Step 11: Load Additional Brush Sets For More Variety

Photoshop comes with lots of brushes for us to use, but by default, only a small number of them are loaded and available. To load any of the additional brush sets, click on the menu icon in the top right corner of the Brushes panel. Depending on the version of Photoshop you're using, your menu icon may appear as it does in the screenshot below (Photoshop CS4) or it may appear as a small arrow:

This opens a menu showing various options for the Brushes panel, as well as a list of other brush sets ready and waiting to be loaded in. To load a different brush set, simply click on the name of the set in the list. I'm going to load the Dry Media Brushes set:

Photoshop will pop up a dialog box asking if you want to replace the current set of brushes with the new set or if you want to append the new set to the end of the set that's currently loaded. Click the Append button:

The new brushes will appear below the original ones in the Brushes panel. You'll probably need to scroll down the list to view them. Choose any of the newly added brushes by clicking on their icons. A preview of the brush stroke appears at the bottom of the panel just as with the original brushes. I'm going to click on the Heavy Smear Wax Crayon 20 px brush from the Dry Media Brushes set to select it:

Once again, I'll click on the Stroke Path With Brush icon at the bottom of the Paths panel, and here's my photo border result:

There's lots of great brushes to be found in the additional brush sets, so be sure to load them all and try them out!

Step 12: Select The Eraser Tool

One of the most interesting aspects of Photoshop's brushes is that they work with any brush tool, not just the official Brush Tool. For example, you may not think of the Eraser Tool as a brush, but it is, and all of the brushes we've been using with the Brush Tool can be used with the Eraser Tool. The only difference is that instead of painting a new brush stroke, the Eraser Tool can be used to erase part of an existing stroke, adding even more creative potential to your photo borders!

I'm going to leave my current photo border in place, and I'll select the Eraser Tool from the Tools panel. You can also select it by pressing the letter E on your keyboard:

Step 13: Stroke The Path With The Eraser Tool To Erase Part Of The Border

With the Eraser Tool selected, you can now choose from any of the brushes in the Brushes panel just as we've been doing with the Brush Tool. For example, I'll select the same brush I chose initially, the Dry Brush 39 px brush. This time, though, I'll be using it with the Eraser Tool, not the Brush Tool, which means I'll be using it to erase part of my existing photo border:

Step 14: Stroke The Path With The Eraser Tool To Erase Part Of The Border

I'm going to make the brush a little smaller than its default size by pressing the left bracket key on my keyboard a couple of times. Then, I'll stroke the path with the Eraser Tool by clicking on the Stroke Path With Brush icon at the bottom of the Paths panel. This time, rather than painting a completely new border, I've erased part of the existing border along the path, giving my photo border a whole new look:

You can spend a lot of time playing around and experimenting with the various brushes, the Brush Tool and the Eraser Tool, and I highly encourage you to do so since there's no limit to the photo borders you can create. To finish things up, let's see how to change the color of our photo border. We'll do that next!

Want an easier way to learn Photoshop? Download our tutorials as Print-Ready PDFs!

Go to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5