Creating Custom Brushes in Photoshop / Procreate

Unlock a whole new level of digital artistry by stepping beyond the default toolsets. Creating your own custom brushes in powerhouse applications like Adobe Photoshop and Procreate isn’t just a neat trick; it’s a fundamental way to inject your unique style and workflow efficiencies into your work. Whether you’re aiming for a specific traditional media look, need a quick way to paint repeating elements like foliage or textures, or simply want tools that feel perfectly tailored to your hand, building your own brushes is the key. It might seem daunting initially, but both platforms offer incredibly deep, yet accessible, brush engines waiting to be explored.

Diving into Photoshop’s Brush Engine

Photoshop has been a digital art standard for decades, and its brush engine is mature and powerful. The core concept revolves around defining a brush tip shape and then modifying its behavior extensively through the Brush Settings panel (Window > Brush Settings).

Defining Your Brush Tip

The simplest way to start is by creating a brush from scratch or an existing image element:

1. Create a new document. A size around 500×500 pixels to 1000×1000 pixels is often a good starting point, usually with a white or transparent background.
2. Paint or place the shape you want for your brush tip. This can be anything: a scatter of dots, a textured smudge, a scanned pencil mark, even a photograph element (though grayscale works best for shape definition). Remember: black areas will become the opaque parts of your brush, while white areas will be transparent. Shades of gray create semi-transparency.
3. Once you have your desired shape, make a selection around it (or use Ctrl/Cmd+A to select all if it fills the canvas).
4. Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset. Give your new brush a descriptive name.

Your newly created brush tip will now appear at the bottom of your brush list, ready for customization.

Mastering the Brush Settings Panel

This is where the magic truly happens. Selecting your new brush tip and opening the Brush Settings panel reveals a plethora of options. Don’t be overwhelmed; focus on a few key sections initially: Brush Tip Shape: This is the foundation. You can adjust the Size, Flip X/Y, Angle, Roundness, and crucially, Spacing. Spacing controls how frequently the tip shape is applied as you drag your cursor. Low spacing creates a continuous line; higher spacing reveals the individual tip shape, great for patterns or textured strokes. Shape Dynamics: Essential for natural-feeling brushes.

• Size Jitter: Introduces random variations in brush size. Control lets you link this to Pen Pressure, Pen Tilt, or Fade for dynamic sizing.
• Angle Jitter: Randomizes the angle of the brush tip. Linking this to Pen Pressure or Direction can create calligraphy effects or natural rotations.
• Roundness Jitter: Varies the roundness, useful for simulating natural media like charcoal.

Scattering: Creates multiple instances of the brush tip away from the main stroke path.

• Scatter: Controls how far the tips spread out. Check ‘Both Axes’ for scattering in all directions.
• Count: Determines how many tips are stamped at each spacing point.
• Count Jitter: Randomizes the count for a less uniform look. Great for foliage, crowds, or particle effects.

Texture: Applies a pattern overlay to your brush stroke, breaking up the uniformity. Select a pattern, adjust its Scale, Brightness/Contrast, and Mode (Multiply, Subtract, etc.). Depth controls how strongly the texture influences the stroke’s opacity. Dual Brush: Combines your selected brush with a secondary brush tip. The interaction mode (Multiply, Overlay, etc.) determines how they blend, allowing for complex textural effects. Color Dynamics: Introduces color variation within a single stroke.

• Foreground/Background Jitter: Shifts the color between your selected foreground and background colors. Link to Pen Pressure for pressure-sensitive color shifts.
• Hue/Saturation/Brightness Jitter: Adds random variations to these color components.
• Purity: Controls the intensity or saturation of the color.

Transfer: (Often requires a pressure-sensitive tablet) Controls opacity and flow based on input.

• Opacity Jitter: Varies stroke opacity. Link to Pen Pressure for classic pressure-sensitive opacity.
• Flow Jitter: Varies the paint flow rate. Also commonly linked to Pen Pressure for build-up effects.

Experimentation is crucial. Tweak settings one by one to see their effect. Combine Shape Dynamics with Scattering and Texture for rich, organic brushes. Use Color Dynamics for painterly effects. The possibilities are vast.

Always save your creations! Once you’ve perfected a brush in Photoshop, click the ‘Create new brush’ icon at the bottom right of the Brush Settings panel. This saves the current settings as a new preset. Regularly back up your presets by selecting them in the Brush Preset picker and choosing ‘Export Selected Brushes’ from the gear menu to create .abr files.

Exploring Procreate’s Brush Studio

Procreate, designed for the iPad, boasts an incredibly intuitive yet deep brush creation system known as the Brush Studio. Access it by tapping the brush icon, tapping the brush set you want to add to (or creating a new one by pulling down the list and tapping ‘+’), and then tapping the ‘+’ button in the top right corner.

The Brush Studio Interface

The Brush Studio presents settings logically across several tabs on the left, with a real-time preview drawing pad on the right. It encourages playful experimentation. Stroke Path: Controls the fundamental line quality.

• Spacing: Similar to Photoshop, determines the distance between brush tip stamps.
• StreamLine: Smooths out wobbly lines automatically – a Procreate favourite.
• Jitter: Randomly offsets stamps from the stroke path.
• Fall off: Makes the stroke fade out over its length.

Shape: Defines the brush tip. You can choose from Procreate’s library or import your own image (like the black-on-white shapes described for Photoshop). Key settings include Scatter (random rotation), Rotation (can follow stroke direction), Count, and Randomized source rotation. Grain: This is Procreate’s equivalent of Photoshop’s Texture. It’s the pattern that appears *within* the Shape. Import your own seamless textures or use the library. Settings like Movement (Scrolling or Textured), Scale, Zoom, Rotation, and Depth are critical for achieving specific material feels (canvas, paper, etc.). The Blend Mode here dictates how the grain interacts with the paint colour. Rendering: Controls how the brush blends and renders. Modes like Light Glaze, Uniform Glaze, Heavy Glaze, and Intense Blending offer very different paint build-up behaviours. Flow, Wet Edges, and Burnt Edges add further realism or stylistic effects. Wet Mix: Simulates wet media. Dilution controls wateriness, Charge how much paint it starts with, Attack how much paint is applied initially, and Pull how much it drags existing colour. Essential for watercolour or wet oil effects. Color Dynamics: Offers powerful colour variations within strokes, often linked to pressure or tilt. Stamp color jitter (changes colour per stamp), Stroke color jitter (changes colour along the stroke), and Secondary color effects add immense painterly variation based on Hue, Saturation, Brightness, and more. Dynamics: Controls the brush’s speed-based behaviour. Jitter and Opacity controls can be linked to stroke speed. Apple Pencil: Fine-tunes the response to the Apple Pencil’s pressure, tilt, and even azimuth (requires Pencil Pro). Adjust Pressure settings for Size, Opacity, Flow, Bleed, and Smoothing. Tilt settings affect Opacity, Gradation, Bleed, and Size, crucial for simulating broad-edged tools or shading.

Procreate Brush Ideas

Procreate excels at mimicking traditional media. Try creating:

• Graphite Pencils: Use a textured grain, subtle shape scatter, and link Size/Opacity heavily to Pen Pressure and Tilt.
• Watercolors: Employ Wet Mix (high Dilution, low Charge), adjust Rendering to a Glaze mode, and use Color Dynamics for subtle hue shifts.
• Inkers: High StreamLine, defined Shape source, link Size firmly to Pressure, minimal Grain.
• Texture Stamps: High Spacing on Stroke Path, complex Shape/Grain source, perhaps some Size/Angle Jitter in Shape Dynamics.

Combining Shape and Grain

A key concept in Procreate is the interplay between Shape and Grain. The Shape defines the overall stamp outline, while the Grain provides the internal texture revealed by that shape. Experimenting with different Shape/Grain combinations is fundamental to unique brush design in Procreate. Use simple shapes with complex grains, or vice-versa, to see the effects.

The Universal Truth: Experiment and Practice

Regardless of the software, the path to mastering custom brush creation is paved with experimentation. Don’t be afraid to duplicate existing brushes and dissect their settings. Start small, changing one parameter at a time to understand its impact. Create brushes specifically for a task – a cloud brush, a grass brush, a specific fabric texture brush. Build your library over time. The more you create, the more intuitive the process becomes, and the more your digital toolkit will truly reflect your personal artistic voice. Happy brush crafting!