Digital brushes tutorial

As I promised, here is a quick tute on using brushes in photoshop or photoshop elements.
You can get sets of brushes free from lots of sites on the net - just type for example, "leaf brushes"  in google.
You will have to sift through a bit for the free ones, but it's worth it in the end.  also, you will need to find the correct directory to put them in on your computer in program files, so that Photoshop elements can find them.
There are also plenty of tutes on making your own brushes if you feel like more computer time -lol

I use photoshop elements.
First I open a blank document.

Then I use the rectangle tool to fill the background with colour.  This is optional, you can work on a white background if you wish, or add colour when you create the new image.

Next, I create a new layer from the layer menu.  You don't have to do this either, it's just easier to remove a layer if you don't want it later, rather than trying to edit specific things out after the design has become complex.

Next select the brush tool and choose a set of brushes from the drop down box

Then choose a brush.  Once you have clicked on a brush, when you move the cursor over your background, the shape of the brush will be visible.  It will probably be too large for your liking.  It always is for me.  Use the menu bar at the top to alter the size.

Now wherever you click, your shape will appear.  I like to use the leaves one at a time, although you can play with the cursor and make ghost trails etc.  Remember the undo command and also if you have wrecked a whole layer, just delete it and create a fresh one.  Here's my first, very bright layer!

Now, you can create a new layer and add on top of this.  I chose a different brush, size and colour for this layer.

One of the things I find annoying is if all the shapes are oriented the same.  This is another reason for using layers. I can rotate only this layer using the rotate menu.

So you continue on, adding different brush layers,  in different colours and rotations.

The more layers the more complex the fabric or paper you print will be.

Now that's a nice Autumn sort of fabric.
Have fun playing with this, but remember, the fibre is the thing.  A computer is no substitute for some fabric paint and your own creativity.

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll have some fibre stuff for you.

Time to begin again

Well, that was a long time wasn't it?
It's not that I haven't been working, I have, but it has been so hard to get back into my routine.
Best thing is to just do it.
I have learnt, during this hiatus, that my blog helps me to remember what I am working on!!!  
And of course that was the reason I started it in the first place - as a journal.
So where today?
On Mondays, I will endeavour to blog about some mixed media, which shouldn't be very hard, since I have been doing a lot of it.

Digi Fabric

I consider digital imaging to be part of mixed media.  In my case, it is a tool I use in mixed media, either to create papers, or to create fabrics.
I have finally got the hang of using brushes in photoshop and have been making a little bit of fabric.
Here are three brush fabrics which I love.

This one uses leaves, which is my current theme.

This one uses lots of different butterflies.

This one uses lots of speckly distress brushes and is much more controllable than doing it yourself!
Here it is printed on fabric.

This print highlights one of the problems with printing, which I forgot to do and that is to increase the contrast and select vivid colours when printing.
Another thing which also helps is to remember to increase the yellow - even if it looks too much, because yellow can be so easily sucked up by the other colours.  You can see that the main difference between the two pictures is the anount of yellow - And my printer has not run out of it.

Hopefully tomorrow, I will give you a quick tutorial on how to create these textures.
Because Tuesday will be tutorial day!
It's good to be back.