Brushes at their most basic are stamps of shapes that can be dragged around an image. But far more than repeating an image or making lines, brushes could also be used for texture, lighting, digital painting and a lot more. Brushes actually help in adding flow and depth to your artwork but none of that is of any great use if you can’t install them.
How to Download Brushes?
The first thing that you must do is to search online for new brush patterns in order to find the right brush for your needs. If you are uncertain of what you want, just look out for Photoshop Brushes Pack on your favorite search engine. There are going to be hundreds of available options from painting sets, textured brushes used specifically for drawing grass or shading and many more. But for now, just look for basic brush set and find the one you like.
Once you found a pack, the next thing that you must do is to download the .ZIP file. Majority of the brushes come as a .ZIP file which are folders that are holding all these brushes. As soon as you find the one you like, download it. you have to open the .ZIP file to your computer but nearly all modern computers have a software program that is designed in opening zips.
Now that you have the .ZIP file on your computer, you need to use a ZIP extractor. Be sure that there’s an “.abr” file inside the folder. There are going to be several files in the folder as you open it up. On the other hand, what matters the most is the .abr file only. Say that you didn’t see such file, erase the entire folder and search for new set.
Adding Your new Brushes
To add the brushes you have downloaded, the first thing you must do is open Photoshop. It helps a lot if you have a Windows Explorer window open which shows where the brushes are located in your computer. Click on the Brush tool and bring up the brush bar to the top part of the screen. There’s a bar on top which will change depending on what tool you open. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAeSMvSNihw.
Click on small downward arrow in brush bar. It is next to small dot and usually in the top left corner of your screen. This will then open the Brushes Preset Menu. Click the gear symbol and find Load Brushes. Doing this will bring up a new window that can be used in finding your brushes. Double click the .apr file to be able to install the brushes and you are done.