Experiment on paper
One way to create your own set of grunge brushes is by first experimenting on paper. Creating a grunge style means you can go wild—the dirtier the better. In the first example, I used watercolors on a piece of rough-textured watercolor paper. If watercolor painting is out of the question, try coffee. All you need is paper, coffee, and a straw. With the straw you can create nice splatters if you suck a tiny bit of coffee into the straw and blow it onto the paper. It’s a simple and fun technique, and it’s really effective for achieving the perfect grunge splatters. You could also start from a digital image—just look for concrete or rusty structures.
Digitize and apply levels
Next, scan your watercolor or coffee artwork at a high resolution. Open your scanned artwork in Photoshop, and desaturate it (Image>Adjustments>Desaturate). Click the Create New Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers panel and select Levels. The values will be different for each image and will depend on the result you want to achieve, but in most situations you’ll have to drag the outer white and black sliders toward the middle to create a black-and-white image. Make sure you don’t exaggerate it too much, though, and that there are some gray areas left.
This is a great article, read all about how below!
How to create a set of Photoshop grunge brushes | Veerle’s blog
Tags: photoshop
