Define Brush : Create Watermark Effects

Brush tool in Adobe Photoshop is used basically for drawing and image retouching.There are many types of brushes which can be found in the brush tool menu, which is usually referred as Brush Picker, including soft, hard, spatter, chalk, star etc. Each type has its own significance. Out of these types, soft ones are used for image retouching and rendering different color shades to a picture or to a specific  part of a picture. While the rest of the types are used for drawing in many different ways. Further this tool is used to create descent looking water marks quite easily which can protect your documents from being counterfeited. In short, brush tool can easily be considered a tool which can be used for almost unlimited purposes in Photoshop because here we can not only use the brushes which are given in the menu by default but at the same time, we can create the brushes of our own choice by the option given in the Edit Menu called Define brush. For instance, the following image has been made through the use of a brush that was not available in the menu by default, but I created it to achieve desired effects for the poem I have written for my dearest  but a little bit sad friend. 

Image : Fully illustrated by the use of  brush tool

Here in this post I will explain how can we add a new brush in the brush tool menu and use it to create cool and amazing effects.

How to add a new brush in the brush tool menu?

First of all, open a picture by getting inside the File Menu and clicking the option Open or by hitting CTRL + O.

Open a picture in Photoshop

After that select the whole image by hitting CTRL + A or by getting inside the Select Menu and clicking the option All that is given at the top of the menu.

Options given in the Select Menu

 As soon as you will click that option or hit the keys CTRL + A, the whole image will be selected within an instant and it's edges will start to blink.

Selected image with blinking edges

Then get inside the Edit Menu and select the option called Define Brush.

Define Brush :Define the whole selected image or a selected part of an image as a new brush

As soon as you will select that option, a small window will be appeared called Brush Name. In that window,  the selected image and its height will clearly be visible  at the left side.

Brush Name: Give any name to the brush which is about to be made

 All you need to do here is to type the name of the brush which is about to be created, in the name box and then, click OK. As soon as you will click OK, that small window will be disappeared and a new brush will be added in the brush tool menu and will be seen at the bottom end of the same menu.

Brush Picker and the newly added brush

How to create fantastic effects using Brush tool?

For that purpose, first of all create a new file by getting inside the file menu and clicking the option New or by hitting CTRL + N.

New :Create a new psd file

 Then type the name of the file in the name box and set the required Height, Width, Resolution, Color Mode and Content for your file and click OK.

 Necessary setting for the new file

 As soon as you will click OK, a blank document will be appeared on the screen. The next thing which is needed to be done right after that is the creation of a new layer. So create a new layer by clicking the small icon right beneath the layer window called create a new layer. As soon as you will click that icon a new transparent empty layer will be added right above the white background layer.

Empty file with two layers

Then using Color Picker select two different colors for background and foreground.

Two selected colors for background and foreground

Having done so, select the newly added transparent layer,  by clicking on it, in the layer palette, and in order to fill the background color in it , hit CTRL + backspace.  As soon as you will hit these keys background color will be filled in the layer.

Layer with completely filled pixels

. After that, add another layer by clicking the same small icon I have mentioned earlier.

Empty layer in the palette created for the use of Brush Tool

Then, select the Brush tool out of the tool window.

Brush  and  Pencil: Two tools in the same menu

As soon as you will select that tool, all its options will be appeared at the top of the window right  beneath the menu bar. These options are consist of Brush Picker, Mode, Opacity and Flow. Select the brush you have recently made out of the Brush Picker menu.  As soon as you will select that brush, the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of it.

 Pointer : With equal width and height

Then,  set  the Opacity and the Flow both equals to 100% and out of the Mode Menu select the option Normal. 

Tool options : Mode, Opacity and Flow

 Then put the pointer of your mouse on the document and click once. With that click , a very cool result of all your toil will be emerged on the document in the form of a very nice image.As here I have used, the brush and the canvas, both of the same size ( 1000 X 1000), so there was no need to change the size of the brush here. But in case your brush is smaller than or larger than  the canvas, you can change it's size by hitting '}'(to raise the size of the brush) or '{' (to make the brush smaller).

Image : ready to be used

 After that , select the Horizontal Type Tool out of the Type Tool menu and type some text on the image by following the method I have explained in my post How to put an image inside the text?. And then save the image in your required format by getting inside the File Menu and clicking the option Save As.

I hope you will enjoy this post. If there is any suggestion, confusion or complain , kindly let me aware of that by subscribing your comments.