Paint and erase

Choose a brush tool using Paint > [Brush type ] > [Brush name] and drag in a view.

See also Sketch on a Cintiq.

To select a brush and sketch with it

1. Choose a brush tool (Paint > [Brush type ] > [Brush name]).

   The Pencil, Marker, Airbrush, Pastel Soft, and Solid Brush tools let you drag the stylus to apply strokes of paint to a canvas plane.

   Pencil
   Marker
   Airbrush
   Pastel Soft
   Solid Brush

   The Eraser tools lets you drag the stylus to remove paint from a canvas plane in strokes.

   Eraser

   When a brush tool is active, the cursor becomes a crosshair with the letter P (paint), E (erase), H (hide), or S (show).

   When you hold the cursor over a canvas plane, the cursor also displays a preview image of how the brush will apply paint to the sketch.

   
   Note:

   You can turn off the brush preview and radius indicator.

   See Customize brushes and paint.

2. Drag the stylus on the canvas plane to begin sketching.

   Tips when using brushes

   • To quickly switch between painting and erasing using the same brush, with a brush tool active press and release 1 to paint or 2 to erase.
   • To erase paint, flip the stylus around and use the eraser function at the end of the stylus.
   • To create a horizontal brush stroke in an orthographic window, drag the or the equivalent stylus button.
   • To create a vertical brush stroke in an orthographic window, drag the or the equivalent stylus button).

   See Set up my tablet and stylus.

   Tip:

   To snap a brush to a curve, click the button to the right of the prompt line (or hold down + (Windows) or + (Mac)).

   See Snap a brush to a curve.

   Note:

   Brushes are most responsive when you are viewing the canvas plane at its actual size (1:1 or 100%).

   See Change your view of a canvas plane.

   Notes when using brushes

   • Brush strokes may appear slow when you are zoomed out of a canvas plane. This is because the stroke is actually very large relative to the canvas plane.
   • Brushes may be more responsive if you do not have any other windows open (for example, the Canvas Layer Editor window or the Color Editor).
   • Brushes may be more responsive if you do not have any other applications running.
   • If you cannot paint, the active image layer may be hidden (the cursor becomes a ) or may contain hidden paint (you cannot paint over hidden paint) or the active layer may be a shape layer (you cannot paint on a shape layer; the cursor becomes a ).

The rest of the Alias windows are hidden while the brush is down. You can go to Preferences > General Preferences and change the setting for Hide Windows During Brush Stroke to change the amount of time (in seconds) that it will take before the windows reappear.