CS3 Extended "paint" effects help.

#1

Hello CG,

For a long time I have seen many illustrations created in Adobe Photoshop that are phenominal.

They achieve a sort of “Painted” feel to them that really give lines or color life.

I however struggle with finding the right brushes to aquire these said effects. Whats worst, if I find a brush I like I usually don’t understand how to minipulate the “Brushes” pre-sets or settings to adequately lay down the color the way I want to.

I have experiemented with all types of brushes but they all come out “solid” or “grainy” depending on the level of opacity, flow and hardness I set them at.

I desire to lay down brush strokes with my Wacom Cintiq that fade as the stroke progresses, yet doesn’t blur or become grainy. I don’t like how every brush stroke I apply looks like it came from a Spray can.

So if any of you fine gentlemen and ladies would be so kind as to bestow your wealth of knowlege in AP brush minipulation, please do share and I will greatly appreciate it.

The kinds of painted effects or line work I would like details on are listed below. I just downloaded “Blur’s Good Brushes 4.0” from another thread, so this or basic pre-packed brushes are all I have.

Please describe step by step how to alter these brushes to give a nice effect for me. Example: Under “Shape Dynamics” the “Size Jitter” must be placed at “x%”, and Control under that placed at “bla”…This will atleast give me something to work with and a starting reference.

Once again, thank you so much:

Paint Appeal:

–Water color? (flowing and light, smooth and not grainy, shiny )

–Oils? (thick and bold, solid but varying in how much color it lets through)

–Inked Outline? (as seen in line drawing for animation or cartoon illustrations)

Any help would be appreciated. I know not everyone will agree that a technique is “better” then another, I just want something to work with. Somewhere to start.

#2

hi vjm3,

to be honest, you already have the best set of photoshop brushes at your fingertips.

Blur’s Good Brushes 4.0 are the best brushes i’ve seen so far.

like you, i often struggled with brushcreation in photoshop. of course, there are shape jitter and flow dynamics, but it’s always “only” cool but not exactly what i wanted. to create some brushes like a dynamic flowerbrush or the likes… it’s pretty simple but for a real painterly effect brush like the ones in the Blur’s Good Brushes 4.0-set it’s just too hard for me.

so here comes that Blur’s Good Brushes 4.0-set and i AM VERY HAPPY!!!

just amazing!!!

so, what do you need more?

and furthermore, to create your own brushes, just have a look inside Blur’s Good Brushes settings!

that’s not the help you’re asked for, but with Blur’s Good Brushes 4.0 you’ll have anything there is and you’ll ever need… just tweak them to your likes and enjoy!

chem!

#3

Paint Appeal:

–Water color? (flowing and light, smooth and not grainy, shiny )

Use any brush really, but depending on the “stroke” you want you could use a “hair” brush (which is just a bunch of dots really) or one of the solid brushes that come with Photoshop. Just select the watercolor checkbox on the brush preset palette to get that bleed over effect - also the different modes may help as well. You can set a texture as well and there are several that come with Photoshop that are artist canvas surfaces if you want that effect to play a part in your composition.

–Oils? (thick and bold, solid but varying in how much color it lets through)

This one is a little tricky - I usually paint the color on and then use smudge to do the “Oil” effect - it takes practice but can be done. Generally though - I use overlay layers to do the shadow and highlight on top of the colored layers. This way the colors stay true and it looks more like oil in the end. But no matter how you do it - the smudge tool plays a big role in the overall appearance in this painting style.

–Inked Outline? (as seen in line drawing for animation or cartoon illustrations)

Inked outline would be either a hardbrush used with a tablet and is more of the artists hand doing the effect than anything. Just like if you take a paintbrush with india ink or a Rapidograph pen - pressure and the quickness of your stroke defines the width and how heavy it appears. You could create a layer style that would do a stroke around objects and such - but the thickness and weight would be the same all around - which is only good for a few styles really (Simpsons comes to mind). I think that this one is really just artist technique and takes practice.

Some good tutorials are at 3D total and Ballistic publishing if you are interested in learning how. Also free brushes are just about everywhere but a lot of people make and sell brushes at Renderosity (there are also free ones). There are tons of tutorials at DeviantArt.com and ConceptArt.org. Another (free) brush resource is the Adobe Exchange.
So - you have the information, now make something great! :wink:

#4

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