest in the preview) create a sort of base with the darker color.
You'll end up with something like this:
Step 3
Now that you've got the base, switch to a more spaced brush, and with a bit lighter colors cover the base. I used for this the third brush.
It now looks like this:
Step 3_1
After this you'll have light green grass, but in the places closest to the bottom it is supposed to look bigger and darker, to look ok, so with the same brush (Or another one if you prefer) and darker colors paint in the bottom and corners specially, creating a more realistic feel.
It will look like this:
step3_2
And finally switch to a brush a bit more condensed and with medium greens fill in the blue spots, retouching and finishing up some details. This is just for a great result, and after all this tweaking it will look like this:
step3_4

Final steps

You can now add some text over the grass, as if it was standing on it. To do this simply type in the text and put it between two layers of grass. If you didn't separate the grass into layers just create a layer above the text and draw some more grass covering a bit the bottom of it. Then duplicate the text, distort it to cover the bottom and change the color of it to black, then use the gaussian blur and you'll have a shadow (Which should go also under the grass that covers the text)
It will look like the grassy field I showed at the beginning:
Grassy field
Here is another example of it:
Grassy Ad
Other uses are the ones I also showed at the beginning, for headers and footers in websites.

Enjoy,
Alex

Best Photoshop brushes for web designers

14
1374 days
by in General talk, Graphic Design, Layout/Styling, Photoshop, SEO, Web-related, WordPress

Here is a (huge) compilation of the best free Photoshop brushes out there. They are the ones I use, and the ones it took me a very long time to find over the web.
I've selected the best of them, and along with a preview and a description, I've made a zip file that contains the whole compilation.
For all brushes hosted at brushes.500ml.org you'll have to navigate to the brushes, since they don't allow direct linking...
If you enjoy this set of brushes consider blogging about it ;)

Take into account that this is a huge list of brushes, and it takes a long time to download. Also, the mirrors might only be available for a limited time, so if you find them to be broken please notify me
And here is the list (Alphabetically ordered)

Art nouveau

This beautiful set features 8 brushes with patterns and designs following art nouveau techniques and style.
Visit the brush homepage
Art Nouveau brush set

Botanical flowers

This is a very nice set of brushes, specially for "natural" websites or just as footer decoration.
Visit the brush homepage
Botanical flowers

Bugs and Angels

This is indeed a very strange combination of brushes to put in a set, but both of them are very beautiful and make a good "innovative" design element.
Visit the brush homepage
Bugs and angels

Elegance

One of the best web design brush sets I have ever found. This provides you with some very elegant lines and circles. Worth checking out ;)
(I couln't find the author's website, so if you want the set, download the pack)
Elegance

Feathers

Strange brush set, filled with feathers, but it makes a beautiful texture I guess.
Visit the brush home page (Scroll down a bit, by Sheishido)
Feathers

Floral swirl

A very beautiful brush set, largely used in modern web designs (And in this blog's design too)
Visit the brush homepage
Floral Swirl

Foliage

Another brush set of plant elements. This time it is packed with tree branches, leaves, bushes... Great for some "wild life" designs:
I couldn't find this brush homepage :S
Foliage

Fractals

A nice set of fractal images, these are great to put in backgrounds for scientific websites or pics...
I didn't find the original brush set website, but here at getbrushes.com you can find tons of fractal brushes.
Fractals

Frames

This are good sets (I've put here two sets of frames) to enclose your images in.
Frames 1
Frames 2
I don't remember where I found them, but just search for frame brush sets and you'll find a lot more.

Garden of Decay

One of the most beautiful sets here, nice textures and images. It comes with some handwritten text too.
You can find it here, along with a lot more brushes by Annika
Garden of Decay

Good & Evil

A nice set, featuring some trees, skies, and other textures. Great for image edition, and adding header decoration too.
Brush set website (And also in Annika's website)
Good & Evil

Grunge flowers

Probably the best brush set exposed here. I used it a lot for my backgrounds in this blog's design.
Grunge flowers

Grunge texture

A set of textures to use in "rough" designs probably
Grunge texture

Hair

I really don't know where or why you would use this, but it is a good set of high quality "hairs" :S
Hair

Illusionist

Very strange set of cut & inversed faces. I really don't know how to describe this set. It is very cool though, so check it out.
By Annika Von Holdt
Illusionist

Paint

This is a very useful brush set, it is also the one I used for the header background, those paint strokes. It has both strokes and splatters...
Paint

Patterns

Some patterns for backgrounds or buttons, or whatever you want them for.
Patterns

Splatter

Another set similar to the paint set, but this time focused on Paint splatters. If you want to add splatters to your designs, this is your set!
Paint splatter

Valentine

A very romantic set, with hearts, roses, hand-written text... You'll love it ;)
Valentine

Victorian people

This is probably a very strange brush set you might think you'll never have to use, but once you have it, you'll use it. Guaranteed. It features full-body pictures of Victorian people.
Victorian people

Important notes & download

Please do not hotlink the images nor the zip file with the compilation, instead link to this article please.
I couldn't find most of the brush sets websites because over the years I have renamed most brush set names, so if you are the owner or creator of them and I have not placed a link to you please comment it below.
Also, if you think a link was misplaced do comment.

Download the compilation

Here you can download all of the brushes before. They come in a zip file, ready to send to photoshop.

You don't know how to import them in photoshop?
Simply go to the install location of photoshop (Normally in C:\Program files\Adobe\Photoshop). Open it up and search for a folder called "Prestablished settings", once there go to "Brushes" and paste the content of the zip file.
If you had Photoshop already opened you'll have to close it and re-open it to use your new brushes.

Enjoy :)

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