Hello Gang!

How many of you downloaded free icons from some web only to find out that they’re in .gif or .ico or some other bitmap format meaning that you just can’t modify them?!

Well, call me crazy, but I’m not that protective over my work. I made some icons and I’m offering them for free and I’m offering them in vector format so that all of you can freely modify it and adapt to your needs.

So, there are two sets of icons:

1. LITE Web 2.0 vector Icons set - green - free download (4 icons in .eps, .ai, .cdr format), - for free, even in commercial projects! Subscribe to my newsletter and Download (without subscription for next 5 days - over)

2. Or, you can get a PREMIUM package of 3 Web 2.0 vector Icon sets; total of 27 icons in vector format in blue, green and yellow colors (.eps, .ai, and .cdr format)! Adjust them, multiply them, color them, re-shape them, use them on your web, use them on your applications, use them for print, it’s vectors - use them in all kinds of graphic design projects!

PayPal and Credit Card payments accepted!

Hi Gang,

I was playing around with one of my sunset photos and wanted to find out how could I use my Swirls Photoshop brushes there. So, here is the result. I hope you like it.

The recipe:

1. 1. Photo of a sunset
2. 2. Loads of Filter -> Stylize -> Gloving Edges
3. 3. Loads of Filter -> Blur -> Radial Blur
4. 4. A bit of Layer Blending Options

and the Swirls Brushes set! Get it here ->!

Hello everyone and Happy Easter!

For today I have prepared another tutorial on how to create your own brush.

This time it is about creating fractal Photoshop brushes.

I am sure many of you will like this kind of graphics:

But, if you are a beginner you probably assume that it’s extremely difficult, first, create your own custom brush and then create such graphic with it.

Well, it’s not! And I intend to show you how to do it in this tutorial.

So, for starters, to follow this tutorial you will need to have CorelDRAW! or Adobe Illustrator or some other software that does vector graphics. First, we will create a shape in CorelDRAW!, then export it to .EPS file, import to Photoshop and make a brush out of it. And that’s it!

So, let’s start CorelDRAW! and make a nice curved line using Bezier Tool:

Then, duplicate this line by dragging it and right-clicking the mouse on a new location:

Then select both line and go to Effects->Blend, Apply (you can leave all settings as they are)

Modify and adjust the shape by selecting various curves from top or bottom line and moving it around until you are happy with the shape.

I must say, I was quite happy with this one :)

So, basically, our work here at CorelDRAW! is over. Now, when I think, maybe I should have used Illustrator, but let’s leave it for another occasion.

The last thing that is to be done here in CorelDRAW! is to export that shape in to .eps file. Go to File->Export-> On the pull down menu select “.eps”, give it some name, leave “Selected only” switched on and click Export:

Click ok and save it.

Now, let’s move onto Photoshop. Here I used Photoshop CS3 but you can use any version from Photoshop 7.0 onward.

In Photoshop go to File->New, Give it dimensions 2500px by 2500px (that is the largest brush size you can get) at 300px (it has to be big so that it can be used for large format printing as well, not just web).

Now, go to File -> Place, browse to our .eps file and place it into this new Photoshop file. Make sure to stretch it before hitting enter so that it is stretched from end to end like this:

Fine! We’re getting there, bare with me just a few more minutes :)

As you have probably noticed the .eps we placed onto our new Photoshop file is not really black as it should be. This can cause this brush to appear transparent when used in the future and therefore we need to make sure that our future brush is really black. Therefore, make sure you selected the layer with our shape and go to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Curves and to the following:

Now, our future brush will be black!

So, after this we are ready to finish and create our first, custom made, Photoshop brush. Go to Edit -> Define Brush Preset and give it a name:

It will automatically appear as the last one on your present brushes list.

That’s it! Voila! Congratulations! You just made your own brush! Now, if you want to save it as an independent .abr file you will need to delete all brushes from your brushes list because otherwise your .abr (brush file) will contain all brushes from the list. So, after you deleted all other brushes except for the one you just created

Now, you just go to save brushes, give it a name and save it to:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Brushes

And, now that’s really the end.

Now with a little playing with brush settings and Filter -> Render -> Lens Flare in no time you can create image like the one on the top of this post.

Look, in case you don’t want to go through all this and think that the trouble of creating some 29 fractal brushes is worth $9,99 - I’ll be much obliged if you go and buy the whole 29 Fractal Brushes Set.

Brushes are ready to download in two editions:

Lite edition: Fractals - set of 3 Photoshop brushes (Photoshop CS3 compatible - Subscribe and Download for Free)

Premium edition: Fractals - set of 29 Photoshop brushes (Photoshop CS3 compatible)

PayPal and Credit Card payments accepted!

Happy creating!