Making a Brush from an Image ~ Tutorial ~ http://www.endlessrain.org/

In this tutorial I will teach you how to take certain things from images, and turn them into a Photoshop Brush.

Selecting the Image

I'm going to choose this image because it has a bunch of nifty feathers. Not only that, but the image is pretty large so the feathers will make great size brushes.

Finding the First Brush

I found the area I want my first feather brush from. I'm just going to select my Polygon Lasso Tool then zoom in.

The Target

This is the feather I'm going to make into a brush. I zoomed in so selecting it will be easier. Zooming in anywhere from 200%-1000% is good.

At this point make sure your target is pretty decently smooth in quality. You dont want a poor quality brush now do you?

using Filter > Blur > Smart Blur at around 5% Threshold will probably clear up most targets. You dont want to Smart Blur it too much.

Pulling the Target from the Image

We obviously cant select around the target because then it wouldnt be just the feather (since the surrounding area isnt white). Therefor we have to select the target ourselves.

The Polygon Lasso Tool is perfect for this. If you try using the Wand Tool you'll end up with jagid edges, and you dont want that for your brushes.

The way the Polygon Tool works is very simple. You left click once to start it, and double left click to end it. Sample this if your still unsure, by clicking an area, clicking 2 additional areas, then double clicking. See how it works now?

Start tracing around your target until its completely selected. To make multiple selections (incase you need to make multiple polygons), just hold down the Shift Key.

Rectangular Marquee Tool

Select this tool, now right click on your image.

Copy the Targer

Select Layer Via Copy. This will move your selected target to a new layer.