Photoshop Tutorial: How to Create a Cloud Brush

There are so many different things you can do in Photoshop. One thing Photoshop is commonly used for is to edit photos. Both amateur and professional photographers alike use Photoshop to edit their pictures of models, landscapes, objects, and much more.
Although you can edit pictures in Photoshop, there is much more you can do in the program as well. You can create web banners, logos, and other graphics. You can also create your own brushes. Creating your own brushes can be a lot of fun, especially since you can use them on your photos after you create them.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create your own cloud brushes. Cloud brushes are especially useful because you can create your own sky scenes and put pictures of people in the clouds as well. With your own custom brush, the possibilities of what you can create are endless.

So let's begin!

Step 1) Open up a new canvas in Photoshop that's 500 x 500 pixels. Do this by going to File > New and changing the size to 500 x 500. Make sure the two color boxes towards the bottom of the vertical menu bar are black and white. Black should be the top color and white should be the bottom color.

Step 2) In order to apply the clouds to the picture, go to File > Render > Clouds. This will now show your background as gray clouds on a black background.

Step 3) Select the Lasso Tool on the free-floating vertical menu bar and draw around a part of the clouds. For the size of the selected area of mine, I took up a quarter to a third of the picture. Select an area that has both light and dark areas in order to get the full cloud effect.

Step 4) Now to soften the selection. Go to Select > Feather and choose 12.

Step 5) After softening the selection, we need to copy and paste the selection on a new layer. First, go to Edit > Copy then go to Layer > New > Layer. On the layer palette/box make sure the eye is turned off on the bottom/original layer and on on the top/new layer. This will show you a layer with gray and white boxes. Then go to Edit > Paste.

Step 6) Now go to Edit > Define Brush Preset. And your brush will be automatically loaded into your Brush Tool and is ready for use.

Step 7) To use your brush, open up a new document, around 1000 x 1000 pixels. Use the Paint Bucket Tool to paint the background blue. Then select your Brush Tool and select the cloud brush (it'll be at the bottom if you scroll down) and select the color as white. Make sure the light is hard and the opacity and flow is 100% and then simply click your mouse.

Then you're done! And you have a great cloud brush! Try creating clouds of different sizes and shapes using the Lasso Tool while selecting the clouds.