Alpha Skills Lesson 1 Selecting a simple image shape to create a custom brush from it - part 1 -   part 2    part 3	more:
Very Affordable 2D + 3D Software Animation Tools at lowest prices! Poser - Anime Studio -  Carrara - Manga Studio - Bryce and much more from Purplus	Hello, I'm Philip Staiger, and this is "Waffling with alpha", part of a series of tutorials to explore and learn some basic selection skills. In Project Dogwaffle, a selection is held within the so-called alpha channel. Thus, some selection tools are also called Alpha tools. Note: This tutorial was created with PD Pro 4.1. If you use something slightly different (PD Artist, PD Pro 3,...), you may still be able to do similar things but perhaps in different places of the graphical user interface: The interface may have changed slightly. In this short tutorial, we'll select a simple shape, perhaps a heart or a happy face, which is made of very few colors. In fact, just one color in this example.  We'll draw the shape ourselves, using a simple brush. The simple brushes don't add anti-aliased soft edges, this you can be sure that there's no additional colors or shades of colors introduces while painting. Start with a plain white background. <<< Then Right-click the brush tool. It's the small icon near the top left in the tools panel. This will show the menu of built-in brushes and other brush related essentials. Select the "Simple" brush group. Within the Simple group, select the Medium (Med) size option.
	Draw a few test lines. Notice that you can adjust the thickness of the lines with the Size slider. Adjust the size until you get something that's a good 20 pixels wide or so. The exact value doesn't matter. You just want to make sure it's not too thin.
	Let's use a color other than Black. Choose something blue for example.
	Now put your drawing skills to the extreme test and draw a shape like a heart. Make sure it is a closed shape, with no gaps that could connect the ouside to the inside. Ready to make youyr first selection? For part 2 >> click here