This week Access All Areas members can download another set of Photoshop brushes to add to their resources folder. This super set of Watercolor brushes from Vandelay Premier features 17 high resolution brush strokes, created manually from actual watercolor paint and brushes. Anyone who has followed any of the tutorials here on Blog.SpoonGraphics knows how useful Watercolor brushes in particular are for distressing and roughing up a design.
I decided to write this little tip after analysing an album cover I recently bought and noticed the use of brushes and decorative fonts within the artwork. Photoshop brushes and decorative fonts are great for creating a quick and easy effect or particular style, however the following alternative should be considered to address to the finer details…
Stippling is a classic technique to add shading and colour to an illustration. Depending on the density of the dots, stippling can be used to fill areas or create gradient effects that fade out, while adding interesting stylistic and texturing effects to your work. Traditionally, stippling would be produced by manually placing each and every dot with the nib of a pen, but with this pack of Photoshop brushes, you can quickly paint thousands of dots across your artwork. With these 8 brush tips featuring varying dot spread and densities, you can easily apply a light scattering or a heavy fill with no repetitive pattern.
Many of the Photoshop Brush packs I’ve created have just been configured as single-click brushes to stamp a texture into your artwork. Recently I’ve been experimenting with more advanced brush settings that allow the brush to be painted with, using continuous motions and varying pressure with a pen tablet. My new set of Grain Shader Brushes for Adobe Photoshop makes it easy to add shading and texturing to your illustrations. Choose from 10 brush presets with different levels of grain, then build up the texture and tone exactly where you want it within your artwork.
Add cool retro style print effects to your artwork with this collection of super-high resolution Halftone Texture Photoshop Brushes. Each brush features a unique array of halftone dots that gradually change in size to produce subtle variations of tone. There’s 10 brushes in the set, ranging from light tones made with widely spaced tiny dots, through to densely packed groups of heavy dot patterns. Applying these textures over solid colour backgrounds instantly adds subtle details and gives your artwork an old newsprint or comic book style appearance.
Add colourful effects and backgrounds to your designs with this collection of watercolour brushes for Adobe Photoshop. Each brush is a scan of real watercolour paint in a range of natural strokes, saved as easily accessible brush presets that can be saved within Photoshop’s Brush tool. Also included are 14 full-colour JPEG images with vibrant watercolour texturing.