Creating a Bird Brush in Photoshop

Tutorial Description

Learning how to create custom Brushes in Photoshop is a skill that will benefit many images. In this tutorial, we show you how to make a selection around a bird and promote it onto a new document in order to create the Brush.

Using the Bird Brush

Once you have your shape in a new document, it is important to separate the Lights from the darks. Ideally you want the shape of the brush to be completely dark and the Background to be white. We use Levels to adjust the Light Levels in the image, turning the sky white.

Once we have a black bird on a white Background we are ready to make a custom Brush shape. Go to Edit – define brush preset to make the initial shape into a brush.

After the shape of the Brush is defined it is time to add additional variables that will make the bird look different with each step. In this tutorial you will learn how to use Scattering, Size Jitter, Roundness jitter, Angle Jitter and Spacing to make one bird look like many!