Sharp Brushes

[shellb]

Hello,

I have just recently learned how to make my own brushes. When I first created them I was way excited and quite pleased with myself. Well that has now worn off and I am disappointed with their quality. The brushes always seem to be a hazy version of the original picture. (Unless I do fill selection and create a brush from that. Then the brushes are fine. Well, their ok.) The brushes just don’t seem to be as bright, dark or rich like the ones I have seen created by other people. Any tips or ideas on what I might be doing wrong?

[Wendy]

Hi ShellB ...

It sounds like when you created your brushes you did it from a colour (or grey) image.

When a brush is create anything that is black will show strong and solid, white will not show at all and everything inbetween with show at varing stages of opacity ... so ideally (to get a brush that does what you want it to do) the original image needs to be black ...

Wendy :)

[Kathy]

Hi ShellB,

Perhaps using an UnSharp Mask on your "brush image" will clear up some of the "haze" ... really just involves experimentation.

Also ..... play with a Levels Adjustment layer and Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layer on the "brush image" to get the variation from dark to light that you want. Try duplicating the layer and changing the blend mode to multiply. Clean up stray bits with the eraser to get a crisp image.

Hope this helps.

Kathy

[shellb]

Thanks, both of those tips are really good and I will keep working on it. I wasn't sure if it had to do with resolution. The fact that color maybe an issue seems right. Now that I think about all the crystal clear stamps I have seen
(mainly Wendy's Maps and Fairy stamps) they have always been black.



Many thanks!