How To Create A Custom Brush From A Photo

My first encounter with the blue and black dragonfly was in our family garden last summer.  It flew right past me and I vowed to photograph it - the silver in its wing mixed with a large striped pattern of black and turquoise blue was something I wanted to capture for posterity  - but every time one was near and I ran into the house to grab my camera - it was gone before I came back.   "Maybe next year," I consoled myself.  Well my dragonfly day finally came ...

Isn't it beautiful?  You might think I am funny but I just kept picturing this photo in my mind's eye and last week I was working in the yard and it flew by - you can't miss these things - they are so striking and beautiful - I ran into the house and grabbed my camera and zoom lens, praying it would still be hanging around the yard when I got back - and it was.

I hurried and snapped about nine photos as it flew around my yard - it was interesting because the longer I was out there the more daring it became and it flew closer and closer and finally just posed for me - three feet away - perched on the top of one of our tomato cages - amazing little thing.  So it is captured - now what?  Make a brush of course!

So first things first - I moved the photo over to a new transparent document.  Then using my magic wand tool I selected the green areas of the photo (making sure it didn't select any of the dragonfly) then I pressed the delete key to reveal transparent background.  I continued this process until my dragonfly was completely cutout.  I right clicked and then selected "Deselect" from the menu then saved my image as "Dragonfly cutout"

The next step was to change the image so that it could be made into a brush.  First things first - make sure the Foreground color is black and the Background color is white.  Next choose  the Filter menu and point to Sketch then click Graphic Pen.  The filter gallery will open and show your image (you may have to scroll or downsize it to see it) - fine tune it until you like it then click OK.

At this point you will want to make sure your image is less than 2500 pixels in size.  Press ALT-CTRL-I and make sure the "Constrain Proportions" box is checked and then adjust your pixels to a number below 2500.

Choose Edit>Define Brush Preset.  I then named the brush "Dragonfly" and clicked OK. 

Now my brush is loaded into my Brush Preset Palette which I can access by clicking on it (it is near the top right of your screen).  I load my dragonfly brush - choose a color and voila!  Dragonfly fun here we come! 

Comments

[petra a*k*a milo82]

Wow awsome tutorial and thanks so much for sharing!!

Have a great day!

[Dawn]

great stuff thanks for sharing

[Kirstiegai]

wow that's great. I saw the sample of Jessica's online class and it sounds awesome.

[janet (aka jannylynn)]

Great tutorial, very helpful! Wonderful picture too!

[Karen]

Great tutorial Kayla.

[Hummie]

Brushes are so easy to use, but I always forget to drag them out! Great post!

[sharon]

wow, what great info, thanks.