Making a Moon Brush

I think Photoshop is one of those programs that even if you have used it for years, there is always something new to learn. I started using Photoshop at the start of the millennium, but it was only last year that I discovered the magic of brushes. My version of Photoshop is the very ancient CS2 for Mac, but I'm sure most everyone can follow along with me.

Brushes are very handy for anything monotone that you use a lot, or for something that repeats on your work. I've created brushes for the moon, trees, stars, shells, pearls, and one I use to trim my clouds. (Yes, you can use brushes with the eraser too.)

So, here's how I did the moon:

First of all, I found a picture of the moon at the NASA site and I trimmed away the black  space and left the background transparent. Then I reversed the image. Since the moon is white against a dark background, this is a necessary step, unless you want your brush to come out as a negative moon. I also lightened it, because the outer space pictures have more contrast than what we see here on earth.

Click image to enlarge.

The next step was to choose define brush preset which is located in the edit menu.

Click image to enlarge.

It will ask you to name the brush, and then the brush is created. It appear with your preset brushes. Now you can stamp away with your new brush. You can make it bigger, smaller, colored, or change the transparency. To toggle the size quickly, use the [ and the ] keys.

There are numerous tutorials on the web that also teach about brushes. Just google away and you will find them.