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INTRODUCTION TO PAINTING TOOL

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium[1] to a surface (support
base). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as
knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used.
Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, gesture (as in
gestural painting), composition, narration (as in narrative art), or abstraction (as in abstract art),
among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of
the practitioner.[2] Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a still life or landscape
painting), photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic (as in Symbolist art), emotive (as in
Expressionism), or political in nature (as in Artivism).
A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by spiritual
motifs and ideas. Examples of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological
figures on pottery, to Biblical scenes rendered on the interior walls and ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel, to scenes from the life of Buddha or other images of Eastern religious origin.
In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. The support for
paintings includes such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay, leaf, copper
and concrete, and the painting may incorporate multiple other materials including sand, clay,
paper, plaster, gold leaf, as well as objects. The term painting is also used outside of art as a
common trade among craftsmen and builders.

About painting tools, presets, and options


Adobe Photoshop provides several tools for painting and editing image color. The Brush tool and
the Pencil tool work like traditional drawing tools applying color with brush strokes. Tools like
the Eraser tool, Blur tool, and Smudge tool modify the existing colors in the image. In the
options bar for each of these painting tools, you can set how color is applied to an image and
choose from preset brush tips. See Painting tools gallery.
Brush and tool presets
You can save a set of brush options as a preset so you can quickly access brush characteristics
you use frequently. Photoshop includes several sample brush presets. You can start with these
presets and modify them to produce new effects. Many original brush presets are available for
download on the web.
You can quickly choose presets from the Brush Preset picker in the options bar, which lets you
temporarily modify the size and hardness of a brush preset.
Save tool presets when you want to store customized brush tip characteristics along with settings
from the options bar such as opacity, flow, and color. To learn more about tool presets, see Create
and use tool presets.
Brush tip options
Along with settings in the options bar, brush tip options control how color is applied. You can
apply color gradually, with soft edges, with large brush strokes, with various brush dynamics,
with different blending properties, and with brushes of different shapes. You can apply a texture
with your brush strokes to simulate painting on canvas or art papers. You can also simulate
spraying paint with an airbrush. You use the Brush panel to set brush tip options. See Brush panel
overview.
If you work with a drawing tablet, you can control how color is applied using pen pressure,
angle, rotation, or a stylus wheel. You set options for drawing tablets in the Brush panel and
options bar.

From an expert: Brushes 101

Expert Andy Anderson shows how to use brushes for painting, correcting, and adjusting an
image.

by Andy Anderson - InfiniteSkills

Andy Anderson is a graphic designer, marketer, motivator, and has been in the industry for over
twenty-five years.

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Paint with the Brush tool or Pencil tool


The Brush tool and the Pencil tool paint the current foreground color on an image. The Brush
tool creates soft strokes of color. The Pencil tool creates hard-edged lines.
Note:
The Rotation tool rotates the canvas, which can facilitate easier painting. See Use the Rotate
View tool.
1. Choose a foreground color. (See Choose colors in the toolbox.)
2. Select the Brush tool
or Pencil tool .
3. Choose a brush from the Brush Presets panel. See Select a preset brush.
4. Set tool options for mode, opacity, and so on, in the options bar.
5. Do one or more of the following:
o

Click and drag in the image to paint.

To draw a straight line, click a starting point in the image. Then hold down Shift,
and click an ending point.

When using the Brush tool as an airbrush, hold down the mouse button without
dragging to build up color.

Paint tool options


Set the following in the options bar. Options available vary with each tool.
Mode
Sets the method for blending the color you paint with the underlying existing pixels. Available
modes change with the currently selected tool. Paint modes are similar to layer blending modes.
See Blending modes.
Opacity
Sets the transparency of color you apply. As you paint over an area, the opacity does not exceed
the set level no matter how many times you move the pointer over the area, until you release the
mouse button. If you stroke over the area again, you apply additional color, equivalent to the set
opacity. Opacity of 100 percent is opaque.
Flow
Sets the rate at which color is applied as you move the pointer over an area. As you paint over an
area, while holding down the mouse button, the amount of color builds up based on the flow rate,
up to the opacity setting. For example, if you set the opacity to 33% and the flow to 33%, each
time you move over an area, its color moves 33% toward the brush color. The total will not
exceed 33% opacity unless you release the mouse button and stroke over the area again.
Press a single number key to set a tools opacity in multiples of 10% (pressing 1 sets it to 10%;
pressing 0 sets it to 100%). Press two number keys to set a specific opacity. To set Flow, press
Shift and number keys.
Airbrush
Simulates painting with an airbrush. As you move the pointer over an area, paint builds up as you
hold down the mouse button. Brush hardness, opacity, and flow options control how fast and
how much the paint is applied. Click the button to turn on or off this option.
Auto erase
(Pencil tool only) Paints the background color over areas containing the foreground color. Select
the foreground color you want to erase and the background color you want to change to. (See
Auto Erase with the Pencil tool.)

Tablet pressure buttons

Use stylus pressure to override opacity and size settings in the Brush pane

Selecting a cursor preference


The painting tools have three possible cursors: the standard cursor (the icon from the toolbox), a
cross hair , and a cursor that matches the size and shape of the currently selected brush tip.
1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Cursors (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Cursors
(Mac OS).
2. Select the desired cursors in both the Painting Cursors area and the Other Cursors area.
The sample cursors change to reflect your choices. For a Brush Tip cursor, choose a size
and whether to include a cross hair in the cursor.
o

Normal Brush Tip restricts the cursor size to areas of the brush stroke that have
50% or more opacity.

Full Size Brush Tip sizes the cursor to the entire area affected by the brush stroke.
For soft brushes, this produces a larger cursor size than the Normal setting, to
include the areas of the brush stroke with lighter opacity.

To combine different types of cursors, select Show Crosshair In Brush Tip or Show Only
Crosshair While Painting. Or, for the Pen and Brush tools, press the Caps Lock to toggle between
the standard cursor and the cross hair.

Adobe also recommends

Resize or change hardness of painting cursors by dragging


Creating and modifying brushes

Erodible tip options

Creating and managing patterns

Erasing parts of an image

Painting stylized strokes with the Art History Brush

Painting with a pattern

Painting with the Mixer Brush

INTRODUCTION TO DRAWING TOOL


Drawing is a form of visual art in which a person uses various drawing instruments to mark
paper or another two-dimensional medium. Instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink,
inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers,
markers, styluses, various metals (such as silverpoint) and electronic drawing.
A drawing instrument releases small amount of material onto a surface, leaving a visible mark.
The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard,
plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a
blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and
fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and
most efficient means of communicating visual ideas.[1] The wide availability of drawing
instruments makes drawing one of the most common artistic activities.
A person drawing the Barberini Faun in Munich
In addition to its more artistic forms, drawing is frequently used in commercial illustration,
animation, architecture, engineering and technical drawing. A quick, freehand drawing, usually
not intended as a finished work, is sometimes called a sketch. An artist who practices or works in
technical drawing may be called a drafter, draftsman or a draughtsman.[2]

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