How To Soften Hard Paint Brushes

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Today we're bringing you some digital painting tips to help y'all get started in Adobe Photoshop! Learn the importance of knowing which brushes yous should use for your next digital masterpiece.

Which Brush Should I Use?

The top questions on anyone'due south mind always deal with brushes. Whether information technology'due south which castor y'all should use, the size or the setting, brushes are hugely important to the outcome of your digital painting.

Brushes Available in Adobe Photoshop — Brushes come in all shapes, sizes, and textures. Try them all out to see how they work!

Simply Does the Brush Really Matter?

Yes and no. Brushes are only tools. Certain, you can reach a diversity of furnishings with them, but you nevertheless have to know how to utilise them.

Brush Misconceptions

Having a sure brush or castor set doesn't guarantee a particular look or quality. You're not going to go from beginner status to an advanced artist simply considering you've downloaded a popular brush pack.

Unfortunately, there's no way to avoid the necessity of building your foundation skills. So make sure that y'all're taking the time to sympathize basic art principles as you too abound to understand these tools.

What They Are Actually Used For

To go a better handle on painting with brushes in Adobe Photoshop, it'south a good thought to sympathise what they're actually capable of.

With Photoshop brushes, y'all tin can:

apply them for both sketching and painting
fill in large areas with colour (similar the Paint Saucepan Tool)
create beautiful gradients of transitioning colors
practice general shading using night tones, mid tones, and highlights
add together realistic texture to your piece
paint patterns to save time
finely tune the details of your painting

Why You lot Need a Pen Tablet

Even if you have Photoshop, you lot might still be missing one key element—a pen tablet. Pen tablets allow you to digitally pigment by using a stylus and pad which imitate the experience of drawing on paper.

Can you paint in Photoshop without a pen tablet? Yes. Will information technology be easy? Not at all.

Because they're connected to Photoshop, pen tablets allow y'all admission to additional settings within the Brush Panel. Without 1, you won't be able to simulate that painterly feel.

Personally, I've gone through about 8 tablets that all varied in size and cost. Merely no matter the cost or brand, every bit long as the tablet allows access to Pen Pressure, it's always good in my volume.

The Holy Grail of Brushes Is Pretty Standard

Part of the reason why digital artists have such a hard time giving advice in this area is considering so many of us use merely one castor, the Standard Circular Castor.

So when an artist tells you lot that they use a "round brush", this is what they mean.

Believe it or not, yous can actually achieve so many unlike textures and furnishings with just one brush, as long as you know how to take advantage of the brush settings. Essentially, this one brush becomes the equivalent of having dozens of brushes on hand, simply considering the settings make it so versatile.

But irresolute the Hardness from 0% to 100% lone gives you several completely different brushes.

Brushes with Varying Levels of Hardness in Adobe Photoshop — From left to right, yous have a Standard Round Brush with Hardness levels at 100, 50, and 0%.

Castor Hardness, Size, and Opacity

Equally a general rule of thumb, e'er change the Hardness, Size, and Opacity according to your painting needs. If you demand a soft experience, go with a soft brush, and if you lot need crisp edges, go with a harder brush.

Whenever I feel stuck, the first thing that I do is arrange my brush settings. If you get stuck on one setting for likewise long, your painting tends to look ane-dimensional and not very interesting.

Brush Settings for Opacity Hardness and Size in Adobe Photoshop — Opacity, Size, and Hardness are the more important features you'll need to know about the Castor Tool. Right-click to access this smaller panel for a much easier workflow in Photoshop.

Dissimilar Castor Settings for Each Phase

Welcome change when yous're painting. Change your brush settings often, so that you make this a part of your habits and routine. In instance yous need a little assistance getting started, here are some settings I like to apply depending on the phase I'k working on.

Sketching

As straightforward equally information technology seems, some people don't realize they tin can sketch right into Photoshop. Even if you feel more comfortable with paper and pencil, you should always sketch in Photoshop to get more familiar with brushes.

When sketching, avoid soft edges at all costs. They'll brand things really blurry and hard to run across. These are the settings I like to use best for well-baked, elegant details.

Brushes for Sketching and Drawing in Adobe Photoshop — Notice how the ends taper? Whenever y'all drag your pen across the tablet, these settings let for a cute flick at the finish that will instantly make you lot experience equally if you're drawing on newspaper.

Brush Hardness: Always 100%.
Spacing: Keep nether 30%.
Castor Size: The smaller the size, the cleaner the sketch. I like 5-10 pixels.
Shape Dynamics: Ready Size Control to Pen Pressure (for tapered ends).
Transfer: Set Opacity Control to Pen Pressure.

These settings volition help you lot create line art like the examples below. The cardinal to make clean line art is to take your time making fluid, deliberate strokes. You don't always need the Shape Dynamics selection on, only if you want to brand your sketches look more traditional, then information technology definitely helps.

Drawing and Sketching in Adobe Photoshop with the Brush Tool — Although both sketches accept the Pen Pressure option selected, the second is much cleaner because I've taken more time to perfect the lines.

Base Colors and Blocking Out Tones

Once the sketch is finished, the adjacent stages of your painting will include filling in the base colors and carving out the shadows, mid tones, and highlights. These steps are all nigh throwing paint on the canvas fast, and so don't worry besides much about blending.

Soft versus hard brushes in Adobe Photoshop — Laying in the initial tones is all about speed. Feel free to use either soft or hard brushes to assistance you lot understand the overall direction of your painting.

Brush Hardness: Varies on the issue. Soft brushes create realistic shadows while hard brushes help to sculpt. I generally stick to 30-50%.
Brush Size: Bigger is better for fast application.
Shape Dynamics: Remember to turn the Pen Force per unit area Off afterwards sketching, or the brush strokes will exist tapered and difficult to use.

No matter how harsh this initial stride may be, the blending phase will help to smooth any details out.

Digital Painting Steps Art by Melody Nieves — No painting starts off with incredible item. Notice that every bit the painting transitions to the second step, all you really need is a few soft colors and tones to begin mapping out where you need to identify further detail.

Blending

Whether y'all're painting pare or a beautiful sky, eventually soft brushes come into play. And the harder the brush, the harder it is to blend. Start with the everyman setting for Hardness in social club to gauge whether or non y'all demand to increase it. The style you're going for will make this step purely subjective, so experiment to see what works best.

Brush Hardness: Start with 0% and increase co-ordinate to your needs.
Castor Size: Large brushes cover more area so you'll rarely need to use tiny brushes.
Shape Dynamics: Pen Force per unit area should still be off during this stage.

Study skin to understand blending in Photoshop — Ane of the best ways to master blending is to study skin. Use soft brushes for the center of the face up, and harder brushes for the edges and details.

Detailing

Digital Paintings are best painted at high resolutions. Simply the bigger they get, the harder it is to paint details considering the file size becomes massive. Try to gainsay brush lag and so that you can pigment in those details for the best quality painting.

Castor Hardness: Maintain between lx-100% for crisp details.
Castor Size: Depends on your painting resolution. Generally speaking, use smaller brushes to assist you get into the nooks and crannies of your paintings for better details.

DIgital Painting Details in HIgh Resolution — Fifty-fifty though the left side is the size that your audience will see the final painting at, it'southward still of import to zoom in and use smaller brushes to carve out the details. This is especially important when setting up paintings for printing.

Specialty and Texture Brushes

Everyone loves castor packs. Why depict a bunch of leaves or fur by hand if I have a brush that can do it for me?

The chief reasons why you would cull texture and specialty brushes is to either create a certain result, add texture of class, or simply convenience. You tin relieve a lot of energy and time by using a castor that creates an upshot in a thing of seconds.

Texture Brushes for Digital Paintings — Hither I used ii different brushes for texture. A standard circular brush for the hair and random dots, and a chalk brush for the texture on the clothes.

Although specialty brushes are helpful, try not to depend on them too much. Keep the diversity going by experimenting with different brush effects.

Don't Forget to Pigment With the Eraser Brush

Yes, you read that correctly. You can likewise paint with the Eraser Tool (E). What I hateful by this is that you lot shouldn't limit your view of an eraser equally something that you only demand when you brand a mistake.

In traditional art, artists utilize erasers to create highlights in their charcoal or pencil drawings by lifting up the dark color in those areas. The same theory applies to digital painting. If you put besides much paint on an surface area past mistake, switch over to the Eraser Tool (E) and take some of the color away. Some other great thing most this is that you tin can use it to clean up or soften edges depending on the tool'southward Hardness setting.

Eraser Tool in Adobe Photoshop — You can utilise the Eraser Tool in two means. The first way is to completely omit a section, and the second is to gently lift colour for a nice effect.

Conclusion

Instead of asking "Which brush should I use?", attempt request yourself, "What am I trying to paint?"

The answer to this question volition guide you lot in selecting the right brushes for all your digital paintings.

I promise this has helped you proceeds a piddling more confidence working with brushes in Photoshop. For more than tutorials and help in this area, feel free to enquire me questions in the comments, or check out these tutorials below!

Learn How to Ameliorate Your Digital Illustrations in 10 Piece of cake Steps
Quick Tip: How to Blend With the Castor Tool for Digital Paintings
Quick Tip: Painting with Hard vs. Soft Brushes in Adobe Photoshop

Melody Nieves

Digital Artist - CT, USA

I'm an Afro-Latina digital creative person originally from Long Island, NY. I love to paint, design, and photo manipulate in Adobe Photoshop while helping others larn too. Follow me on Instagram or tweet me @MelloNieves and tell me what you lot'd like to meet next!