Using a Clear Brush

[kimi_boo]

Here is something else we went over in class. I am sure this is not a new technique but I had never seen it. Makes a very cool effect! :p

Using a Clear Brush...
I started with one of the gradients we have been doing.
Added a blur, a Wave, some wind and I think a twirl. (just play)
Make sure you have color!!
Add a new layer on top and fill with black.
Select a brush and on the top blend mode pick clear. At 100 % it will go thru to the bottom layer.
I hope someone tries it. :D Here is the one I did this afternoon.

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/gallery/view_img.php?id=11647

[lindajay]

Kimi, I can't wait to try that! Doesn't it remind you of the old elementary school art project where you make a colored design, then put black crayon over top off the picture, and the scrape of the black in places where you want the color to show through. Do you remember doing that? I do.

[kimi_boo]

:D Linda you would have little rolls of color all over the floor. Those poor teachers. I remember trying to see how long I could go without it breaking.

[juneandbob]

kimi sorry about that:o boB

[lindajay]

Kimi, yep! All those black crayon scrapings! What a mess. Isn't Elements a much cleaner medium? :)

Here's one I tried real quickly. I'm sure one could make a lot more elaborate creations. It's fun, Kimi!

http://img321.imageshack.us/img321/5852/leavesqi3.th.jpg (http://img321.imageshack.us/my.php?image=leavesqi3.jpg)

[Robyn]

Thanks Kimi...........that looks like a fun thing to try.

[BettyC]

You guys! The fun never stops! Thanks, Kimi. That will be fun to try! What a beautiful effect!

[kroberts]

Fun effect, I'm anxious to try it! (I can speak from personal experience that it will be much neater than 24 five-year-olds scraping black crayon from their drawings!!) :eek:

[lindajay]

Kim :D . Me too. I taught first grade in a prior life :)

[TonyW]

I'm curious - what's different about using the Brush in Clear mode vs using the eraser? They look like they do the same thing.

Tony

[Wendy]

Tony ...

Thats something I was going to ask ...

I looked it up in the bible and this is what it says ... turns brushes pencil etc into an erasing tool. Given that the eraser does that there is not a lot of reason to use it :confused: :confused:

Wendy

[lindajay]

Tee hee :o . I guess you're right! But I never thought of using the eraser in that manner, so I still learned something new :)

[Pauline]

Well I'm thinking if you are already using a particular brush and want to 'erase' using that brush it's easier to change the blending mode to 'clear' rather than select the eraser and find the same particular brush again.

I didn't know about the clear mode though so that's wonderful to know about.

[lindajay]

And, if I'm not wrong (again ;) ) You can't do jitter, scatter, etc. with the eraser, so you can get a little different effect with the brush in clear mode. Am I right about that?

[Wendy]

hi Linda ...

Yes you are right about that ... I was using the Photoshop Bible and Photoshop has all those options for the eraser whereas Elements doesn't. :)

Wendy

[kimi_boo]

Tony don't crush the wonder of the clear brush. :eek: ;)

It does give you the use of all of the brush options. And like me I bet most didn't know there was a clear brush????? :p

I like it Linda!! :D

[TonyW]

Sorry - no intent to pour cold water on the idea of using a brush instead of an eraser and Lindajay's right - there are more options available. In any case using a fairie brush sounds so much better than using a fairie eraser :D

And I didn't know there was a clear option either - I had to go looking.

Tony

[kimi_boo]

Tony... :D :p :D

[jo]

Using a Clear Brush...
I started with one of the gradients we have been doing.
Added a blur, a Wave, some wind and I think a twirl. (just play)
Make sure you have color!!
Add a new layer on top and fill with black.
Select a brush and on the top blend mode pick clear. At 100 % it will go thru to the bottom layer.
I hope someone tries it. :D Here is the one I did this afternoon.

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/gallery/view_img.php?id=11647Does this mean that a clear brush erases all the layers below? Maybe this is the difference between a clear brush and the eraser.

[Wendy]

Hi Jo ...

No it just works on the one layer ... :)

I think the reference to the bottom layer just means that it will let it show through ...

Wendy

[GaryK]

Ok .. Just tried it... doesn't go to the bottom layer... but cool things if you then switch the colour and use the behind mode.. it paints the new colour on the exposed underneath layer only. :eek:

[GaryK]

ooo Behind is even wierder :D

Once you have painted part of cleared area using behind then it locks it and if you use behind again with another colour it only goes to the unbehinded cleared area. :confused::confused:

[kimi_boo]

Gary I have never played with behind. I will have to try.

Not everyday a person gets to play with the unbehinded cleared area.:eek: :D

[GaryK]

Kimi

I lernt thet on my therd yeer of graid 4. :D:D

[NMarti]

Okay I wanna play. I haven't been doing much of that lately so I'm combing this one with Wendy's fairies to create this:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Sao4oRiahFVUkF2djlbi0qV7U7Mj1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Sao4oRiahFVUkF2djlbi0qV7U7Mj1)

I used a wave filter on the gradient and played around with the settings until I liked it.

[GaryK]

More experimenting.... my squiggles are not near as nice as Nancy's creation.

Cool effect Nancy :)

The "behind" works the opposite of lock transpareny in the layers pallet. It locks all that is NOT transparent.

[Jan Ruthig]

That was FUNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1zD63OiRfqQkyxz6mUZP45nwTg0kHH1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1zD63OiRfqQkyxz6mUZP45nwTg0kHH1)

[GaryK]

Jan


you bad....:D:D

[lindajay]

Nancy -- that's beautiful!

[ChristineV]

here is my try .. but I used the eraser brush ..

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1sFYRdTD1SLjsoy8Eup4fIWdUgd_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1sFYRdTD1SLjsoy8Eup4fIWdUgd)

[ChristineV]

Nancy! I Love it!!!

[lindajay]

Christine -- another great piece of art!

[NMarti]

Thanks guys - this could be addicting just like orbs. Christine - I really like that! Gary - where's your squiggles? I can't find them.

[kimi_boo]

Nancy, Jan & Christine... :D :D :D

Come on Gary, where is yours?? You are talking the talk but how about walking the walk??? :p
Show us your behind!

[Jan Ruthig]

Yeah Gary!!!! Come on!!! Where's your's???????And why do you think I'm bad????? :eek: :)

[AngelicKim]

So many different ones here ot remember each name as I get to page 4 of this so this goes to everyone who has posted their versions.

TOTALLY AWESOME.

I need to stop reading the forum post and try some more of the things I am reading here. I have 35 pages of tips and tutorial in word now.

[Jan Ruthig]

Kim,

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about!!! :eek: I spend to much time drooling over the creations of others and not working on anything. This time I just had to try it and I had just downloaded a bunch of new brushes. What fun!!!!! :D :D

[AngelicKim]

Jan, I am half tempted to take my laptop camping with me so I can do some of the great things while my husband and son are off fishing. My husband would probably kill me though.:D I have spent so much time reading the forum that I haven't even played with my new Wacom tablet yet.:(

[Robyn]

I go to the city for 2 hours shopping and come back to this thread.............not fair, you have all been playing without me! :D :D

My head is spinning with all these suggestions..............:eek:

Kim......I have a confession to make....I have just ordered a laptop so that when we go to our holiday place and they are all off fishing........(I'll just say this quietly).......I'm going to be playing in Elements!!

[virgo1]

Robyn and Kim,
I'm with you. I took the laptop camping.:D This one looks like fun. I'll give it a go in the morning, I'm getting tired.
Eva;)

[Vesta]

:D Hey you guys I can't try this if it has a behind because I am already behind; but then I could just get to the clear mode or maybe just use the eraser then I wouldn't be behind:D I have just got to go to bed but thanks for the bedtime chatter I'll be laughing in my sleep. Great pic.

PS: Nancy that is great did you use a particular brush to start if so what is it? It is so pretty.

Vesta

[Jan Ruthig]

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1lO4giignpHUrJYUrtaNzLZHFvUHIg_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1lO4giignpHUrJYUrtaNzLZHFvUHIg)


OOOppppppppsssssssss!!!! Another one!:eek: :eek: Just can't resist!!!!!:D

[AngelicKim]

Ok, thats it. I'm taking the laptop and the wacom so I can play with it too. If you don't hear from on Tuesday morning you'll know my husband caught me on the laptop. :eek: Please go to Baldwin, Michigan and see if you can find me and my laptop floating in the Pere Marquette River.:D :D :D

[Jan Ruthig]

Have a great trip!! Hope the weather stays nice! :)

[AngelicKim]

Thanks Jan. From the weather reports I have seen it should be a perfect weekend. Mid 70's during the day and no chance of rain til late Monday and that is for a 30% chance of isolated thunderstorms. You know how those go around here. Slim to none chance.

You have a great weekend too. Try to drag yourself away from here at least a little while.:)

[Robyn]

Sensible decision Kim. :D Horses for courses...........let them go off and play their silly little fishing games...........you can get on with the important stuff......the stuff that REALLY counts! :D :cool: :twisted:

[AngelicKim]

Robin, I'll have to do that. I have had PSE3 for a year now and never done more than simple editing because I didn't know how to use anything and couldn't find help in forums. Thankfully a few weeks ago I found this site. I had no idea it did so much.

[Wendy]

Oh my goodness ... they are amazing !!

I really have got to play with this ... as soon as I have had breakfast I will :)

Wendy

[NMarti]

Vesta
I actually used 3 sets of brushes. The first was Fresh Foliage brushes from here:
http://designfruit.com/jasongaylor/blog/?p=37

Then I used Wendy's fairy brushes from the subscriber section and finally the SkipStar Sparkle brushes from Adobe exchange.

[Pauline]

These are fantastic. Looks like everyone is having fun with this. The good thing about using elements for a while, is that sometimes you can actually remember stuff without having to write it down!

[ChristineV]

This is quite addicting! I will have to go back and try the clear brush to see if there is a difference but all I did was use a color gradient one one layer, make a new layer and fill it with black over the color gradient layer then I used the eraser brush .. that was it!! I started out to try it with 1 large fairy and my 7 year old son said wow that looks neat! Then proceeded to tell my 4 year old .. I can show you how to do that on paper! LOL

I did use some other filters after. But this is really neat and a great way to make scrapbook papers too!

[Jan Ruthig]

Vesta
I actually used 3 sets of brushes. The first was Fresh Foliage brushes from here:
http://designfruit.com/jasongaylor/blog/?p=37

Then I used Wendy's fairy brushes from the subscriber section and finally the SkipStar Sparkle brushes from Adobe exchange.


Nancy,
The foliage brushes are so nice!! I can't get Wendy's fairy brushes to work though. I'll have to try downloading them again.

[Wendy]

Hi Jan ...

Sorry to hear that you are having problems with the brushes ... what is happening with them ??

Wendy :)

[Jan Ruthig]

Wendy,

I was getting a 'wrong format' message. I just re-downloaded them and deleted the old one. It is working fine now. Who knows?? :confused:

I have just recently moved all my downloaded brushes to a new folder and perhaps something happened to it then. I really needed to manage my downloaded brushes, fonts, etc. better because every time I open the forum someone has a link to another fantastic site and I of course just HAVE to have it too!!! :p

[Wendy]

Jan ...

Oh I know what you mean about just having to have things ... I'm a font addict and everytime someone mentions a font I have to close my eyes and resist it :D :o :o

Wendy

[Jan Ruthig]

Yeah, I had to have a new folder for those too! Just can't resist! Just one more! :o :p


By the way, thanks again, Kimi for starting us off on this thread. It has been so much fun!

[ktnoon60]

What great creations everyone, it looks like a fun technique.

Terry

[NMarti]

Jan
I love those brushes. I've used them in several projects and really like the way they look.

[TonyW]

Some wonderful images. BTW the Paint Bucket also has a clear mode. My Bible says it can create unique effects but what they are they don't say and I haven't got a clue what they might be. Something else to play with :)

Tony

[Wendy]

Tony ...

I read that too ... then I waded through the section on the paint brush tried it out and all it does is make sections vanish (instead of filling section with paint) ... Ummm it wasn't very exciting to me :D :D and I'm still looking for that unique effect :D :D

Wendy

[David Asch]

I'm curious - what's different about using the Brush in Clear mode vs using the eraser? They look like they do the same thing.

Tony

I'm glad someone else mentioned that. I was ready to hang up my tablet and get a job at McDonald's polishing the cleaner's shoes.

I assume it's so you can stay with the current brush size/settings and erase with that, rather than going through the hassle of setting up the Eraser itself.

[NMarti]

I think there is no difference if you don't want to rotate your brush. The eraser can't be rotated (at least that I know of) and the brush can so you can get the "scattered" look that several of the people have shown.

[ChristineV]

I think there is no difference if you don't want to rotate your brush. The eraser can't be rotated (at least that I know of) and the brush can so you can get the "scattered" look that several of the people have shown.

Ah!!! Thank you for explaining that .. I have not figured out how to make a brush clear (haven't tried) I have been using the eraser and was a bit disappointed that I could not rotate ;)

[Wendy]

Hi Christine ...

Select a brush and then look at the blend modes at the top of the screen ... just change it from Normal to Clear ... and there you go :)

Wendy

[ChristineV]

Thanks Wendy .. Ummm ... That was easy :o

[GaryK]

Oh boy


Hit the hay early last night.. final move in/out day for my son ... get back and look what has happened.

Sorry.. my behind was not saved so it is gone:D

Truly was just some squiggles to see if I could sort out what was going on. I have no idea what you would use this for other than what I have seen.. and all are marvelous.

Jan

You were bad because of the link to pixentral.. not working properly. :D

Well now to celebrate having an extra room for a while :D

[NMarti]

Gary
When my daughter moved out on a Friday - I moved my office furniture in on Saturday. Didn't want to give her a chance to change her mind and me lose the office I had waited patiently to get for nearly 24 years. :D

[JRR]

What a fun thread! Scratch Art is back - I may have to play, too. Everyone's examples are fabulous.

[GaryK]

Nancy

Things progress a little slower around here. :)

I know his sis has some designs on his room, but I think more for prissing and preenig :D or at the very least more closet space.

I now have an extra computer (he only took one) but no desk. I don't have a large house so space is at a premium.
I do want to have a place for him to sleep for the forseable future (just second year Univ. the problem is he is a co-op student so I never know where his next work term will be.)

[kimi_boo]

Gary
When my daughter moved out on a Friday - I moved my office furniture in on Saturday. Didn't want to give her a chance to change her mind and me lose the office I had waited patiently to get for nearly 24 years. :D
Nancy LOL!! You are doing much better than I am. My 20 year old moved out to start her Sophomore year and I forbid anyone to touch her room. There it sits empty... her mother hoping she will come to here senses and move back home. :o We are 20 minutes away from the University. Now she is only 5. (sigh)

[CarolLHB]

WWaaaaaahhhhh!!! I go away for a minute and you guys are doing all this cool stuff! How do you do this? I mean from the beginning :o...I wanna try this, but I have no idea where you all started...:( behind the 8-ball again...anyone willing to go back to square one for me:D?

[lindajay]

Hi Carol,
I think Kimi's very first post in this thread is what got us all started on this (she gives basic instructions). It's not difficult, and is a lot of fun. Also, people have come up with a lot of variations as we went along. Have fun!

[CarolLHB]

Linda-I went back and re-read the first post (I'm an idiot...:o) I was reading it too quickly and missed the first part about the gradients. Thanks! Looking forward to trying this!

[Wendy]

Carol ...

You go away for a little while and look what you have missed !! :)

Wendy

[CarolLHB]

Wendy, dear-I have learned my lesson!!!! As Dorothy said, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home...":D

[Wendy]

Carol ...

Welcome home :D :D

Wendy

[NMarti]

Gary and Kimi
I talked her out of moving out at 18, at 19, at 20, at 21. At 22 I started suggesting it was time, at 23 I said it really was time and by 24 when she announced she found an apartment I started helping her pack that day! :eek: I love her dearly but there's only so much room for the Alpha female - ME - to claim her space. :D

[jo]

I love her dearly but there's only so much room for the Alpha female - ME - to claim her space. :D

I have to laugh! Someone suggested that I consider moving in with my daughter (because of some scary health problems) and when I told her that that idea was even scarier she laughed. But, in my opinion, there's only room in a household for one female who is used to being in charge!

[snooze]

Here's my try at this cool technique. Thank's Kimi.

Dennis

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1TOZTMongvadBF4MFxmHJxNEO3neyu_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1TOZTMongvadBF4MFxmHJxNEO3neyu)

[ChristineV]

Oh I like that one Dennis!

[jo]

Very nice, Dennis!

[kimi_boo]

Oh, Dennis. That is wonderful!! :D :D

[Caroleen]

linda, your gallery is beautiful. You really have some nice photos and designs. You must have been doing photoshop for some time. I just started about 2 weeks ago. I still haven't uploaded my first "Art". How did you do your edging on your flowers thats the main photo now? That as really good.

[kimi_boo]

That jumped out at me also. It is lovely Linda!! :) Were the edges the masks we have been playing with?

[lindajay]

Caroleen and Kimi, thank you. Yes, Kimi, I used one of the edges we've all been trying out. Caroleen -- take a look at this thread: http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13137&highlight=edges It'll tell you how to download and use these wonderful edges.

[apasskey]

Hi Kimi - You have done it again!! Thanks for having the uncanny ability to get us all involved in fun techniques!! Here is my try. Andie

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1DHWaSRzMqeEfSk0CeUyrwJz0rg90_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1DHWaSRzMqeEfSk0CeUyrwJz0rg90)

[karen donnybrook]

Andie,

That is great, I like the stars you have put in it.

Karen