Photoshop CS5 Top 5: The New Painting Tools

In my final Photoshop CS5 Top 5 video, I show you Photoshop CS5’s most ambitious innovation, the new painting tools. You have the bristle brushes, which simulate real-world traditional art brushes, down to the quantity and stiffness of the hairs. And you have the mixer brush, which lets you mix your paint with a base photograph as if the photo were rendered in wet oils.

Today’s graphic is rendered using Photoshop CS5’s one new blend mode, Divide. And though I don’t document Divide in this particular video, I assure you, these next 17 minutes and 36 seconds are going to divide your socks off.

Now a lot of you are going to look at the new brush options and think, “Hey, I’m a photographer, I don’t do painting!” Naturally, I urge you not to think that way; it just limits your creative freedom. But there is some truth to it. New or old, Photoshop’s painting tools respond positively to a pressure-sensitive input device—such as the Wacom Intuos4 that I use in the video—and a little bit of raw talent.

In any event, you gotta dig the results. In this video, I transform a photograph of my editor and sidekick Colleen Wheeler into a hand-painted piece of art, complete with brushstrokes that look like you could reach out and touch them.

As for you artists, here’s the kicker: Each and every brushstroke draws its color from the image itself so there’s no need to mix a pigment or dip a brush.

Whatever your background, I believe you’ll agree: The results are absolutely amazing.

Next entry:Photoshop CS5 One-on-One Begins May 3

Previous entry:Martini Hour 062, In Which Colleen Graciously Lets Deke Pick Up Where We Left Off

  • Outstanding (as always)!

    Having used the Mixer Tool and the Bristle Brushes myself, I totally agree with Deke that they rock even for a photographer! The video is awesome as always, Deke is one of the finest Photoshop instructors, if not the best!

  • Great Stuff!

    Fabulous tutorial set for the week, Deke. Can’t wait to get my hands on PS CS5 and put your teachings to use.

    Be well.


    Warm regards,
    The Drunk Guy Who Confabbed w/You and Bert at the Rosen Centre during PSW. ;-)


  • Awsome

    New tools do the same things you already could…  gotta love it…

  • watch in iTunes

    Hi deke and crew!

    Is it possible to get the videos via iTunes as well? Would be very nice!

    Best regards


    Martin

    http://blog.martindoersch.at


    http://www.martindoersch.at

  • The plan is to have

    Photoshop CS5 Top 5 added to the dekePod iTunes feed on Monday.

  • Love it

    Another great tutorial. And that’s a great painting :) You’ve got the skillz, Deke.

    Really like the idea of that color mixer brush tool. I bet it’s going to get a lot of praise and that a lot of people who aren’t painters are going to mess around with it just for the fun of it and are going to come up with some great results.

    Szabi

    My photography - www.szabiart.net

  • Deke… WTF

    Is with these people dropping their links in their comments.  This forum is for real people who really enjoy design.  These web sites have nothing to do with art or design.  How sad these people are..

  • Too many SEO hitchhikers

    We are getting them at our website too. Getting to be a real internet nuisance, Takes lots of extra manual work to keep them cleaned out.

  • I dunno

    I don’t have an issue with folks including a URL if it features examples of their photography or artwork. Seems in keeping with the spirit of sharing info and inspiration and all that.

    It’s the prescription and porn links that drive me nuts. Fortunately, they all go after my pretty butterflies post. Honestly, who knew that by combining ten photos of butterflies with one of a hippopotamus, I would create an irresistible spam rod? Or perhaps they recognize a kindred spirit in the pile of giant cockroaches.

  • New Brushes…

    Jimmie

    I was so ready to try the new brushes?....I don’t get the ‘default’ brush preview and the brushes don’t paint color of photo…I looked all over settings reinstalled my Wacom Intuos 2 tablet, got latest drivers….so is Wacom 2 just to old? or what…The eye is on the bottom of brush pallet but greyed out?....

  • What about Painter?

    Deke, I never hear you talk about Corel Painter.  Are you under a gag order from Adobe?  I think the new brush tools are awesome in Photoshop, but I am shifting my interest in design to lean towards creating different composites of my photographs and in many cases creating full fledged paintings (digitally of course).

    My question is can you create the different appearances of various painting and drawings mediums like oils, acrylics, chalk, and the like.  It looks like you can take a photograph and give it a painterly look, but if you plan on doing a lot of that kind of design,  your probably better off adding Painter to the CS5 repertoire. 

    Cough it up Deke, do you use Painter?  Come on… spill it - you can tell us!

  • wow new painting tool.it

    wow new painting tool.it will be very helpful to design a very attractive photograph.
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  • new painting tools.it will

    new painting tools.it will help me a lot to make a attractive photo with the help of mixer brush.
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  • Great new bristle brush, mixer brush and headup display

    Thanks Deke for the great video tutorial I am looking forward to geting CS5. The bristle and mixer brushes look like huge step forward in brushes. That headup display color picker looks like fascinating new feature. It’s true sometimes brightness/contrast works just as good as level & curves most times. Thanks for your sense of humor that some of experts in technology lack.
    Emil


  • Finest Photoshop

    We use deke since two days and we are very happy with it.

    one of the best software in this a field, and we have tried a lot!

    K R


    BIG WOLF

  • Agree, it is the best one in

    Agree, it is the best one in the market. but apart of everything it is very much heavy and difficult to run on simple or home computer
    —-

    Scott

  • photoshopCS5

    one day in my lifetime
    when my world falls apart

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  • one-on-one problems

    I’m a newby to cs5 so got the 1on1 book.
    however when I went to the oreilly site, it seems the
    the mp4 files are just empty containers (no video).

    anybody else notice this?

  • The mp4 files aren’t empty

    They play for me on a Windows 7 machine using the latest Quicktime for Windows. May as well just download them and play from your machine rather than streaming them to your player. You are essentially downloading them to your temporary internet cache file anyway by just watching them.

    Grab the lesson files for each chapter in addition to the video while you are there.

  • tried that, same results

    When I tried to download the video files, I’m just getting the ~250 Mb (I’m assuming) container with no content.  (The intro does seem to download OK as does the sample work images.)

  • BTW I also have W7x64 with

    BTW I also have W7x64 with the latest Quicktime

  • I don’t know what you can do

    When the files for the book were first released, it was required to have a O’Reilly acct to get to the files. Maybe that has changed. Maybe that is still an issue.

    Perhaps Colleen knows what to do.

    Last book there was a problem with the disks. They reverted to downloads this edition and now issues are popping up with them.

    I’m not having the issues. I don’t know why our systems are different. I have a 32 bit system.

  • Thanks

    Thanks, you gave me the clue.  I logged in with a 32 bit browser and every thing seems
    to work fine.  I guess the problem is an incombatibility between the mp4 files and the

    64 bit browser.

  • including a URL if it

    including a URL if it features examples at โหลดเพลงฟรี  สถานที่ท่องเที่ยว


  • Really mind-blowing mind

    Really mind-blowing mind mapping applications you posted here and i used 2 of them logo design, but i like the mind genius.

  • Amazing. Seconds after my post, Lesson 9 worked

    Deke is truly amazing. Seconds after my comment about the LessonNine.zip file being dinked, I made another attempt.  It was no longer corrupted. I am in awe.

  • Great

    This subject concerns me a lot. You helped me greatly in my work by writing this article. I want to thank you for your effort. Your site is great!

  • more wacom tipps

    Hi!
    Today my video2brain tutorial has been released: http://bit.ly/v2b-wacom - german language!
    All you want to know about wacom tabletts.
    Best regards
    Martin
    —-
    http://blog.martindoersch.at

    http://www.martindoersch.at

  • The pigments used in pastels

    The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation. The color effect of pastels is closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any other process. Thanks a lot.
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  • Great Post

    I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.

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  • great article

    thanks for the post, it helped to resolve my problem, now I am very happy!

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