Hi All: Hoping someone can help me out. As a newbie, I am wanting to use the brushes. I want to create a necklace made of pearls. I created a small pearl on a separate transparent layer, selected it with my rectanglular marquee tool, then went to edit - define brushes, named it "PEARL" and voila....there it was in the brush pallete. The problem is that when I paint with it, it is a shades of grey. The original pearl was white with a gray gradient to look 3d. I had added a lens flare and a drop shadow. I thought maybe it was just this particular object I had drawn, so I tried it with an element that I had downloaded from SBB. I used the wax seal which was red but again it is painting in grey tones.

I have looked in my books for the answer but not able to find it. I may have misunderstanding what the brush pallete can do for me or I don't have the proper settings. I though I would be able to make pearls, then drag and paint them or stamp them on my page.

I would greatly appreciate any help on this one!!!!!

Thanks
Susan

Hi Susan...I hope this helps you out a bit.

Brushes will always paint in the color that your foreground is currently set to. So, if you want a red seal, you need to set your foreground color to red. (You can do this easily by clicking on a red patch in your "swatch" tab)

Unfortunately, brushes don't keep multi-color characteristics. So...you can stamp your pearl...but you would need to add the lighting effects, shadows etc by hand. Adobe Illustrator allows creating "stamps" that maintain the visual integrity but Photoshop is a no go on that.

Just FYI, I wrote a 2-part article about Photoshop brushes for the SBB ezine. The first part is in Oct and the secong part just came out in the Nov ezine. It may be worth checking out.

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Suzanne

Thanks Suzanne. The important piece I was missing with the brushes is, as you mentioned, "Unfortunately, brushes don't keep multi-color characteristics"!!! Well, I guess I just need to work with this and play around with the settings. I greatly appreciate the quick turn around on getting an answer. I'm very impressed but most of all, very grateful I found all of you!!!!

Many thanks!!!
Susan

P.S. The information in the Nov Ezine could not have come at a better time as it explains the brushes. Just what I needed!! Great job once again!!

I'm new to PS but was just reading a book today, couldn't you load the pearl into your patterns palette and use the pattern stamp tool? Would that work?

Anna

Ok, maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying gibbous, but I created a pearl in Photoshop that kept the characteristics I defined. I started by filling an ellipse with gray and adding a highlight. I then added a drop shadow. I selected the pearl and the drop shadow, then defined the brush. See the sample I've attached.

Note, however, if you overlap the pearls, they become translucent. I haven't found a way to make them opaque.

As far as pattern stamping, I tried that too. It stamps the pearls in a grid pattern. I'm not experienced with the pattern stamp so it's possible there is a way to stamp them where you want them. I didn't find the answer with the pattern stamp.

Ronna
(edited for spelling)

Attached Images

pearls.jpg (8.6 KB, 30 views)