I’m working on a set of Photoshop cloud brushes for the new year, this fluffy cumulus brush will be given away free in this week’s GrutBrushes newsletter, in your email either today or tomorrow. Don’t get the newsletter? Sign up or Register here and you’ll be subscribed
Some Photoshop Gouache brushes that I am working on. I like to work on a few different brushes of one type at a time so that I can see how they work together before I publish them. This is an attempt to get some kind of cohesiveness and continuity within a series of brushes. It’s not easy and I lose that battle more often than I’d like to and while there will always be an outsider brush or two (three?) within a set, by fine tuning them in small groups in the workshop I hope to minimise that.
If one Gouache brush is working for you on a project, but to finish up that last section you need a brush that is just a tad drier, perhaps one that shows a few more bristle marks for a grander dramatic flourish, well I hope to have you covered.
If you are a Photoshop CC 2014 or 2015 user you can use the GrutBrushes plugin to install the free Photoshop brush of the week directly into your tool preset panel and GrutBrushes panel without ever leaving Photoshop!
Instead of clicking on the “Add” brush button to add brushes from your local computer, click on the “New” brush button to add brushes from the web. In the window that opens, navigate to the Free Photoshop brush of the week page and as long as you are logged in (signing up is free) you will see the orange download button, click on it and watch as this week’s free GrutBrush magically downloads, installs, and appears right in your GrutBrushes plugin panel.
Members get to do this with every brush in the shop via the brush portal page so, join as a member or feel free to just keep downloading the free brushes.
plugin:
grutbrushes.com/plugin
Free Photoshop brush of the week:
grutbrushes.com/freebrush
Well that was crazy day. I posted the announcement about the free Photoshop brushes to add LightSabers to your photos on a sleepy Sunday evening, and within less than a day, 4,500 people visited the site with over 1,200 of them downloading the free brushes (They are still there for the taking) This was the first major test of the server which held up under the weight of mini floods of traffic. The vast majority of people came from Imgur.com where it was seen by an astonishing half a million people within about 13 hours.
In contrast, I also posted it on Behance hoping to capture the attention of some designers but after one full day it got just one single lonely little view, and for all I know, that was me.
Join in the fun and download them here: https://www.grutbrushes.com/drinksaber
Relive your memories of a night out with friends as a glorious Lightsaber battle instead by adding Lightsabers to all your photos in just a few clicks with these free Photoshop brushes. Use the hashtag #drinksaber so that I can find your creations!
Continue reading Add LightSabers to Photos with the Lightsaber Photoshop Brushes
This week’s free Photoshop brush is a very fibrous textured watercolour brush called Bran Chatter. You can download it in the shop ( grutbrushes.com/shop ) or on the free Photoshop brush page ( grutbrushes.com/freebrush ) If you want to download the paper texture (PSD file) just click the download button below
You can download this week’s free Photoshop brush until next Monday when, as always, there will be a new brush.
You can watch a video of me painting this here
Here’s the scratch pad from yesterday’s brush experiments in the workshop. These are scrawlings from a number of different unpublished Photoshop brushes that I am working on. About half of them are oil impasto brushes, the rest are natural media or gouache brushes. (Visit the blog post to zoom in and explore the detail of the brush strokes by holding/tapping to magnify)
Perhaps more interesting though, the background is a paper texture (a seamless tile) that is also part of an upcoming series of papers and art surfaces that I am creating. They are PSD files that include several layers and settings to enhance the effect of the paper. The idea is to affect the appearance of the digital ink or paint, simulating real world phenomena such as surface depth, absorption and media pooling and not merely a background over which colour is applied. I plan to release the first ones for free on the site, starting soon (next week?) I will make a special page in the resources where freebies such as these will be available to download. Stay tuned to the blog for updates
The November update to the GrutBrushes cheat sheets & brush stroke guide is here with about 30 new brushes added since the last update.
You can see it online and hover/tap to magnify the brush strokes (the prettiest way to preview) or download one giant Jpeg or PDF
While this is a great way to get a good overview of what all your brushes look like in one go, don’t forget the all important animated brush stroke preview that you get when you click on the red ‘play’ button on every single brush in the brush shop
You can access and see all of these on the brush guides resources page
I painted this Giraffe with this week’s free Photoshop brush “Gritty Bits” a natural media pastel brush, available to download for free through Sunday in the brush shop or on the free brush page:
grutbrushes.com/freebrush
