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@Alex30 By your own admission you stated you were very new to Photoshop. Since your very new, I kept my explanation as simple as possible. I think there was some layer masking with linear gradients involved in making the original effect. I felt you might have a hard time with this so I opted for the easier approach.

For now, trying to keep it simple, the best way to match your original effect is in adjusting how you made your brush strokes.

Notice that you carried your brush stroke to the very edge......

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It's my fault as I failed to elaborate, my original hope was that you would notice from the images.

In order to achieve the softer ends, I did not carry my brushstrokes to the very edge.

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I used a large brush with the softest setting. I also lowered brushes flow to around 1%.

Make each of the brush effects on separate layers, this way you can lower the opacity of each to achieve a softer effect.