Making a Brush Random ~ Tutorial

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a Photoshop brush Scatter, random in color, and random in size/shape.

Click the Thumbnails to view larger image version.

Jumping In I hope you have a brush in mind. Select your brush and open the Brush Menu (Window > Brush). Please note that this tutorial is just introducing you to the random brush concepts. I cant give you exact details due to the fact that things change with each brush.

Making your brush Scatter Check the Scattering box and click the option to see its preferences. Here you have the following options; Scatter: Set the Scatter Randomness. (Makes the scatter radius larger or smaller) Count: Set Tip Count. (Changes the number the brush generates) Count Jitter: Set the Count Randomness. (Sets the generated tip count more random) As I was playing with the preferences, I used my brush on my image to sample it. Just go back on your history to remove your brush sample so you can make new samples when you change additional samples.

Changing the Shape and Size of your Brush Check the Shape Dynamics box and click the option to see its preferences. Here you have the following options; Size Jitter: Set the Size Randomness. (changes the size of the random brush) Minimum Diameter: Set the Minimum Brush Diameter. (Sets the radius of the size) Angle Jitter: Set the Angel Randomness. (changes the angles of the brush) Roundness Jitter: Set the Roundness Randomness. (makes the brush more flat) Minimum Roundness: Set the Manimum brush Roundness (makes the brush more round)

Making your brush Change Colors on Random Check the Color Dynamics box and click the option to see its preferences. Here you have the following options; Foreground/Background Jitter: Set the Color Randomness. Hue Jitter: Set the Hue Randomness. (More Variety of Colors) Saturation Jitter: Set the Saturation Randomness. (More Shades of Colors) Brightness Jitter: Set the Brightness Randomness. (Makes colors Brighter or Darker) Purity: Set the color shift towards or away from the nuetral axis. (Makes colors more Pure *grey levels*)

Making the Brush I'm not going into the other options, because that would simply take too long. You can play with the, theres nothing wrong or right when making a random brush. When you get your brush the way you like it, its time to transform it into the actual brush (this way you dont have to set the settings all over again). In the bottom right hand corner you will see 2 buttons. The right button deletes your brush, but the icon on the left creates your random brush. Click the Left Button.

Naming your Brush Everytime you make a brush, be prepared to see this "Name Your Brush" Dialog. Name your brush or go with the default name Photoshop has chosen for you. I like adding "Random" (or Random Colored, Random Sized, Complete Random, Custom, etc.) to the end of the brush name so I can find it easier.

Your Brush is Done You now have a nice random brush in your Brush Menu, that you customized on your own ^^

My Finished Product This is a sample of my finished Random Brush.