10 free Photoshop brushes for painting skin and hair

Afterwards, change the Layer mode to Multiply and add some Gaussian Blur to make your brushstrokes look natural. 01. Later, you might want to shrink the brush and add some lighter textures to some parts of the scar to make it look more natural. When painting characters, you can use it to texture mouths: choose a light colour and run with the brush over the highlighted part of the lips. Ragged hard round brush
This is the first brush I use for any painting. Blending spackled brush
A spackled brush is the best thing to choose when you want to blend facial skin tones. You can also use this brush to enhance a magic spell rendition, by creating a fairy dust effect. Thanks to painting software, artists are not limited to traditional brushes any more, but are encouraged to create their own. Photoshop:
Opacity: 80-100%
Flow: 100%
Other Dynamics: Opacity and Flow, 0%
Shape dynamics: just switched on
Painter:
Airbrush: Soft Airbrush
Opacity: 5-15%
Resat: 100%
Bleed: 100%
Jitter: 0%
04. There are many brilliant free Photoshop brushes out there to download, and in this three-part workshop I will be describing how to use custom brushes to create characters, costumes and the environment. Slimmed brush
This simple brush, thanks to its pressure adjusted size and opacity, is a natural choice for painting eyelashes. The pressure sensitive opacity will enable you to create a bigger variety of skin tones. It’s perfect for adding in anything to your work, from painting strands of hair to adding little details, such as blushes, moles and so on. Photoshop:
Opacity: 50%
Flow: 100%
Other Dynamics:
Opacity and Flow, 0%
Scattering: 100%
Shape dynamics: just switched on
Painter:
Airbrush: Detail Airbrush
Opacity: 2-20%
Resat: 20-70%
Bleed: 100%
Jitter: 2-3
05. To achieve natural effects, switch the sizes and opacity constantly. Use it on a low opacity setting on a separate layer, so you can play with layer modes later (Soft Light usually gives the most natural effects). Photoshop:
Opacity: 100%
Flow: 100%
Other Dynamics: Opacity and Flow, 0%
Smoothing: checked
Scattering: Both Axes, 85%
Painter:
Airbrush: Variable Splatter
Spread: 90°
Flow: 5
Feature: 9
Opacity: 60-80%
 
09. Triple dot brush
After having the hair basis marked with an Airbrush, it’s good to start adding some texture. Spattery brush
The small Spackled brush is great to render skin pores with. Then experiment with the layer modes (I recommend Overlay). An altered Hard Round brush with ragged edges is perfect for the first stages of colour blocking, because aside from applying colours, its edges will prevent the transitions from being too rough. Smooth the transitions with this brush, while picking the colours with an Eye Dropper tool. Afterwards, size it down a bit and increase the opacity, marking the actual eyelashes (2). While this workshop is mainly designed for Photoshop users (CS2 and above), I will also share tips for Corel Painter users to achieve similar effects. Photoshop:
Opacity: 10-50%
Flow: 100%
Other Dynamics: Opacity and Flow, 0%
Smoothing: checked
Scattering: 33%
Painter: Unavailable
Words and illustrations: Marta Dahlig
Marta Dahlig is a talented Polish artist who has been working with Photoshop and Painter for years. To enrich the ‘automatic’ pore effect, create another layer on top of the existing one and, with an Airbrush, randomly place some small lighter dots on top of the previous ones. Thanks to its distinctive shape and angle variations, applying new shades naturally is extremely easy: just choose a colour and run with it over the painted skin. She’s currently a freelance illustrator. Rotating brush
This brush is perfect for enriching the colour palette of an already painted body part, and I always use it for this task. If you apply the colours carefully on a low opacity, you won’t really require any extra smoothing. Choose a neutral brown colour and use the brush over the skin (by clicking, not dragging). Dirt brush
This ragged brush is fabulous for adding dirt effects to the skin and clothing. This brush is also a wonderful tool for hair detailing. Thanks to its shape and pressure-related opacity, it can blend really well and hint at skin pore texture. This simple Spackled brush is perfect for this job. Photoshop:
Opacity: 30-40%
Flow: 100%
Painter: Unavailable
10. Painter users can use the Blender brush; while it doesn’t render a natural skin texture, it creates satisfying effects. Photoshop:
Opacity: 100%
Flow: 100%
Other Dynamics: Opacity and Flow, 0%
Shape dynamics: just switched on
Smoothing: checked
Painter:
PENS: Fine Point
Opacity: 10-30%
Resat: 100%
Bleed: 0%
 
08. It’s perfect for creating scratched surfaces, but most of all for scars.