How to create a good brush stroke (?Dry brush?)

[darlingm]

I want to create a brush stroke, in the realm of the image shown below. (I'm just referencing the image, I didn't create it, and don't create it.) Not looking to duplicate it, of course, just like how there's a lot of variance in it.

I'm a fairly experienced Photoshop user, but haven't done much with brushes besides changing size and hardness. I've installed Gradient Shapes and SimpleSmudges brushes (links below), and am completely failing at using those brushes to create anything useful like their examples. I've played a lot in the brush panel, trying changing flow rate, angles and the panels shape dynamics/scattering/texture/dual brush/color dynamics/etc/etc.

Probably doesn't matter, but I'm using CS6.

Sorry these links aren't text, I can't post links yet...


This is sort of like what I want to do



This is the best I've done so far, LOL.

 

[darlingm]

Been a few weeks, so I'll try again.

 

[darlingm]

Still would love to know how to do this. Any assistance would be much appreciated!

 

[ibclare]

I personally don't know how this is achieved. I actually tried to reproduce the result of the first image when you first posted.

It wouldn't surprise me if someone scanned in a brushstroke and created a brush from it.

The second, though I am not sure of what was used to create the ribbon-like shapes, they were probably made one layer over the other using a pen tool for each one. Then a gradient was applied to each ribbon. I suspect that a mask and black to clear gradient was then applied again to have the ends vanish. Just a guess.

 

[rev]

Hello,
I myself tried something like this and suffered
One day, an idea occurred to me and soon, I was able to do what I (and you) wanted. A little bit of "think outside the box" was all that needed. Without much ado, you can begin with a single click of a natural dry brush (like #1 in my image) and use the puppet warp and the good old warp tool. Just try to make it look natural, which may need some practice and time, but not too hard at all. (So, instead of painting with a brush tool, you morph a given brush image into the shape you want) #2 is a result of my quick practice: not quite the best, but hopefully good enough as a proof of concept). I may have used a bit of masking to remove stray pixels on the edges.


If you want to make more than 1 such strokes in one image, you can use a slightly different original stroke to prevent the boring repetition. Also, you can combine multiple dry brush stokes into one and use the (puppet) warp tool as well. If you are careful, one brush image can be extended quite long for sophisticated image/letter. Again try to eliminate unnaturally extended pixels and weird angles/foldings that may be caused by these tools.


In #3, I also tried to simulate the "the gradient brush", again using our good old warp tool. Briefly, make a simple rectangular gradient and use the warp tool creatively. Apparently, it is quite different from your image, but I think you get the idea. The blue strip was warped even more to hint what can be achieved with the warp tool.


Finally, I will give you the link (well, I just learned that as a total new comer, I am not allowed to leave a link) You can google with the following keywords: planetphotoshop got a light corey. I learned one or two things about creative use of warp tool from Corey's excellent tutorial.




Rev