Special Effects - The Photoshop: Professional Retouching and Compositing Tips, Tricks, and Techniques - page 250

Figure 4.45
Adding Fake Blood
As photographers and retouchers, we don't always have the luxury of using a make-up
artist at the time of a photo shoot to create effects such as cuts and bruises. But here is how
you can create them in Photoshop.
The blood and scratches are added using a series of brushes, but rather than creating
them we'll download them. Places like www.deviantart.com have an enormous database of
brushes available for free, but be sure to read the terms of use ( Figure 4.46 ) .
Figure 4.46 Results from typing “blood spatter brushes” into deviantART's search
Installing the Blood Brushes
When you download brushes from the Internet, you'll generally be downloading a set con-
taining brushes with different looks, giving you many creative possibilities. There's no par-
ticular set of brushes that I recommend; I suggest you download and try a variety. Once
they're downloaded, they're easy to install.
1. With Photoshop open, choose the Brush tool (B) and then click to open the Brush
Preset Picker from the options bar at the top of the screen. Click the cog icon in the
upper-right corner, and choose Preset Manager ( Figure 4.47 ) .