I never really liked Photoshop brushes. I felt they were rather limited in scope, and it was difficult to get the effect I wanted. I ended up doing a lot of rotating of the image, a lot of copying and pasting and free transforming.

And now I find out all that work was for nothing.

Adobe, being the geniuses that they are, include an entire options window for brushes. I noticed it before, but never really explored it fully. So, I’m passing on this incredibly simple tip to you…

Window>Brushes produces the Brushes toolbox window. Click on “Brush Tip Shape” (the cleverly hiding option without a checkbox) at the top of the Brush Preset menu list on the left hand side of the window. And ta-da! Here’s what you get:

Using this option panel you can rotate the brush to acheive the effect you want, as well as edit the spacing of brush strokes. Pure gold. And so simple…

Amazing that a person can use Photoshop for 11 years and still learn new things every day. Ha.

Enjoy!