Brush Challenge Problem

[lilholmes6]

I have downloaded the brush for the brush challenge, but I've never installed or used one and I'm having a difficult time figuring it out. I have PSE 12, I use a PC laptop. I have tried to watch videos, but can't seem to figure that out either. Can someone rescue me again please? Thank You!!!

 

[Alta2014]

You can use it as is, or your can use it like a mask, change the color, not sure if that's what you asking, if not let me know.... your doing great at lerning all this...

 

[lilholmes6]

I used the one that you just pull into the screen. I still haven't figured out how to download brushes or use them once they are downloaded. Thanks for getting me as far as you did. At least I finished the challenge.

 

[Alta2014]

I used the one that you just pull into the screen. I still haven't figured out how to download brushes or use them once they are downloaded. Thanks for getting me as far as you did. At least I finished the challenge.[/QUOT

Are you talking about adding the brushes to your program? I just use them like a mask, you used the brush so you have it downloaded to your computer... To use it like a mask , you click on the brush and click on alpha to selection,then click on the paper you want to use, and click on Layer Image To Size, then go to select and click on invert, then click on delete and it should work, I hope you can understand my directions... hope this helps.

 

[roxyrenders]

Lynn and Alta- here are the how-tos for "loading" a brush into your program. I am using PSE 2018 so some things might be different but should be close enough to figure out. I don't really think this area of the program has changed much though.

- Click in the tool Palette to make the Brush Tool active (Keyboard Shortcut is B)

- In the tool options panel you will see a small display of the current brush with a small drop down arrow beside it. Click on the drop down arrow to open the brush picker dialog window.

- Once the dialog/popup window is open there is a small icon next to the window that shows the brush name category. The wee little icon looks like a bunch of lines stacked on top of each other (I think it is referred to as the Menu Icon) The menu icon has its own wee little dropdown arrow beside it. Click on the little Menu icon to open another dialog/popup window.

- Once the drop down menu window opens - Scroll down to the very last section and click on "Load Brushes"

- You may get a warning dialog to save changes made to current brushes. I clicked on "No" to keep my default brushes category as is. (The new challenge brush loaded as its own category) A window pops up (on a PC it looks like the Windows File Explorer) Navigate to the folder where the new brush is located and select it to open/load. You are looking for a filename extension .abr for the brush file.

- Once loaded - you should see the ghost outline of the new brush -although the Brush Category name may stiil show the the category selected before loading. Once you click on the brush preview to change size, its own category name will show in the Brush Category Window. A side note - I loaded several different brushes so I could get proper steps and noticed that the previously new loads were no longer available in the drop down list so I guess you can only load one brush set at a time.

- Hope this helps!

Some additional tips just for fun.
- In the brush tool options to the right of the panel are three aditional areas
* Mode - this changes the blending mode of the brush and how it interacts with the layer below)
* Brush Settings- here you can change the spacing , rotation, scatter and more of the selected brush- just fun to play with!
* Tablet - these are adjustments if you are using a pen tablet (like a Wacom)

Super Cool tip (I think)
Anytime you are using a brush (get in the habit of doing brush work on its own layer) Hold down the Shift key and start painting- you will get a straight line depending on if you move horizontally or vertically across the page. If you click once with the brush then hold down the Shift and click again elsewhere (not in a straight alignment but so that the second click is at an angle from the first) on the page you will get a diagonal line based on the angle location of the first paint dot to the second.

Take this knowledge a step further. Select a default hard round brush and get the size you like. Then go to Brush Settings and change the spacing. As you increase the spacing you should notice a change in the little brush preview window to show how the brush will look. If you adjust the spacing so that the little dots are just touching and then hold the Shift key down while painting- you will get a scalloped border. Adjust the spacing so that the dots are fully separated. Hold down the Shift key while painting will give you a nice little dotted line accent!

Have fun playing.

 

[lilholmes6]

Thanks Rochelle! I'm going to try all of this this afternoon. You've always got amazing instructions!

 

[Alta2014]

Rochelle is better at explaining how to do this type of thing, I don't have PSE, need to find out if my laptop is compatible for PSE, have been wanting to get a new program...

 

[lilholmes6]

I want to get PSE 18. I think you can use it on an iPad. That would be amazing! I am just figuring out PSE 12 though, but I'm thinking it wouldn't be that different and I think I could learn it.