Adobe Photoshop Pixie Dust Tutorial

Photoshop gives artists the ability to render sparkling pixie dust fairly easily. To follow this tutorial you will need a working knowledge of using and creating layers and loading brushes. Please download the following free pixie dust brush and let's begin.

Click Here to Download Pixie Dust Brush

Browse to the directory where you downloaded the brush and unzip it before moving on.

Tutorial Follow Along Images Can be Found by Clicking Here

Step 1 - Create a new image and for the purpose of this tutorial use the paint tool and color the background black which would be html code #000000. If you have an image you are working on then you can use that as your background layer as well. I will be using a standard hand created from Poser as my background layer.

Step 2 - Create a new layer. We will have more than one dust layer so title this layer dust1.

Step 3 - In the toolbox on the left of the screen click on the curved arrow at the bottom to switch the front color to white and the back color to black.

Step 4 - In the toolbox select the brush. Then right click on the "brush" pick arrow at the top where your brush options are. In the box that pops up click on the pick arrow in the "Master Diameter" field. Select "Load Brushes" from the menu and browse for the pixie dust brush file you downloaded earlier. (see images step4 and step4_a if you are confused)

For this tutorial we are selecting brush 131 from our newly loaded brush.

Step 5 - Here we will tweak the brush to our liking. Hit F5 on your keyboard to bring up the brush palette and set the following settings. (see images step5, step 5_a and step5_b)

Place a checkmark next to Shape Dynamics, Scattering and Smoothing.

Click on the Shape Dynamics option and set your settings as follows:

Size Jitter 15%
Control = Fade = 40
Minimum Diameter 0%
Angle Jitter 7%
Control = Off
Roundness Jitter 9%
Control = Off
Minimum Roundness 25%

Next click on Scattering and set your settings as follows:

Scattering 57%
Control = Off
Count 1
Count Jitter 37%
Control = Off

Now click on the "Windows" menu and uncheck "brushes" to hide the brush palette.

Now the painting begins.

Step 6 - Adjust the size of your brush by clicking on the brush pick arrow in the top toolbar. Scroll the Master Diameter slide to the size of your liking. For the purpose of this tutorial my brush is first set to 119.

Set Opacity to 38%

Use your mouse or digital pen to paint your first stroke of pixie dust. See image step6.

Step 7 - Create a new layer and name it dust2. Set your brush size to 59 and opacity to 66%.

At the bottom of the toolbox on the left click on your basic black and white color palette to bring up the color picker and choose a light but bright color. I chose a light blue, color code #b5ebe1.

In your new layer, dust2, paint one stroke lightly over the top of your first stroke.

Step 8 - Now we are done using our pixie brush but we are not done with brushes entirely. For this step, select the brush pick arrow at the top again and select load brush, but this time we will be loading the "Assorted Brushes" and selecting the basic star shape, number 50. See image step8.

Create a new layer named dust3. Inside this new layer begin to paint a few random stars in your pixie dust. Play with the brush size and opacity and color to achieve the look you want. In my image I have added a few stars of different sizes but I've kept the opacity and brush color what it was. See image step8_a.

Step 9 -Create another layer named dust 4. Keeping your star brush loaded, change the size to 141 and opacity to 41%. Hit F5 to bring up the brush palette and again select Shape Dynamics and Scattering and Smoothing. Settings should be the same as they were for our Pixie Dust Brush in step 5. Paint a couple of strokes over your dust. See image step9.

Step 10 - Create another layer named dust 5. This is our final step of painting. Continuing to use the star brush adjust the color, brush size and opacity. Paint many strokes of stars and single individual stars until you have the desired pixie dust. See image step10.

Step 11 - Once you have your pixie dust painted, highlight all dust layers. Go to the top menu bar and click on edit. In the drop down menu select transform and flip vertically.

Your pixie dust will be out of place but that's ok. Now click on the edit and transform menus again but this time select rotate. Rotate your pixie dust layers until it sits exactly where you want it to. See image step11.

Viola! You should have pixie dust now. Now that you have created pixie dust this is a good time to add any other effects or do postwork. In my final image I have cropped the canvas, added some lighting, tweaked some filters, adjusted the hue and vibrance and tweaked the shadows and highlights. See final image.