Paint Shop Pro contains a selection of brushes with preset tips that replicate specific drawing instruments, like a, pen, pencil, marker, crayon, chalk and charcoal. Additionally you can choose Custom Brushes to apply paint in shapes and images. This lesson will describe how to create, save and use custom brushes.   Custom Brush Basics   Creating a Custom Brush Select the area of the image or shape that you want to make into a brush type Select the Paint Brush Tool Select the Brush types button and choose Custom from the drop down menu Click the Create Button, a new brush thumbnail will appear of the image or shape that you have selected   Set the Step Value by clicking on the Edit button to open the Custom Brush edit dialog box and set the value. (remember that the step controls how frequently the brush tip touches the image during a stroke) Note: By default custom brushes will be saved in the Brush folder of Paint Shop Pro. If desired installing brushes outside of Paint Shop Pro use the Edit Paths button to direct Paint Shop Pro to the folder location.   Working with Paint / Custom Brushes Setting the Paint Brush Options Select the Paint Brush Tool The first tab of the Paint Brush Option palette sets the brush tip options Brush Tip Options: Brush Types is a set of preset tips. You can also select Custom Brushes to apply paint in shapes and images Shape sets the shape of the brush tip which are; square, round, left slash, right slash, horizontal and vertical Size sets the width of the brush tip in pixels from 1-255 Hardness controls the sharpness of the brush edges. As the hardness decreases the brush edge softens Opacity controls the amount of paint coverage to the image surface Step controls how frequently the brush tip touches the image during a stroke Density controls the amount of paint applied with each brush stroke. At 100%, the paint will completely cover the applied area. At 1% only a few pixels of the paint will appear on the applied area Build Up Brush when active (click the check box) will give the effect of repeated brush strokes. Each time the brush is applied to the same area more paint is applied. When the option is inactive (clear the check box) the brush applies paint to the applied area once and repainting has not effect. Note: Brushes can not be resized like tubes can. Lesson Plan Now that we have covered the basics of custom brushes you are ready to go have some creative fun. Here are some online tutorials. I know some of these may be repeats - once you have the basics down of the tool, there arent many tutorials available. If youve done these all already, please feel free to experiement on your own, and share 1 or 2 of your new brush creations with the group instead! Please submit at least one tutorial result to the group or you can submit one for each tutorial. Explore and enjoy all the possibilities.             PSP7 Information: How to Download and Save Brushes   Making Custom Brushes Custom Brushes Brush Tutorial   PSP8 Information: Importing Custom Brushes Video Info on the Brush Variance Palette   Create New Brush Tip and Save It! How to Make a Brush in PSP 8 Make a Lilac Brush from Scratch   Bonus Lessons PSP7 Custom Brushes             PSP8 Warp Brush Tutorials [NEW to PSP 8] Warp Brush Vortex Using Warp Brush   You can do anything you like, use any image you like and you can use plugins and filters. Be creative, but, please use the basics of the tutorials.   Lesson Resources There is always more to know and learn about Paint Shop Pro. Here are a few online resources that you might find helpful: How to Download and Save Brushes PSPBook Custom Brushes to Download Paint Shop Tutorials from The Cat Using and Making Custom Brushes in Paint Shop Pro 7   Lesson Submittal Please remember to resize your final image so that it is no larger than 350 pixels on the largest/longest side. Please name your results as:  Your name - cbrush1 (for tutorial 1) Your name - cbrush2 (for tutorial 2) Your name - cbrush3(for tutorial 3) Submit your results to the group at http://pspimaginarium.com/forum   ::Index:: ::Intermediate Series:: ::Glossary:: ::Short Cut Keys:: ::Resources::   Copyright © 2000-2004 PSPImaginarium All rights reserved. Unless specifically made available for download, no graphics or text may be removed from this site for any reason without express written permission from PSPImaginarium Paint Shop Pro is a registered trademark of Jasc Software, Inc.