Custom Brushes

For this experiment I am looking at how to create my own custom brushes in photoshop, traditional and found  materials
First I gathered some leafs.

Then I scaned them In full colour at a high resolution to pick up the detail.

Then I opened them up in photoshop and desaturated the colour so that thew brush would work right. I  also adjusted the brightness and contrast to see what effects I could get. Then I defined the brush preset then hey presto, one custom brush.

From there I played with the settings, I used the setting known as scatering to give a scattering effect ,I changed the colour dynamics and altered its size. This opens up even more ways to use photoshop creativly , looking back I could of changed the perspective so it would fit with a certain image, I could change the opacity and build up paintings using this brush, there is just so many things you can do, but I havn't got the time to experiment with them all.

For this texture (custom brush) I used a mixture of salt and ink

For these two I went for a splattered ink effect for the image on the left and a mixture of sugar and ink for the image on the right for a more grainy look as opposed to the finer look of the salt and ink texture.

For these two (above and below I used the found leaf from earlier and aplied some acrylic paint to the surface and made a print.  

Then I used the same process (scan, desaturate, define brush preset.

And this is the final outcome textural brushes there to be used and manipulated if and when they are needed.
This as been a fun task, the final result has realy been effective , it has been nice to use mixed media in a digital form I know this method will come in handy in the future.