Tutorial #2: How to Make a (Circle Mask) Brush
Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4 (But can be followed by older versions)
Level: Easy/Basic
(Will have another tutorial of the same style as last time coming soon; right now, I'm on a deadline and don't have much free time before April.)
This is a very simple tutorial for
uninvitedgrace . She was looking for some 100x100 Circle Masks. So, we’re going to learn how to make our own brushes today! (Even if you don't want to make circles, this tutorial will teach you how to make and save your own brushes. ^_^)
If you want to learn how to do circle masking,
ch_photoshopped has a nice, simple tutorial (and brush set, too!) here.It's really easy to make your own circular brushes. (If you don’t want to take the time to make them, however, you can download the brush set I made during this tutorial here.
(I made these using CS4; I'm not sure if older versions can use these brushes or not. All versions of Photoshop, however, are able to follow the tutorial!)
First, let's make our document.
Go to
File->New
See where it says Untitled-1? Rename that to whatever you want to call your working .psd file. It doesn’t really matter what you call it unless you’re also making an image pack for users of other programs. I’m going to call my document “Circle100.”
At the moment, our Preset should be entitled Custom because we’re going to set the size of the pixels we want for this piece ourselves, rather than choosing one of the default sizes that Photoshop offers.
Next, set both your Width and your Height to 100 pixels.
Click the third button that says Save Preset… (Look at the above image for an arrow pointing to this button).
It’ll ask you to save it as “100 px X 100 px,” and you’ll say OK.
What this means is that the next time you start working with a 100x100 pixel document, you have the option available to you in your pulldown Preset menu, so instead of choosing Custom like we did today and changing all of your settings, you can just click the setting “100 px X 100 px” and say OK. Very easy, right?
Next, go to Background Contents and set it to either White or Transparent; it doesn’t really matter which right now. :)
Okay, Don’t worry about any of the other settings today. I’ll talk more in-depth about this issue in the next tutorial, okay?
Now that our settings are in order, say OK.
There are two ways you can make a brush.
1) METHOD #1:
1. Go to your toolbar. Hold down on the Rectangular Marquee Tool. It has an arrow on it, which means that there's more than one tool for that button. When you hold down on the button, the list comes up. Choose Elliptical Marquee Tool. 
2. Click with your mouse and drag your marquee so that it’s whatever size you want it to be. To get a perfect circle, hold the SHIFT key on your keyboard while you’re dragging. That’s important! My circle is about 60 pixels at the moment.
3. Now, in your color picker, choose black (#000000). Go to your Paint Bucket Tool tool. [refer to Tutorial #1 for how to do this, or any other preliminary steps that I talk about, but don’t stop to explain/show pics of, because I covered them last time].
4. Bring your paint bucket over to your circle. Click and fill the circle with black.
5. Now, go to Edit-->Define Brush Preset…
6. You’ll be asked to give your brush a name.
7. You’ve now made a brush!
**If you want, add a second, smaller circle. Make it gray so that the color will be lighter when you’re using the brush later. Go ahead and save that brush, too!
**Or, make a bunch of little brushes in a row for a circle trail!
2) METHOD #2:
1. Click your brush tool. Choose one of the top brushes on the top line (I’ll choose #19.)
2. To change size of your brush, slide up or down the MASTER DIAMETER bar, or use the [ (smaller) and ] (larger) buttons on your keyboard.
3. Now, in your color picker, choose black (#000000).
4. Go place your brush onto your canvas.
5. Now, go to Edit-->Define Brush Preset…
6. You’ll be asked to give your brush a name.
7. You’ve now made a brush!
As you can see, these two brushes look the same:
If you'd like to save your brushes for use in the future:
(because they're only saved temporarily until you change your brushes out atm...)
2. All of your brushes will appear. Click the brush (or brushes) you want to save and click SAVE SET. Choose the name for your set and where you want it to be stored, then click SAVE.
That's it!