How to Create Photoshop Brushes From an Old Newspaper

What You’ll Be Creating

In this tutorial, we will create a set of Photoshop brushes from an old newspaper, and then we will create a vintage paper texture using this set.

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used in the production of this tutorial:

• Scanned Newspaper

1. How to Prepare the Document

Step 1

Press Control-O and then select the scanned image.

Step 2

After that, we need to create a new document. Hit Control-N to create a new document and use the following settings:

• 1500 x 1000 px
• 300 dpi
• Color Mode: RGB

2. How to Create Photoshop Brushes From a Paper Texture

Step 1

Click M and select the Elliptical Marquee Tool. Then select an area in the bottom left corner of the document while holding Shift.

Step 2

Hit Control-C to copy that part of the texture, and then go to the tab with the document we’ve created and hit Control-V.

Step 3

Select another area in the right part of the document and create a copy of it as we did before.

Step 4

And for the last element, let’s take a part of the illustration.

Step 5

Now we can start to create the brushes. Select the first copy and convert the layer to black and white by pressing Alt-Control-Shift-B. Hit OK.

Step 6

After that, we need to add Auto Contrast to the layer by pressing Alt-Control-Shift-L.

Step 7

Then go to Select > Color Range and use the following settings: 

• Select: Shadows
• Fuzziness: 15%
• Range: 65

Step 8

Create a copy of the selection by pressing Control-C and then Control-V, and then delete the first layer.

Step 9

Now we need to add a Black and White Filter and Auto Contrast to the second layer, as we did before with the first layer.

Step 10

Go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold and set the Threshold Level to 120.

Step 11

Let’s create a selection using a color range again. Go to Select > Color Range and use the following settings:

• Select: Highlights
• Fuzziness: 0%
• Range: 190

Step 12

Hit the Delete button to remove the selection from the layer.

Step 13

Now we need to convert the last layer to black and white and then go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and use the following settings:

• Brightness: 150
• Contrast: 100

Step 14

Go to Select > Color Range and use the following settings:

• Select: Highlights
• Fuzziness: 5%
• Range: 190

Then remove the selected area using the Delete button.

Step 15

Now we are ready to create the brush presets. Make all layers invisible except the first and go to Edit > Define Brush Preset, select any name you want to use for your brush, and hit the OK button. Then Define the second and the third brush presets the same way.

Step 16

Select the Brush Instrument and then select your first brush. After that, hit the Brush Settings icon.

Step 17

Put ticks on Shape Dynamics, Scattering, and Transfer, and use the following settings: 

• Shape Dynamics: Angle Jitter: 100%
• Scattering: Both Axes: On; Scatter: 390%; Count: 12
• Transfer: Opacity Jitter: 100%; Flow Jitter: 100%

Step 18

Create a new layer using Shift-Control-N and draw a texture with the brush using #ffbe88 for the color.

Step 19

Select the second brush and put ticks on Shape Dynamics and Scattering, and then use the following settings: 

• Shape Dynamics: Size Jitter: 100%; Angle Jitter: 100% 
• Scattering: Both Axes: On; Scatter: 1000%; Count: 1

Step 20

Create a new layer and change the Blending Mode of this layer to Soft Light, and then draw a texture with the brush we’ve created using black as the color.

Step 21

And for the last brush, let’s use the following settings:

• Shape Dynamics: Size Jitter: 100%; Angle Jitter: 100%
• Scattering: Scatter: 425%; Count: 3

Step 22

And for the last part of the texture, create a new layer and change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Then draw a texture on the layer with the last brush in black.

Awesome Work, You’re Now Done!

Congratulations! You have created a grunge brush Photoshop set from an old scanned newspaper and made a vintage paper texture with this set of Photoshop brushes.

Here is our final result: