Hi all, Silke here. I’m inspired by St. Patricks day! We have a fantabulous Green Week sale at our The Studio Store! And to honor St. Patrick I decided to do a Scatter tutorial for you.

When you look at your layout and think that a highlight item is missing, then think about adding some SCATTERS! They are those little details that can light up and enhance your page!

Today we will learn with Photoshop:

  • how to install a scatter brush
  • use the scatter brush with any color
  • vary the colors using Color Dynamics

To get started, you’ll need to first download the scatter brushes for Photoshop. These come in the ABR file format.
I have these scatter brushes for you to use in my store. They are free with this special COUPON Code (ST-PATRICK100) for all our Blog readers:

GET the Scatter Brushes HERE

Installing the brushes:

First open Photoshop. Do not open any new document for now.

Go to Folders. Open the unzipped Scatter folder, click and drag the ABR brush file into your Photoshop Window. Drag and drop it into the dark gray area anywhere there.

Now check if the new brush set is there. Click on the little brush tool and then open the drop-down menu to see all installed brushes.

Using the scatter brushes with any color:

First create a new document (3600x3600px, 300 dpi, white background). Select one brush from my scatter brush pack using the drop-down brush menu.

Set the FOREGROUND COLOR to any color of your choice. May be green!
Set the BACKGROUND COLOR to a lighter color (may be light green)!

Create a NEW LAYER, then stroke with this brush on your page and see what you get. Experiment with all brushes to learn how they work.

Note that here the foreground color and the background color made no difference. To create a color variation we need to use Color Dynamics.

Vary the color of these scatters using Color Dynamics.

In a new layer (delete or hide the layer you just did) we will now use the color dynamic effects.

First open the Brush Settings Panel. Then, in this brush settings panel, click on COLOR DYNAMICS.

Now define a light Foreground color (Pink) and a darker Background color (dark red).

We are going to play with the Foreground/ Background Jitter of the Color Dynamic Settings:

  • Check √ Apply per Tip (then every brushstroke will be affected)
  • Foreground/ Background Jitter: 76%. The other items leave on 0%.
  • Stroke with the heart on your page and see how the color variations comes up!

In addition to the actual settings, add the Hue Jitter slider to 50% and see what happens with the scatter brushes.
Choose the star brush with scatter. Then activate the Color Dynamics. You have to activate each time you change the brush, or keep that settings with the padlock. Click to lock it. And don’t forget to unlock when you are done.

Now play with each of the settings (except purity), making it 50% and then the other ones 0%. Finally, try all together or mix and match the settings!
Have fun!
See here the results of my playing:

Here below is a sample Layout using these scatters!

Layout by Silke done with Lucky Charm mini kit and St. Patrick scatter brushes

Happy creations!

Silke