Does anyone knows where I can find a tutorial for a creative use of customised Photoshop brushes? There are so many in the web, but all I do with them is just staring at... :-)

Your best bet is to just do it. Basically, create a grayscale image of the graphic you want as a brush with a transparent background and trimmed as much as you can get. Then...edit...define as brush. A very simple thing to do. Other than that, you can experiment a little bit and learn a LOT by doing just that.

I know how to make a brush. I just do not know how to use it creatively. I know about those settings in the upper right corner, I just need some practical inspiration :-)

ahh...I get it. I think :D Let me think about this. Perhaps if you could be just a little more specific or send some URLs of examples that you have seen, I might be able to help a little more.

I have that problem myself. I am always saying, "wow, those are cool brushes," but it mostly has to do with how people USE them, and a lot of times I can't wrap my brain around the how. But I did make my own set of brushes and made this little image using three of the brushes. A sappy image, I know, but I was mostly testing out things. Have no idea if peole would even be interested in these brushes as freebies, but I have been having fun with them. I guess it's mostly just sitting with Photoshop, experimenting with layers and layer styles, and just going with it... :D

Sometimes the most interesting effect is the simplest. Having a black or white background and then using white over that or another favorite color can produce very interesting results. Also, one might put green or blue on top of red a little off register to give what looks like the old 3d type of thing you view with those special glasses. I usually do this sort of thing in separate layers so I can adjust or delete the effect. When I make a brush, I usually try for a middle of the ground size so I can increase or decrease the size a little when I actually use the brush. Also, most of the time, I don't use 100% opacity for a new brush. A little at a time or use the airbrush to experiment with a new brush. I like the ones that look like old paper or are so big that they take up the whole page. Sometimes anyway. They are fun to get "paper" that looks like a real page or a piece of fabric. Dull, antique yellor or old gold color is nice on black to start with. When I do stuff like this, there really is little need for other special effects using filters and such. Just a few thoughts here before I head off to work. Have a nice day, all.

You explained it much better than I, Mary. :) In the image I did above, I clicked once to paint with it, then duplicated it two times, so I had three layers. In this particular one, I changed the bottom layer to black, set the middle layer to either Color Burn or Soft Light, depending on which brush I was working with, then the top layer was set to white or another light color, with layer style set to either Color Burn or Soft Light or I think there was even one more style that I can't think of right now. Overlay works well a lot of times too, and dont be afraid to vary the opacity of each blending effect. Sometimes an overlay can look too harsh, but if you bump it down to about 60%, it has a much nicer look. Just keep changing the layer effects, add more layers with different effects or colors, you might be surprised. :D

Thank you all for encouraging, I feel I am moving in that direction. I play with Fade function almost after every step I do -- for me it is crutial to make a good resoult in any pic I do. In fact, I made two pictures as a try and I wanted to share them with you :-) There eare only brushes combined with usual graphic filters of Photoshop and a touch of Lucis Arts

This one I've made last week and the next today cause I wanted to fix up the moon... well, I realased that I can never make the same resoult with Photoshop even if I remember exactly what I deed last time :-) And I killed the moon -- again! :-)

That looks fantastic! Yeah...I almost forgot to say anything about changing some of the parameters of the brushes themselves. You can vary the size, color, scattering, opacity, etc. This will make a BIG difference in how everything looks. And wouldn't you know, it's pouring rain today....sigh

They came out really good! :D

Didn't they? I wouldn't mind the second version as wallpaper in a real room. Such a nice blue and not too much background to be obnixous.