Photoshop brushes are an extremely underrated asset. The most common reasons why they are neglected is simple: people just don’t consider them an option! Placing cut-out image assets just seems intuitive. If you are making matte-painting renderings, then brushes might not obviously be the right call. But in any other case, brushes are a really great option to consider for many reasons.
Here are the top 5 reasons why I would suggest Photoshop brushes to every architects post-production toolkit.
#1 – They are incredibly high quality
Photoshop brushes are scalable to very large sizes, which is very useful when working with for example large scale A1 drawings. The edges remain crisp as they are essentially vector images. This is not the case always when working with cutouts, as these need to be high quality.
#2 – The file size of your PSDs drop instantly
Have you ever had your PSD- files jump to the multiple gigabyte size-range? I think we all have had that problem every now and then. A large issue is the fact that we have imported massive, high quality images to our files. Using brushes significantly reduces that need, as we can place about as many brush strokes as we like without it affecting file size!
Not to mention, the size of one brush pack is ridiculously small compared to just one image file! Let alone dozens of large image files…. a thing to consider if your laptop is running out of space constantly.
#3 – They are built-in and always ready to use
Tired of going through your catalogs of assets trying to search for that one silhouette? Never a problem with brushes, as they are built in to Photoshop. Import the brushes once, and they stay in your toolbox always whenever you load up Photoshop.
#4 – They are lightning-fast to use
Need to finish up a competition since yesterday? Just smack your plan to photoshop, add a couple of quick brush strokes, and bobs-your-uncle: you now have a presentation quality image in a few minutes. Searching for brushes is fast since they are built in, placing them is instant, sizing them is intuitive and editing them is fast.
#5 – They stylistically suit architecture drawings
Total realism is rarely needed in architecture drawings. Placing single color- schemed objects in plans, elevations, sections and axonometries is enough and looks way better than out of place realistic objects.
Archibite brushes do still have built-in transparency though in the case of vegetation, to also allow for high-realism and image depth if needed! To override that though, simple click a few times to turn the brush into a single color vector-style image.
Conclusion
I hope by now you’ve been convinced on the use of photoshop brushes as an essential tool for architects in their post-processing arsenal. The ease and speed of use, combined with the low file size and high-quality make it a candidate for every drawing needed.
Hop on to our brushes catalogue if you feel inspired, and check out our curated selection of Photoshop brushes that are sure to make your designs pop out!
