| If you wish to make truly your own custom Feather brushes, you'll need Feathers! The nearest crafts store in your area should be able to supply your needs. Simply scan the Feathers into the computer and they'll be ready to start the brush creation process. |
1.) Open a scanned
image of Feathers. Locate a Feather you wish to work with then Select
the Rectangular Marquee tool 
and Drag a Selection around the Outside perimeters of the image.
Go to Edit > Copy. Next, go
to File > New. When the Dialog
box appears, just click OK, then go to Edit >
Paste. You can then close the Original scanned
image. |
| This image was Selected because it lacks good beginning detail (typical of these types of objects). By following the methods shown below, you will be able to turn a faulty image into a good one ready for brush making. Next, go to Image > Canvas Size. When the panel appears, add 50 pixels to the Width and Height Dimensions and make Canvas extension color White, then click OK to apply and Enlarge the space. Is the image showing shadowing at the borders? |
 |
| Press Ctrl+L to bring up the Levels palette. Move the Top Right slider until the edge shadow disappears, then click OK to apply. |
 |
| 2.) Run a Sharpen Filter. (Which Filter depends on the amount of detail you wish to produce.) I used Filter > Sharpen More. This brought in a good amount of detail to the Bottom part of the image. |
 |
3.) Evaluate the image
at this point. Is there anything in the image you wish to fix? I
decided to alter some details in the Lower half of the feather (Left
image). Select the Clone Stamp tool  .
Go to the Options bar and Select a Soft Round Brush. (I used the
Soft Round 45 pixels brush.) Carry it
over the work area to an area adjacent to the fix, Hold the Alt
key (curser will change to a target) and click once to pull a sample
from the feather (Right image.) |
 |
   |
Now, just click
on the image on the areas you wish to fix. |
 |
4.) Let's add some
detail now to the Top portion of the image. Hold the Shift key and
Tap L until the Polygonal Lasso
tool 
becomes Selected. Go to the work area and Click+Drag to Create a
Selection (Left image). Go to Filter > Sharpen.
Now, press Ctrl+F to apply the Filter one more
time, then press Ctrl+D to Deselect Selection (Right
image). |
  |
| 5.) One last Step now to adjust the Shadow and Highlights. Go to Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlights. When the panel Opens, just click OK to apply. (Some images may require small adjustments made.) In this case, click the Preview box to turn OFF and ON the effects (watching the image) as you adjust. |
 |
Here is the finished
image now ready to be turned into a quality brush. |
 |
| Create the Brush.
Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset.
Name it as you wish, then click OK to Create. |
 |
Here is a comparison
between our starting and finished image turned into brushes. |
  |
Moving on... Choosing a light purple
for the Foreground Color, the brush was then stamped into a Black
Background. Ctrl+T was used to bring up the Free
Transform bounding box and the image was rotated. The Dodge
tool 
was then chosen and the Soft Round 100 pixels
brush was Selected. Range was set to Highlights
and Exposure was adjusted to 10%. |
 |
Using the Dodge
tool, the edges of the feather were then repeatedly scrubbed to
Create this effect. |
 |
| You will find this brush and others located in the brush pak named SD-Feathers. |
Sample
or Preset files are available at the main index Mastering
Brushes for Photoshop. |
 |
Copyright © 2006-2007 Glenn Schemenauer - Spacific
Designs™ - All rights reserved. |
|
