"Leaf Brush Exercise"

The "Leaf Brush Exercise" teaches you a few of the things you can do when using some of the special brushes and the Brushes Palette. The dynamic options in the Brushes Palette introduce variations of color, size, scattering, and other characteristics into the way a brush paints. When you choose Shape Dynamics, you can move the Size Jitter and Angle Jitter sliders to create brush marks of random sizes and angles. The Hue Jitter slider varies the color of the brush marks. You can use many different combinations. Follow the instructions carefully and GET CREATIVE!

In Photoshop we can use the Brushes in many ways. In this exercise you will learn a cool way of using the Leaf Brushes. You can even customize your own Brush – Leaf or Other Brush (by selecting a picture of your choice – e.g. a leaf or flower > selecting it with the magnetic lasso tool > creating a layer of your selection > moving it to a white background > then going to Edit – Define Brush and giving your new brush a name, then click OK).

You can use any of the Leaf Brushes already in your Photoshop Program.

1. Select a fall picture or other nature picture with trees (a nice landscape or scene with a big tree). Create a copy of the original and save it in your picture folder.

2. Select one of the Leaf Brushes on the toolbar. Select the Brush Tool > go to Brush on your toolbar.

3. Click the Brushes Tab next to the File Browser Tab in Adobe Photoshop 7 (or go to Window on your Menu Bar > select Brushes).

4. Making sure that your Brush Tool is selected - select the following in the "Brushes Palette": Shape Dynamics, Scattering and Color Dynamics (these should be checked – checks on the little squares). When you want to have more control of where to place your leaves, deselect “Scattering”.

5. Right-hand click on the Color Dynamics Option and change the percentages as follows:
Foreground/Background Jitter – 50%
Control – Off
Hue-Jitter – 50%
Saturation Jitter – 50%
Brightness Jitter – 0%
Purity – 0%
(With these changes you can spread leaves of different colors and different sizes all over the picture you selected – to create a colorful and artistic work of art). Practice with a few brush strokes, add more leaves or delete some (Edit> Undo or Step Backward).

6. Make sure to select the color you want to use by changing the Foreground Color (box in the Toolbox) to your liking. Use the brush on your pictures and see what happens. Practice selecting different colors and adding the leaves to your picture.You can create different effects by pressing the mouse more on certain areas. The more you press the mouse the more leaves you will see. Add a few here and more there. Change the brush size several times.

I need you to learn how to create your own brush. So please follow the instructions on the second paragraph. You can create a "Wrapping Paper" of "Wall Paper" creating a New Document with white background (800 x 800 pixels) and putting your brush all over the page (showing different colors). Get creative!