Simple custom colour brush feature

[twinbee]

I have a been a long time user of classic art programs such as Deluxe Paint on the Amiga, or Artgem on the PC and have only recently accustomed myself to Photoshop.

Although much weaker in power than Photoshop in general, the aforementioned art programs are still flexible and also faster than Photoshop for day to day operations such as drawing circles or applying effects

And unless I'm sorely mistaken, I find that there's an essential feature they have that Photoshop lacks.

A CUSTOM BRUSH FUNCTION

It's so obvious, but I can't pick up a colour brush easily and start painting with it. It's very handy for jut quickly moving one object to another section, or for simply painting with it smoothly at intervals, to get a 'chain' or snaking effect.

Obviously, it gets much better - you can flip the brush, rotate it, and generally manipulate it, the same as you would with an image, except that you can paste immediately at wherever the cursor is positioned, so that it's MUCH easier to get results quickly and efficiently.

So what am I missing? Has the whole world gone mad, or have I missed this feature in Photoshop (despite spending a couple of hours searching on the net). With all those programmers, I can't believe ONE didn't think of adding this brush feature.

I'll stop now, before I begin a rant.

[Raven12388]

you can edit the brushes that are there and make custome ones your self you can also download many custom brushes for free on the interweb you can allso buy brush liberies.

i believe if you use photoshop enough and do alot of tutorials you will relise for a genral paint program and much more

[Etheryte]

Photshop has dozens of functions dedicated barely to brushes. Don't cry for missing out on something you barely didn't notice.

[twinbee]

I'd love to be proven wrong on this. Because despite PS's speed, I could really get to love it.

Okay, so just to show we're talking along the same lines, can you pick up a brush in full colour (not mono), with full alpha component (translucency), and immediately start to freehand draw with it using the brush tool?

If so, I'm dying to know how (and I'm hoping it's simple).

[Raven12388]

well just add a layer over the image and set the opacity to the requiard level and color away thats the way i would do it

[rachjm]

I think this might be what you're looking for?

http://www.brushes.obsidiandawn.com/tutorials/creating/

[Etheryte]

I'd love to be proven wrong on this. Because despite PS's speed, I could really get to love it.

Okay, so just to show we're talking along the same lines, can you pick up a brush in full colour (not mono), with full alpha component (translucency), and immediately start to freehand draw with it using the brush tool?

If so, I'm dying to know how (and I'm hoping it's simple).

How fast and how much you can do depends on your version of Photoshop. What version are you running?

[twinbee]

Well, I'm sad not to have been proven wrong so far. PS may really be as frustrating as I feared...

How fast and how much you can do depends on your version of Photoshop. What version are you running?

Latest version - CS3 Extended (version 10).

I think this might be what you're looking for?
http://www.brushes.obsidiandawn.com/tutorials/creating/

Sorry, I knew that method already. Read my posts again - although that allows translucency, the brushes are entirely monochrome - i.e. not traditional colour brushes the way the classic art programs allowed.
Also, I can't seem to set the spacing between brush strokes.

well just add a layer over the image and set the opacity to the requiard level and color away thats the way i would do it

Yes, you can use layers, but trust me; this can be a horrendously stodgy way of implementing what should be a simple way to manipulate areas of a picture. Being able to rotate or resize the brush in realtime, and continually paste the results down in different areas of the picture is a real boon. The lack of the feature also means PS won't allow 'snaking' of the brush. Additionally, you can't get copies of the brush around the picture, without opening up multiple layers - bleurghhh....

Have you ever used anything like Dpaint before? If so, you would know how intuitive it can be to just pick up (cut/copy) a colour brush (box/shape) from an area of a picture, and plonk it elsewhere.

[Raven12388]

well say you have a image that you want to say snake, is not right clicking the layer duplicating it and moving the new layer to where you want it just as easy as right clicking the image and pressing paste over and over again ?? and not much harder than just clicking your mouse button to use a brush ??

im not sure but i think your right you cant make full color brushes but there are ways to get the effects you want with out them using clone stamp marquee tool and copy and paste wich will create the layers for you.

mabey adobe just thinks this feature is not needed when the effects can be created with other tools.

regarding fliping and resizing multimpls of the same image well edit/transform should help with that

[Etheryte]

Seriously, Twinbee. What do you expect us to do? Lay down what takes years to learn and master in a single post?
I am too lazyass and my time is limited here, so I won't bother starting.
About monotone:

This is a single pull with brush tool, no effects or such applied. The features are all there, just search them up.