Abstract Brushing Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

I am working with Photoshop CS in this tutorial. In other versions, there may be some variation with the position of various tools and menus. I'm sorry, but I'm unable to cover every version available! 1. Make yourself a new document, about 600x600, and colour the bass layer black. Now go to Filter/Render/Difference Clouds, and do this 4 or 5 times. Then go to Filter/Blur/Radial Blur, and set it to 100, Zoom, Best. Now create a new layer above, and go to Filter/Render/Clouds. Keep doing this until you get something with lots of contrast. Now change the layer type to Overlay, and press Ctrl+E to merge the layer down. Creat a layer underneath and fill it with black, and then change the layer opacity on this layer to about 50%. You should have something like this:



2. Now create a new layer, and select the circular feathered brush (the one that fades out) and change the brush size to around 350. Now in white, click in the center of your canvas. Now go to Filter/Artistic/Sponge, and use the default settings. Then Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur, and apply a roughly 3.5 pixel blur. Sometimes it can be worth duplicating this layer if you want a brighter center to your peice. I now have this:



Now you need some abstract brushes. The best place for these is www.deviantart.com, under resources. Download a couple of sets and unzip them to C:/Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop 7.0/Presets/Brushes/Adobe Photoshop Only (assuming you are running PS7 as I am). These brushes will look something like this , create the brush yourself by using part 2 of this tutorial by clicking here



4. Apply your brushes so that it looks like they are shooting outwards from the center, as shown below. This is very much down to your own personal judgement as to where you put them. If you place them all on seperate layers, it makes them easier to edit individually, especially rotating them (ctrl+T) so you can place them where you want on the canvas. Not all brushes come pointing in the direction you want! Turn the opacity down on some layers, to leave some variation in the brightness, and do not cover the whole area with these brushes. Here is what I have so far:



5. Now we need to create some "pixy dust". These are the star-like jobbies you see used frequently in work such as this. You can often download pixy dust brush sets, but if you would rather make them by hand i will explain how to do it quite simply: First of all, reset your brushes to the default ones, and select the smallest circular feathered brush (It should be around 5 pixels). Now above your list of menus on the right (Navigation, Colour, History and Layers) there are two tabs: File Browser and Brushes. Click the brushes tab, and under the Shape Dynamics tab change the size, angle and roundness jitters to 100%. Then with the Scattering tab make sure the scattering is set to 1000% on both axis, and the count is set to 1. You'll be able to see what this does by dragging your brush over the canvas. Now you'll need to be patient. On another new layer, apply the brush in very small amounts. try to apply it so that it looks like the dust is coming from the bright center of the peice. Repeat this step with one of the star brushes, I've used the 33 pixel one, remembering to set the brush settings. i have this:



6. This step is optional, but advised. On your pixy dust layer(s), apply a Radial Blur (Filter/Blur/Radial Blur) at around 8, zoom, best. Then go straight to Edit and Fade Radial Blur. i used 40%.



And there you have it. Thanks for reading this tutorial