a fast way to use your brush and keep all its pattern,

This is the brush and the pattern on it that I would like to keep,

On a new layer I paint this (below) using the above setting,

Then I copy the layer until it is opaque keeping one layer on top and merging all the other layers,

Now if I lighten "layer 4" and darken " Layer 4 copy 25" I'll be on the way to very quickly getting something like the image below. have fun.