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Curiosity about Photo Shop Brushes

Dakorillon (IMArts)

Dances with Bees
Contributing Artist
I have a question, and while it may sound flippant, it's a real question that I have. Why are there so many photoshop brush collections? What makes them different from each other? (Yes, I know trees are different from snow) But, Frost, Powder, Mist, Fog, Dirt and Glitter brushes aren't that different. It's how you apply them.

When I look at all the Ron's Brushes collections, and the other folks, too, I just wonder do people really use all those? What is it that makes them special? Why do you choose those brushes?

I don't really use Photoshop, so I don't have any axe to grind here, I'm just wondering. I'm thinking about making brush packs for PD Howler, but I just don't know why people collect so many, and therefore would it be worth my effort. Thank you for your answers.
 
D

Deleted member 325

Guest
The big things that tend to distinguish brush collections are:
• Resolution of the brushes
• Quality and crispness
• Variety.
I have a lot of brushes, and some collections that are just my go-to for some tasks and others where I needed 3-4 differing collections by different people for the pieces I needed. Sometimes a brush set is low resolution, or maybe a handful of brushes, or even poorly captured/scanned so it is messy and needs cleaning up.
I am sure there are other factors other artists use too.
 

Dakorillon (IMArts)

Dances with Bees
Contributing Artist
Thank you for taking the time to answer! When you are saying the Resolution, are you talking more about "stamp" type brushes (like a fractal)? or "painting" type brushes (Like glitter)? I would think that a stamp type would need to be bigger/cover the image because it's stamped down once, where a paint type could be much smaller because you were moving it across the image numerous times. Is that incorrect?

I understand the crispness/no -halo needs.

Thank you again for answering.
 
D

Deleted member 325

Guest
To be honest, I sometimes intermix them. Especially this one cloud brush I have...I like to set up as a dual brush, scattering, flip X, flip Y, opacity dynamics, size dynamics, and just go to town with on multiple layers to create cloudbanks and fog... Oh, and some of the Bokeh effects I do similar with to make energy beams, pyres, geysers, explosions...

I guess overall I would be talking about Stamped brushes. It is always easier and better to scale down an oversize brush than to scale up a small one.
 

Hornet3d

Wise
I think the same must be true of all brushes I have certainly found that with the brushes I use in ParticleShop. I have a number of collections such as spaced out, wedding, fantasy, fabric and a few more, almost all purchased on sale. With each brush you can control the colour and how it blends, opacity which is pressure sensitive and many have a texture you can also control. Each set has about 15 brushes but I tend to use about twelve on a regular basis. Oddly I often use a brush from the cloud collection for smoke even though I have a collection of smoke brushes and I have used the brushes from the hair collection a fair bit but hardly ever on hair. Many of the brushes are very similar but some have subtle differences that takes time and use to fully appreciate while others seem to create exactly the same effect.
 

CWRW

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
I use LOADS of photoshop brushes for my own artwork- primarily all Deviney's- they are fabulous quality/sizes that work well for art print reproduction quality. And yes I have used "powder" for "snow" at times and snow for glitter at times and so on. I LOVE the variety that Ron makes and I own probably all of his nature oriented ps brushes (vs Sci-Fi type ones etc). I am def. more about making my own work more "painterly/illustrative" than "photorealistic" so I find the ps brushes add a lot of character and new dimensions to my artwork.
 

Dakorillon (IMArts)

Dances with Bees
Contributing Artist
Thank you all for your answers, it's really helping me to cement my thoughts. I again appreciate the time you took to answer. And Laurie that is an amazing image!
 

Pendraia

Sage
Contributing Artist
I love Deviney's brushes also...I buy the ones that I think I'll use. I use them for a variety of purposes but often for creating my own seamless textures and postwork. I prefer larger brushes as you can scale them down. Sometimes the smaller brushes don't scale up very well...so I suppose I'm looking for resolution plus images that appeal.
 
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