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When Photoshop’s Eraser is too soft…

compare Grutbrushes sharp eraser vs Photoshop's default eraser at 100% hardness.
compare Grutbrushes sharp eraser vs Photoshop’s default eraser at 100% hardness.

Sometimes Photoshop’s eraser is just too soft, even with hardness set at 100%  The GrutBrushes Sharp Eraser gives you a crisper alternative. At it’s maximum edge hardness, the default Photoshop eraser still leaves quite a soft feathered edge. If you zoom in really closely you will see that it has up to 3 pixels of feathering, that means that from opaque to transparent there is a smooth gradient of 3 pixels. That may not seem like much but it really does make a difference and has the overall effect of creating a soft smudgy fade around anything you erase. Without any feathering at all, your erased lines could  appear too sharp, like pixel art. With the GrutBrushes Sharp Eraser, that gradient edge transition from opaque to transparent is reduced to 2 pixels or less, depending on the angle of the brush stroke and results in a much crisper erase line and overall appearance. It also enables you to be a bit more accurate with your eraser and get tighter lines.

Download it for free until July 11th with coupon code eraserfree on GrutBrushes.com: grutbrushes.com/shop/

 

 

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GrutBrushes Brush Stroke Guide Cheat Sheet Now available!

Download cheat sheet for all GrutBrushes Photoshop brushes
The GrutBrushes Photoshop brush stroke guide is here!

You can now see hand drawn brush strokes representative of every single Photoshop brush by downloading the brush stroke reference guide from the new ‘resources‘ section on GrutBrushes.com  It’s available to download as either a JPG or PDF (It’s a tall image, so be sure to zoom in!) Or view the online version where you can hover over a brush stroke and see it up close with a magnifier window.

There are more guides on the way, including a detailed brush stroke sampler for each brush that shows a standard variety of brush stroke drills. Inspired by the excellent real media brush reviews by  Teoh Yi Chie of Parka Blogs who turns reviewing art supplies into an art form of it’s own.

Of course, the best way to preview the brushes is still to click the play icon on each brush in the shop and watch it drawing ‘live’ in front of your eyes. But I hope the one page catalogs will be a useful visual references when you are looking through your list of GrutBrushes or just need some inspiration.

GrutBrushes Brush Stroke Guides:
grutbrushes.com/photoshop-brush-strokes-guides/

GrutBrushes Online Brush Stroke Reference
grutbrushes.com/photoshop-brushes-online-catalog/

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Painting with mixed media brushes in Photoshop

Painted in Photoshop with 4 GrutBrushes
Painted in Photoshop with 4 GrutBrushes

Mixing media in Photoshop. This was painted with four GrutBrushes;  the PasteUp watercolour brush, Splatter Reed ink brush and two natural media brushes, Wren’s Tendril and Poster Parched. All these brushes can be found in the brush shop

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Free GrutBrush of the week #14 – “Razor Strap” Photoshop oil Paint Brush

Free grutbrush of the week #14 - Free Photoshop oil paint brush
Free grutbrush of the week #14 – Free Photoshop oil paint brush
Painting done with the Razor Strap Photoshop Oil Brush. A realistic, responsive, Oil Paint Brush for digital artists.
Painting with the Razor Strap Photoshop Oil Brush.

This week’s free brush is a contoured oil brush with thick if broken up coverage at full pressure it has a lighter wetter coverage at low pressure with traces of pigment deposits amongst the medium toned turpentine like wash.

As always, you can download it from the shop or the member’s free Photoshop brush page for free until the end of this week (June 22) when there will be a new free brush.

Update (June 21) Anyone who downloaded after Thursday and got a corrupted zip file (so sorry!) please try re-downloading it here. I will keep this brush free here through Tuesday the 23rd:

 

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Free GrutBrush of the Week #07 “Gallic Whey” Oil Brush

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'Gallic Whey' Photoshop Oil Brush for digital artists
‘Gallic Whey’ Photoshop Oil Brush for digital artists
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Brush strokes of a digital oil painting done using the Oil Brush toolset 'Gallic Whey' for digital artists
digital oil painting brush strokes created with the ‘Gallic Whey’ Oil Brush toolset 
A soft oil brush with a fairly wide opacity range and a medium amount of range in width from minimum to maximum stylus pressure. At low pressure, this brush has a more dilute fill than some of the other more pasty opaque oil brushes which makes it a more subtle tone brush but still with the signature oily blotchiness and at the highest pressure it has a sharp crisp edge.[/twocol_one_last]

As always, you can download it from the shop or the member’s free Photoshop brush page for free until the end of this week (May 3) when there will be a new free brush.

*Requires Photoshop cs5.5 or higher and a pressure sensitive graphics tablet. Free registration required to download.

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This week’s free Brush – Brash Mass

Brash Mass Natural Media Brush. A bold, robust brush with broad cover and a strong unambiguous graphic presence. In a manner unique to digital brushes this ink-like brush has ultra-sharp crisp aliased edges while displaying a base texture more reminiscent of softer media like pastel. Although you can get a fairly sparse grainy cover at low pressure this brush quickly goes to full opacity with minimal pressure making it best for broad, confident graphic strokes.

Log in and download it now Free until April 5 2015

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Announcing ‘Free Brush of the Week (or so)’ Page

 

'Crumb Runner' Photoshop Watercolor Brush for digital artists
First Free Photoshop Brush of the Week – ‘Crumb Runner’

As a member (signup/login for free) you can now download a new free brush every week on the free brush of the week page as well as on the home page. I will confess now that I don’t know if I can always meet that schedule, sometimes a good brush takes a little longer, that’s why I’m referring to it as the free brush of the week ‘(or so)

If you miss it for free each brush will move to the store where you can always purchase it and a new free brush will take it’s place.

Without further ado, here is the first free brush! Continue reading Announcing ‘Free Brush of the Week (or so)’ Page

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“Tailors Mane” Photoshop Pastel Brush

Digital drawing done with the Tailors Mane Photoshop Pastel Brush. A realistic, responsive, Photoshop Pastel Brush for digital artists.
There’s a new natural media brush in the shop today, a digital pastel brush, though at full pressure it looks quite chalky due to it’s sharp texture.

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'Tailors Mane' Photoshop Pastel Brush
‘Tailors Mane’ Photoshop Pastel Brush
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A thick sharp textured pastel brush with a ribbed staccato line that covers quickly and fully at maximum pressure. With a gentle touch this pastel brush is capable of a sparser almost chalk-like line sketch but it comes to life as a broad and brash sketching brush.

$1.00Add to cart

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