2. Now press the ‘L’ key on your keyboard, this should automatically select the ellipse tool, so you can start drawing some circles.

3. With the ‘Shift’ key held down, click and drag the mouse to make a circle, as big or as large as you like.

You’ll get something like this:

4. I’m sure you’ll want to change the colours, so pick some new ones from the drop down boxes on the ‘Path’ panel at the top of your screen (while your circle is selected)

You can also change the size of the line around the outside, by changing the stroke to 4 pt (or whatever you like) You should now have something like this:

5. Now add another, smaller circle wherever you like within it, and make it white, or close to it, depending on the shade you like.

6. Now select both of these circles by clicking on one of them, then holding down the ‘Shift’ key and clicking on the other.

7. Go up to the top menu and click ‘Object’ then ‘Blend’ then ‘Make’, or simply press ‘Ctrl’+'Alt’+'B’ on the keyboard

You should get something like this:

also by making other circles of different colours and using the transparency bar, you can create some nice glassy orb effects.

1. So, start with the image you want.

*It’s important to have as big an image as possible, the bigger the image, the bigger the brush!*

2. Make sure you get the image on to an editable layer, the easiest way to do this is to go to the layer box (usually on the bottom right of your screen, depending on if you’ve moved it)
Click and hold on the ‘Background’ Layer and drag it onto this icon. This will create a new, editable layer, called ‘Background Copy’

3. To get best results, you should cut out the image using the pen tool. However, you could also use the magic wand or lasso for a slightly rougher finish. If you don’t know how to use the ‘pen’ tool, then try out this tutorial: What is the pen tool anyway? (coming soon)
Here’s my elephant after cutting it out with the pen tool.

4. Now, here comes the secret part. You could just save that as a brush, but the trouble is, it still looks just like a photo. That’s fine if that’s what you want. But I’m going to show you what I do to convert it to a more simple image that I think works better as a brush.

5. Firstly I like to desaturate the image, just hit Ctrl+Shift+U

6. Then click on the Fill/Adjustment layer icon, this will open up a menu, and we want to select ‘Threshold…’

7. In the threshold box, we can move the slider left and right to gain the effect we want.

Now it’s just a case of saving the brush!

8. Simply hit ‘Edit’ on the menu bar, then ‘Define Brush Preset…’

9. Then enter a name for the brush (the name isn’t important really, CS3 displays all your brushes as images anyway)

Congratulations, your new brush is now ready to use!

10. Select the brush tool

11. On the Brush toolbar, click the small downwards arrow, just to the right of the current brush. This will open the Brush menu.

*Note your brush menu may appear slightly differently, it’s been changed in the latest update to Photoshop CS3 to the one I have displayed*

12. If you click the arrow in the top right of this menu, it will open a drop-down menu, the option we’re looking for is ‘Preset Manager…’

13. Select all of the Brushes you don’t want, and hit press delete on your keyboard, then click ‘Done’


9. Now, to save your new Brush. Just like in step 6. We want to click the little arrow on the brush toolbar, just next to your new brush.

10. Then, again, click the arrow in the top right of the brush menu.

11. In the drop down menu, select ‘Save Brushes’

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*Note, this guide is for images like the one below, which you’ve either made yourself, or you don’t wish to edit.*
For making brushes from a photo, or other image which needs altering first, then please read the tutorial on The Secret to Making Brushes from Photographs

1. Firstly, we need something which you want to turn into a Brush. Here’s a tentacle I made in Illustrator and copied into Photoshop.

When it comes to Brushes, the bigger, the better! – This gives you more flexibilty later when you come to using them.

2. Either get the image in it’s own document in Photoshop, or select it with the rectangle tool.

3. Simply hit ‘Edit’ on the menu bar, then ‘Define Brush Preset…’

4. Then enter a name for the brush (the name isn’t important really, CS3 displays all your brushes as images anyway)

Congratulations, your new brush is now ready to use!

*If you wish to save your brush to a file, say if you wanted to submit it to a site like Brusheezy then continue!*


5. Now select the brush tool

6. On the Brush toolbar, click the small downwards arrow, just to the right of the current brush. This will open the Brush menu.

*Note your brush menu may appear slightly differently, it’s been changed in the latest update to Photoshop CS3 to the one I have displayed*

7. If you click the arrow in the top right of this menu, it will open a drop-down menu, the option we’re looking for is ‘Preset Manager…’

8. Select all of the Brushes you don’t want, and hit press delete on your keyboard, then click ‘Done’

9. Now, to save your new Brush. Just like in step 6. We want to click the little arrow on the brush toolbar, just next to your new brush.

10. Then, again, click the arrow in the top right of the brush menu.

11. In the drop down menu, select ‘Save Brushes’

12. Pick a name, and where you want to save it, and you’re all set!



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2. Use the rectangle select tool to select any area of the document.

3. Hit Shift + F5, this will open up the fill box, if you click on the drop down box that says ‘Use’ you can select a number of options, however, we’re only interested in the one that says ‘Color…’

4. Pick any color you like and hit ‘OK’


5. Now rinse and repeat options 2 through 4 until you have the pattern you want, here’s a couple I did:

6. Turning this, or anything else you want into a pattern is very simple. Select the image with the rectangle tool again, or by hitting Ctrl + A. Now go to ‘Edit’ and ‘Define Pattern…’

7. Choose a name for your file and you’ve officially just made a pattern!

Now of course, you want to be able to use this pattern!

1. Make a new document (larger than the one before) mine is 1000 pixels by 800 pixels.

2. Hit Shift + F5 again, but this time, in the drop down box, hit ‘Pattern…’ Then click on the box just below that says ‘Custom Pattern:’

Select your new pattern and click ‘OK’

3. Congratulations, you’re all done!
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