Today's free download is a fun one: Hand Drawn Stipple Brushes for Photoshop. Using these brushes will allow you to shade your lettering and illustrations with a natural stipple effect.

To get this effect the old-fashioned way, you would have to draw each individual dot by hand. Now you can just paint your own stipple shading in seconds!

Important: Make sure to follow these recommended settings below for best results.

1. Download the file, unzip it, and double-click on the .abr file to load the 14 stipple brushes into your Photoshop brush palette.
2. Create a new Photoshop document or open an existing one.
3. Highlight your brush tool in the toolbar.
4. Open up your Brush Presets Window and select one of the brushes.
5. Open up your Brush Window (shown in the images below).
6. Check and highlight "Shape Dynamics" and set "Size Jitter" to 75% and "Angle Jitter" to 50%.
7. Next, check and highlight "Scattering" and set "Scatter" to 15%.
8. After you make these settings, click to lock the little padlock icons for "Shape Dynamics" and "Scattering" to keep these settings from going away. (You can always unlock them later when you are done using the stipple brushes).

Now you should be able to paint your stippling into any Photoshop file!

Tip #1: You can change the scale of the brushes up or down by tapping on the left bracket or right bracket keys [ ].

Tip #2: Using a pressure sensitive drawing tablet will yield even more control over the size of the brushes.

Hand Drawn Stipple Brushes for Photoshop is a free download for TheVectorLab Newsletter subscribers, and is also included in Graphic Design Launch Kit. Go here to sign up and get all the free downloads.