Photoshop's Painting Tools: The Brush Tool

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Photoshops Painting Tools
Posted by David Leggett in Photoshop Tutorials on April 27th, 2008
In Photoshop, the painting tools are used to paint strokes, and fill areas with color or with colors that blend together.
Knowing how to use the paint tools is a must for any artist who wishes to use Photoshop.
The Brush Tool
In order to use the brush tool to its full extent, its important to understand what exactly a brush is in Adobe
Photoshop. A brush uses brush presets that are predefined (or user defined). A brush preset is any brush tip with
defined characteristics (such as size and shape).
Think of brushes in Photoshop as a large collection of different paintbrushes, each
with a different shaped tip. Imagine when you press the tip of one of these paintbrushes against a canvas, the shape
of the tip is imprinted immediately. Its a rough explanation, but it gets the basic idea across.
Brushes in Photoshop have plenty of other characteristics which make them entirely unlike a real world paint brush. By
manipulating these attributes, we can create entirely new brushes that act in unique ways. You could create a brush
that changes in shape and size as you are painting, a brush that scatters itself in random directions, and even a brush
that becomes more and less transparent while creating strokes. The possibilities are literally endless.
Lets Create a Quick Brush for demonstration purposes.
Create a new document, 200px by 200px with a white background. Select the Brush tool, and in the options bar select
the first brush preset from the brush preset picker (activated by clicking on the small down arrow next to the current
brush).
Go ahead and give this brush preset a whirl in your active image area. Select a foreground color youd like to paint
with, point your cursor to where youd like to start painting, hold down the mouse button, and create a stroke.
Modifying Brushes
Photoshops Painting Tools | Tutorial9 http://www.tutorial9.net/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/painting-tools/
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This brush preset creates a 1px hard stroke. We can modify some of the characteristics of this brush to create
something entirely different.
To modify a brush preset, youre going to need to access the Brush Palette. To open the brush palette, go to Window
> Brushes. Heres a quick overview of the palette.
A. Brush Settings Various settings for the selected brush tip.
B. Brush Stroke Preview A preview of the current brush stroke will look when used.
C. Selected Brush Tip The currently selected brush tip.
D. Brush Tip Shapes A list of all brush tip shapes available.
E. Brush Options Options for modifying the currently selected brush tip. Changes will not be permanent unless a new
brush preset is saved.
From the Brush Tip Shape settings, a user can select a brush tip shape from a list of available shapes (predefined or
user defined).
By clicking any of the various brush settings on the left, a panel of options will be displayed that can adjusted to your
own preference.
In the Brush Tip Shape area, set the diameter of your brush to 20px. By changing the diameter, you affect the size of
the brush.
Now go to Shape Dynamics and set the size jitter option to 100%. By changing shape dynamics, youre adjusting how
a brush mark changes during a stroke.
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Finally, go to Scattering, and set scatter to 300% with a count of 1. Scattering will affect placement and number of
brush marks.
Try painting with your brush now, and you ought to see a huge difference from when you first started! Modifying
brushes is really that simple!
If youre interested in learning more about brushes, then you may want to take a look at our guide on
installing new brushes in Photoshop which youve downloaded from elsewhere.
Eraser Tool
Were not going to go into too much detail with the eraser tool, simply because you should already have a pretty good
understanding of how it works. How so?
Well, like many other tools in Photoshop, the Eraser Tool uses brushes which effect the size, shape, and hardness of
the tool. Essentially, the eraser tool is controlled in the exact same way as the brush tool, only it erases rather than
paints.
Watch Out! If youre erasing directly on the Background layer, youll leave the currently selected
background color wherever you erase. Always be sure to set your background color before erasing
from the Background layer.
Paint Bucket Tool
The Paint Bucket Tool is used for filling areas with solid colors. It can be used to fill selections with a selected
foreground color, or fill areas that are similar in color to the part of an image that is clicked. To use the paint bucket
tool, select a foreground color youd like to paint with, and click anywhere in the active image area youd like to fill.
Gradient Tool
The Gradient Tool is very similar to the paint bucket tool, in that it fills entire areas or selections with colors. However,
rather than filling an area with a solid color, the Gradient Tool creates a series of colors than blend into one another.
When the gradient tool is selected, a preset gradient can be selected from the gradient picker in the options bar. A
gradient can then be created in the active image area by clicking and holding the mouse button, and dragging in the
direction youd like the gradient to go. Release where youd like the gradient to stop.
There are 5 different gradient styles which can be selected to create different effects. You can set them from the
Options Bar.
Retouch and Healing Tools
Return to the School of Photoshop
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90 Comments
airless paint sprayer (3 Points)
December 9, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Thanks very much for your useful share,from which we benefit a lot.Through your shared methods,we have made
a good understand of Photoshops Painting Tools.With your permission, we would like to enjoy this good article
with others by adding it to our own website http://www.airlesspaintsprayer-pump.com !
Flag as inappropriate
Sancaktepe (-1 Points)
November 24, 2010 at 10:44 am
ok gzel anlatmsnz konuyu, sadece resimlere bakmak bile yetiyor :) Teekkrler
(1 Point)
November 10, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Its Amazing!!
nok (0 Points)
October 28, 2010 at 3:00 am
vist for basic training of photoshop
http://training4free.co.cc/Basic%20training/Basic%20training.html
Web Design (1 Point)
April 26, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Great explanation thanks for sharing!!!
Ola (1 Point)
April 14, 2010 at 7:31 am
Nice tutorial, but i have not got brush options (E) in my brush palette and cannot modify the brushes for some
reason ;/ any help would be appreciated! Thank you for all your great tutorials
gotrino (0 Points)
April 8, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Always Good Explanation
This One
Nice explanation for Intermediate students.
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kavyasudah34 (1 Point)
April 6, 2010 at 3:56 am
Thanks for Sharing!! post to webmaster legitimate work at home jobs
(1 Point)
March 30, 2010 at 4:12 am
Great tip. Thank you for your sharing!
Phil (1 Point)
March 10, 2010 at 7:33 pm
I am having trouble choosing the color dynamics option. It is ghosted out, and I cant figure out why. Any ideas?
(1 Point)
February 2, 2010 at 11:50 pm
its very nice. Great post34
mp3 (1 Point)
February 2, 2010 at 1:34 am
(1 Point)
February 1, 2010 at 2:51 am
(1 Point)
January 28, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Great article. Thank you.
Nastynightmare (1 Point)
January 9, 2010 at 9:15 am
Where can i get the shape of your brush?
My brush is in one line i doesnt have those thin endings.. :/
Dejan Ninic (1 Point)
January 4, 2010 at 10:33 am
Something is deeply wrong with this program. Just cannot understand how stupidity became standard.
After selecting 1px brush i am getting everything else but 1px brush. Maybe 1px have several meanings for
Adobe?
Because it doesnt for Corel with their PSP.
original artwork (1 Point)
November 27, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Interesting stuff. Will come to great use for my future CD artwork.
wall art (1 Point)
October 29, 2009 at 5:20 pm
great stuff, will use this for my new wall art project
arcadia (1 Point)
5 of 8 08-05-2013 PM 01:01
kiero decargarlos
arcadia (2 Points)
kiero decaragarlos
renme nesneleri (2 Points)
August 30, 2009 at 5:44 am
David Leggett, thanks your sharings
Alex (1 Point)
August 29, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I seem to be having a problem with getting brushes to be soft. Even the preview of predefined soft brushes is
showing hard lines.
Im using CS3 with an RGB document, in 8-bit. Wet edges are off, blend mode set to normal, hardness down to
0%. What am I doing wrong?
Alex (1 Point)
August 30, 2009 at 7:04 am
OK, I got it sorted. I reset my Photoshop settings and preferences, and its fine now. It also means I can select
airbrush on the brush settings. Wahoo! Who knows what Id done!
maria (1 Point)
June 7, 2009 at 9:05 am
thanks your tutorials helped me a lot..
i understand photoshop and its concepts better now..
more power to your site!
:)
Li (1 Point)
May 26, 2009 at 2:29 pm
david, How do you select the graident tool?
great explantions
Tom (2 Points)
May 23, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Well written tutorial, I think this site will really help in getting my photoshop ski lls up.
vik nakka (1 Point)
May 16, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Very awesome website!
huwaw69 (0 Points)
May 3, 2009 at 4:36 am
Wow the gradient is well explained to me, thanks man! i really had a hard time making a gradient background
moriese (0 Points)
April 20, 2009 at 12:25 am
hey david.firstly thank you for these tutorials they are of immense help..i just needed to ask one thing.the
colour dynamics option in my brush presets is locked and i am not able to unlock it. .moreover my brush is not
painting in the desired colour.i was going through the layers tutorial but my brush paints the grass as white.no
matter what i tried it continued to paint in white..i an unable to understand how to get the desired colour for the
6 of 8 08-05-2013 PM 01:01
brush.it will be very kind if you could help.
thank you
Sunil (1 Point)
April 9, 2009 at 10:38 am
awesome tutorials!. thanks for posting them. keep them coming!
Yoshi (1 Point)
March 17, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Are those brushes installed automatically in photoshop? The tips are thinner. I just cant figure out how to do that
Matt! (1 Point)
September 19, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I went 16 some-odd years using photoshop without ever learning about all the awesome things you can do with
brushes. Im starting to learn now and my creative side loves the new tricks its learning. Thank you for the
article!
kevin (1 Point)
September 17, 2008 at 12:08 pm
How can we fill gradient in adobe photoshop bursh
Mothership (1 Point)
June 14, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Gradients are essential, as I see it, from my limited experience. It adds so much depth to the piece in question.
These are one of the first things I learnt when starting to use Photoshop, as theyre useful and fun to play with.
heizel (1 Point)
June 2, 2008 at 6:35 am
very useful site,thanks for giving basic and simpliest but most important knowledge in photoshop,keep up the
good work and god blesz!
David (1 Point)
May 30, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Good job of intro some photoshop tools. You have some typos though :P
David Leggett (1 Point)
April 28, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Thank you for the kind words guys!
@ Zapox My intents at this point are to teach what I consider to be the most important or essential tools. I
hope to cover all of Photoshops tools eventually, and understand that some tools may be essential in certain
cases, but I dont think people would gain as much from this series if I spent to much time covering ALL of the
details at once ;)
Zapox (1 Point)
April 28, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Very useful tutorial. Thanks!
Is it me, or are a few tools not covered here?
Marcus (1 Point)
April 27, 2008 at 9:12 am
I probably learned more about the Brush Tool after going through this than anywhere else I have ever been.
7 of 8 08-05-2013 PM 01:01
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Thanks again for another really good tutorial. Man, this site is so helpful!
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