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If you are new to the brushes that I make, you should know that they are mainly for working with materials meant for print. You can use them for Web stuff as well, but you might need to size them down. Most of the brushes are around 1800 pixels wide. Again, I created a few images so you can see them in context.

01

02

03

Important Information

Adobe Photoshop CS, CS2 or higher on OSX or Windows. However, I have divided the brushes into layers to support Photoshop 7 and previous versions, so now everyone can enjoy.

Download Instructions

1. Download the brushes here (23.1 MB)
2. Select the paint brush in the Photoshop tools.
3. From the brushes palate choose “Load brushes…”
4. Navigate to your brand new brushes and happy times begin.

Layers

I’ve had a lot of requests for these brushes to be compatible with Photoshop 7 and previous versions. To save time, I’ve divided each design into a photoshop layer. You get one file with several designs, each on it’s own layer. If you’d like to convert these into brushes, it’s easy. Simply turn on one of the layers and go to edit>define brushes. After this, your brush will appear in the brushes palate.

1. Download the layers file here [Part III] (31 MB)

Brush Usage Rights
Please ask for permission for any use of this brush set and/or vector set that is not covered in the Terms Of Use. You may NOT use these brushes on designs for sale on stock photography sites!

In the past few days I have encountered several so-called re-sealable packages that boast things such as “resealable zipper,” “reclosable package,” “seal and store,” and other phrases that tell anyone living in the year 2005 that the product is enclosed in a basic storage bag with a plastic zipper that closes when you squeeze your fingers around it and slide them from one end to the other. I believe these bags were originally invented by Glad Corporation sometime in the early 1960s. So, by now I assume most of the patents are expired, and apparently everyone is now free to do what they want with the original idea.

For me, the re-sealable bag is a great idea. If I were in the meetings back in the ’60s I would probably be brainstorming with other co-workers about ways to meet the demand for a disposable container that would actually keep food fresh, how to improve on the fold over sandwich bag, or the original twist tie baggie. I imagine at some point one of the inventors in the meeting might have mentioned the need for efficiency. Think of the time that one could save while making their lunch if we didn’t have to put a twisty tie on our bags, if they would only seal themselves, or somehow stick together. Perhaps they weren’t as concerned with time then as we are now, but there was a definite reason for this wonderful zipper seal invention. The value for me is the ability to open and close my product quickly and easily.

Consider going to the kitchen, opening a cabinet, removing the bag of granola cereal, opening the convenient seal, pouring a handful of granola, and then attempting to close the “resealable bag” with a the slight disadvantage of a fist full of granola. Most people, including myself, would use the full hand to simply pinch one end of the bag between thumb and index finger, and simply slide the other hand across the top while squeezing between thumb and index finger, toss the sealed bag back into the cabinet, shut the door and walk off while simultaneously snacking on the granola.

This was my intention today when I accessed the Back to Nature—Cranberry Pecan Granola bag and could not close the zipper with this method. As I was fumbling with the seal and considering grabbing a plate, or perhaps standing there eating my granola until I could use both hands to full capacity to attempt the reseal, I thought about the Tyson—Pre-Cooked Bacon package the day before, and the Pepper-jack cheese package I had struggled with. Then I remembered the bag of Tyson Chicken that is in the freezer that I was completely unsuccessful in ever re-sealing. In that particular case, the idea of “resealable” was false advertising and I was forced to use my favorite method of folding over the top and clamping it closed with a clothespin.

So why is this packaging that should be efficient and useful, simply lacking in ability to fulfill its original purpose? Why in 2005 can we as a technology driven nation not figure out a way to duplicate the perfection of the Glad Corporation’s invention? Why do manufacturers want to piss me off with unfulfilled promises of resealability?

I’m utterly confused and frustrated by this phenomenon.

Watch the video

I went to a meeting today around 1PM. When I returned I found my dog Valcor brushing up on his studies. In the first and second pictures he was not aware that I had noticed him sitting there.

Unaware that I was back from my meeting.

Still unaware.

Starting to realize something is up.

Busted.

Everywhere I go I’m creating a profile whether it be friendster or myspace or istockphoto or the HOW design forums, or the… you get the point, they are endless. So, I can never find the right photo to put in that small box they give you. It has to look good small. I want my face to be somewhat recognizable at that size. I want the colors to be vibrant. Or do I want the photo to be black ‘n’ white? Sepia? I don’t know! Too many variables exist in this task of picture picking.

Since I have this great digital camera now, I’m usually the one taking pictures. I have 100s of pictures of my wife and friends, but only a handful of myself, and most of them are not worthy of that little box in the profile. I hunger for, my soul is deficient for the perfectly balanced photo of myself. What treatment can I give it in Photoshop? How much contrast should I add? Why do I drive myself crazy with such a trivial assignment? It’s just a photo. For the love man, get a hold of yourself.

That said, I had a million things running through my head around 3AM this morning—tasks, what to blog about, which emails I need to answer, who do I need to call, what errands do I need to run… When I get like this, the best thing for me is to get up and get myself organized. Get through some of the annoying crap that’s running through my head, and then try and relax.

By this time, I’m up, I’m frustrated because I can’t sleep, I’m still in my boxers, and I begin to fill out my profile on istockphoto.com. And behold… there it is… the “Add a photo” button. So I click browse… with no plans on where I will find this photo, I realize I don’t have a decent photo of myself. I try and make use of the search functionality on my beautiful G5, but end up finding a bunch of old projects that I need to add to my portfolio. So rather than ignore this photo and move on to something productive, I decide it’s Photo shoot time. In an effort to not awaken my wife, I grab the flashlight and head into the bed room closet to grab a button down shirt. While shining the light and rustling around, she of course awakens and says, “what are you doing.” I reply, “getting a shirt.” No telling what she was thinking as I throw one arm through the fitted Express shirt while swapping the flashlight to the other hand and stepping over the dog gate as I head out of the room quickly.

I still want to be quiet, so I grab the camera and the tripod and I head to the garage. I realize I need light, so I go and grab the lamp from my office and from the living room. I want a nice white backdrop so I can later cut out the background behind me without too much trouble and replace it with geometric shapes or other random Photoshop techniques. The white background assists in defining the edges of the subject in the photo by not creating any other distractions. So I tack up a sheet, set up the lamps, put the camera on a timer and run in front of it and wait for the click. I repeated the timer, run, wait scenario about 45 times until I felt I had a few good photos, imported them into iPhoto, tweaked and cropped a few in Photoshop, and I’ve posted the results for you below.

Behold, decent profile photos. I can’t wait to browse to my new photos when I need one. Oh, and feel free to use these if you need a decent picture of me for anything. (adding a mustache, putting my head on a bodybuilder…)

I couldn’t resist. I had so much fun making the first round of brushes I stayed up last night making these. Again these are quite large brushes, so they are mainly for working with materials meant for print. You can use them for Web stuff as well, but you might need to size them down. Most of the brushes are around 1800 pixels wide.

Oh, and I also couldn’t resist using them. So I created a few images so you can see them in context.

Select Brush Samples (not actual size)

01

02

03

Important Information

Adobe Photoshop CS, CS2 or higher on OSX or Windows. However, I have divided the brushes into layers to support Photoshop 7 and previous versions, so now everyone can enjoy.

Download Instructions

1. Download the brushes here (23.1 MB)
2. Select the paint brush in the Photoshop tools.
3. From the brushes palate choose “Load brushes…”
4. Navigate to your brand new brushes and happy times begin.

Layers

I’ve had a lot of requests for these brushes to be compatible with Photoshop 7 and previous versions. To save time, I’ve divided each design into a photoshop layer. You get one file with several designs, each on it’s own layer. If you’d like to convert these into brushes, it’s easy. Simply turn on one of the layers and go to edit>define brushes. After this, your brush will appear in the brushes palate.

1. Download the layers file here [Part II] (33 MB)

Brush Usage Rights
Please ask for permission for any use of this brush set and/or vector set that is not covered in the Terms Of Use. You may NOT use these brushes on designs for sale on stock photography sites!

I recently had a request for some worn, tattered, distressed Photoshop brushes for working with high resolution. Most of what I found and used in the past was created for Web design. A brush designed at 4oo pixels wide could be “stamped” on a 800 x 600 Web site and take up half of the distance across. When dealing with print, 400 pixels doesn’t go very far when you’re talking about a resolution of 300 dpi. That same brush would show up a bit larger than one inch wide when printed. Though the brush size can be adjusted up to 2500 pixels, if it wasn’t designed at that size it’s going to look quite poor when enlarged.

I’ve designed some brushes that sit right around the 1800 pixel range. That’s going to give you about a six inch brush size when dealing with the standard print resolution of 300 dpi.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about I’ve included an example. Once these brushes are loaded into the brush palate in Photoshop you can begin using them on your own images. Most commonly I select either the eraser tool or the paintbrush tool then I choose a brush. Simply line up the brush on your image and click the mouse once. You get instantaneous transformation. Experiment with layering and opacity settings to get desired effect.

Original Photo

Behold The Aftermath

Important Information

Adobe Photoshop CS, CS2 or higher on OSX or Windows. However, I have divided the brushes into layers to support Photoshop 7 and previous versions, so now everyone can enjoy.

Download Instructions

1. Download the brushes here (23.1 MB)
2. Select the paint brush in the Photoshop tools.
3. From the brushes palate choose “Load brushes…”
4. Navigate to your brand new brushes and happy times begin.

Layers

I’ve had a lot of requests for these brushes to be compatible with Photoshop 7 and previous versions. To save time, I’ve divided each design into a photoshop layer. You get one file with several designs, each on it’s own layer. If you’d like to convert these into brushes, it’s easy. Simply turn on one of the layers and go to edit>define brushes. After this, your brush will appear in the brushes palate.
1. Download the layers file here [Part I] (17 MB)

Brush Usage Rights
Please ask for permission for any use of this brush set and/or vector set that is not covered in the Terms Of Use. You may NOT use these brushes on designs for sale on stock photography sites!