Computersight -

There are a couple of ways to get a hold of leaf, branch and just in general foliage brushes for Photoshop. You could troll the net to find the right PS brush pack for your needs, or to find photos to turn into brushes. There is a better, more personal and unique way to create your foliage brushes. Go outside for a walk, the fresh air will do you good. On the way pick up any odd shaped, nice looking leave that happen to catch you eye. The more the better. If you see any grass, or any other plants, even small branches that can be flattened grab them as well. Now when you are done take them home and scan them. You do not need to scan each individual piece as long as they can fit onto your scanner without overlapping and are fully visible.

How to create your Photoshop leaf brush:
- Start up Photoshop CS4 (you can do this in the previous versions as well, there might be slight differences but it is more or less the same thing).
- Create a new document by going to File and clicking “New”. A window will come up prompting you to enter some details such as the name and size. You can leave the name field as “untitled” and from the drop down “Preset” menu choose Web. Make sure that the background color is set to transparent. You can choose a different preset, or enter your own sizes in the future, but for now lets just stick with this for the sake of simplicity.
- Now that you have an open document, go to “File” and open up one of the leaf pictures you have scanned earlier, if you have any of a single leaf that is a good one to start with.
- When you have go to “Select” (this can be found all the way on the top of the application) and select “All”. Since your background will be white from the scanner you do not need to spend time selecting your leaf and separating it from the rest of the canvas.
- When you have the selection set go to “Edit” and towards the bottom select “Define Brush Preset”.
- A small window should pop up asking you to name your newly created brush, along with a thumbnail of what it should look like. Enter “Leaf” or any other name you like in here.
- Your brush is now all done! Feel free to try it out, change the size and color, use random filters. Its just like one of the brushes that came with Photoshop, only better because you made it yourself!