The above Painting was done using primarily the Paintbrush Ribbon Preset with various textures and the Bristle split 2Preset for the foilage.
EXPLORING THE BRUSH PANEL
General Notes
There are a few basic things to remember when using the paint tools:
First you must set your Preset with the various tools prior to setting your color because when you click on the Preset it will default to a color chosen by PI.

Remember to Save often, once you save - clear your undo history.
Painting in Mode versus not

Please note that you may find it much easier to manipulate your painting if you were to paint in object mode.

Advantages to painting in mode is that you can paint a little bit at a time making it an object. If you decide later on down the line that you don't like that particular tree in that spot but it might look better on the other side of the canvas, you can simply move it over.

It also makes it easier should you require to blend certain aspects of your painting.



When you are using the retouch tools, to avoid having a white fuzzy edge on your objects. Use the edit active objects only mode.(Instructions below)
Click on your canvas, right click select all objects, click on the retouch tool you want to use, you will see to the right of the Mode icon a blue dot, that is the Edit active objects Only icon. This works like a mask and allows you to use the retouch tools without bleeding the edges and picking up color from your canvas. If you want to use the retouch tools on only part of your object, use the layer manager to select the parts you want to use the retouch on and then select your retouch tool and the Edit Active Objects Only icon.

When you are working with your brushes, if you find a setting you like or think you will use often refer to this snapshot
tutorial by Debbie Hardisty on how to save your favorite brushes.
Saving Brush Settings to your Easy Palette

If you would like to share your brushes use this Snapshot tutorial
Sharing Brushes saved to your Easy Palette

Make a folder for your painting textures so if you happen to see a texture you think would work you can crop it out and save it and know where to find it..Then next time you paint just add it to your painting texture panel in PI.

In the first 4 Painting Tool tutorials the brush panel was mentioned briefly but we are going to take a closer look at what is available on the panel both for the painting tools and for the retouch tools..........

The basic options are the same for most all of the paint tools.
Starting with the fine Brush-

The first image you see is No transparency and no soft edge working with the Brush Panel let's take a look at the first tab.

Shape Tab

Here you will see a lock at the bottom of the panel. If you click the lock and unlock it you can then change the height and width to different sizes . Take a look at the examples .....you can also change the soft edge (right bottom slider) and the brush shape from round to square . And on the right of the panel you will see another slider(the top one) this allows you to change the brush angle.There are also some additional options found on the shape tab with various tools and they are discussed with the examples of each one.These were done by unlocking height and width and adjusting only the soft edge.

There is one more icon on the bottom and that is the eraser mode and just like the eraser on the tool panel this can be set to different transparencies and soft edges.Don't forget about this option.I comes in very handy for making small corrections as well as the normal uses.


Options Tab
The apply methods are the same choices you have in the object properties box. Not all of these apply to the paint tools as far as settings go but experiment and find the few that do. Draw several lines on a canvas and try them so you know which ones work and what they do.

The next box is of great use in digital painting.That is the freehand, straight line and connected lines options. The Straight line option makes it easy to draw a building or a wall or to keep that horizon line perfectly straight. I use it for making the base of a tree and then freehand the top. It gives a sky a soft streaky look using the soft edge at 100 or near to it by just varying the transparencies and colors ever so slightly without having to do anything else.

The connected lines allows you to draw two points and when you double click.. it will connect the line to close an area as shown here.

 


Color Tab
Keeping the same color size and brush choice we will look at what the multicolor can do.Depending on how you adjust your sliders the color variance can be very little with subtle highlights or dramatic .

The multicolor is great for making trees, grass or flowers or anything that you want to have a blend of colors .Here are a few examples . These are done with the Bristle split 2 Brush

The Second group of examples is using the ribbon tool with a multicolor
and changing only the transparency and soft edge you can achieve many different looks for your painting.




The Texture tab

Used alone or in conjunction with the multicolor tab the possibilities are endless.

Let's start by using the ribbon tool as it works very well with textures. Here are a few examples and there uses.
Paper 15 Mountains, roadways, etc.. shown varying only transparency and soft edge. Using the same multicolor
Second group altering the color and using a back and forth stroke rather than a top to bottom.

The next group is using the ribbon with a small variance in color and a texture I made by cropping a small portion out of a lake picture and adding the texture . It makes a very good base for your lake or stream or ocean. The first picture is a top to bottom with no soft edge and the second is a back and forth motion with about 50 transparency and 50 soft edge........You can see the difference depending on the look you want to achieve.

The first bottom row example is using Paper 7 .You can see it gives a nice base for sand , a road , sidewalk or pathway just to name a few.
The next 3 examples shown are just textures I made for different effects by cropping out a portion of a picture .


Since there are so many possibilities with the texture tabs let's look at a few more tools using the textures and multicolors

The first is the oil paint light stroke no texture then with a texture I made. The second is gritty charcoal first without a texture and then using Paper 13. And the last one is Waxy Crayon first without a texture and then using Paper 49.
See the dramataic difference there is when using a texture to paint.

The Advanced Tab
Only the Pressure options are for Graphire Tablet users. The spacing slider and the Fade in/Fade out work for mouse as well

There are three pressure options.......Size/Transparency - Size and Transparency

Here we are looking at the Size/Transparency Options
Using Size/Transparency There are 2 sliders below the pressure options these 2 sliders will allow you to adjust the width and step of the brush

On the right you will see three dots and that slider is for spacing your strokes If the slider is all the way to the left you have an unbroken line and as you move it to the right you will see spaces between the paint drops


Using Size you have the same options as above but you also have one additional option and that is the fade in/fade out by clicking on that button you have a slider below the button that allows you to adjust the amount of fade you want.


Using the Transparency Pressure option you only have the spacing option ( the 3 dots and slider to the right) which gives you a solid line or broken depending on the spacing

Marker and Oil Paint have an extra option ..The wet control.The differences are subtle on the marker but not so on the oil paint as you see from the examples
The Particle brush also has a wet control and with each preset there are dramatic differences in the stroke from 0 to 100 ...I have only shown 4 of the presets with the particle brush but all the presets change as much with the wet control slider.
The Oil Paint and Bristle brush in addition to brush width and height have a random slider(top right)and a brush head size........ (bottom right)The brush head size(think of it as bristle width)on the bristle brush changes but the brush size does not as shown in the examples
For the oil paint using a brush size 25 but varying the brush head size(bristle width) and using the random sliders and wet control you can see the different looks you can achieve.



The Chalk and Crayon tool have 2 extra options under the Shape tab ,weight (middle right slider)and distribution (bottom right slider).You can see from the examples the various differences.
The retouch tools also can be adjusted with the brush panel
Under the shape tab each one has a height and width, brush angle and Soft Edge,


Other various options and levels can be found under options for each of the tools. ie: degree or levels,wet or dry depending on the tool.

The spacing option can be found under the advanced tab



I hope you have found this paint tool series of some benefit.These are only the basics.Experimentation with each of the tools and creating your own textures and saving your favorite brushes can all help make painting more enjoyable.Once you know your way around the tools and don't have to wonder how can I get that look I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.


Questions ?
email me
Sparrow


Series 1 PaintBrush Tool
Series 2 Airbrush through the Particle Brush
Series 3 Oil Paint Tool throught the Bristle Brush
Series 4 Retouch Tools
Series 5 Exploring the Brush Panel
Sparrowz World PI Index