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Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush

Jul 25, 2007

Hey There

This is a quick tutorial detailing how to create a Grunge Photoshop Brush. Its pretty simple. All you need it Photoshop, some time and a source image to work from. You can use the one provided.

Step 1)

Find an image that you want to turn grungy. It needs to have a lot of texture and interest. Like the one below (Click for full size) I am going to use for this tutorial.

Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush
Step 2)

Open in Photoshop


Step 3)

The next step is to desaturate the image. This is done through Image > Adjustment > Desaturate
Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush
Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush
Step 4)

The next step is to remove some of the image though the levels box. Move the sliders towards the middle and adjust accordingly.

Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush
Step 5)

Looks a bit better and has all the elements to great the grunge effect.

Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush
Step 6)

Use the lasso tool and create a shape around your selected area. Go Select > Inverse and then press delete. This leaves the bit you have selected with the lasso tool and removed the parts of the image. The background is white because that is the arrangement of my palette (black foreground, white background) change your palette to the default is your image appears anything different.

Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush
Step 7)

Here i've readjusted the level again. Just to get a good effect of black and white.

Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush
Step 8)

Add a selected box around the outside of your grudge area. This is going to be used for your brush.

Creating A Grunge Photoshop BrushGo Edit > Define Brush Set

Step 9)

Name appropriately.

Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush
Step 10)

One set up need to do is save the brush out. This is done in the preset manager. If you don't save it out, you can lose it of you reset your brushes.

Creating A Grunge Photoshop Brush
If you find this difficult I have found a good product on GraphicXtras which you can buy. This brush set of 188 Ink and Distressed brushes is great is you use them for these types of applications. You can find the check out page here. The product page can be found at the bottom if you scroll down.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This tutorial is not very helpful. First of all, how did you get from number 5 to number 6? Why is the background white? Please explain it a little better.

James Powell said...

The background is white because the area has been removed by pressing delete.

Anonymous said...

I wish you would explain what you are doing better, I am an advanced Photoshop user and I found it hard to keep up, please explain, you are the only person in the world that would understand this. Very poor quality tutorial. I found this very helpful because of only one thing, the photo. I did the rest from my own experience. I think that this tutorial should be revised and explained properly. Keep trying though, it was a bit helpful.

James Powell said...

Ok Mr Anonymous I will do. You should check out my later tutorials. I think they are written much better.