Photoshop Can Paint!
Wow! CS5 came out smoking with new features and new ways of doing things! One of the most talked about features is the new Mixer Brush Tool. Nested with the Brush Tool in the vertical tool bar as the bottom option, it can be used with both the new Bristle Tip brushes and the standard Static Tip brushes. For the first time, Photoshop offers a means of blending colors beyond Smudging whether you want to paint from scratch or combine paint with photography.
When you choose the Mixer Brush you will immediately notice new options available for it.
From left to right the options are:
Tool Presets. There are some presets included that can be loaded by accessing more options from the upper right corner and selecting Mixer Brush Tool from the drop down menu, or you may prefer making your own once you become familiar with the way the brushes work.
Next is the option bar’s shortcut to the Brush Presets where you can adjust the size and softness of brushes or load other brush collections.
The third option is to hide and show the Brush Panel (or Palette).
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The next three options are brand new:
The color square shows the current brush load (red). If you choose to “clean” the brush from the drop down menu, the square will empty to let you know that there is no color currently on the brush and it will behave like a blender. This allows you to add color, then blend it without having to change brushes. In addition, the drop down from the color square provides the option to Load Solid Colors Only. If this option is on, when you sample color from an image (opt or alt tap), it will load a solid color based on the settings for the Eyedropper Tool. When Load Solid Colors Only is not selected, the sample from the image allows for loading the brush with multiple colors.
You can also choose to automatically reload a brush after every stroke or automatically clean the brush after every stroke by selecting from the two options just right of the current brush load icon.
CS5 even includes useful brush option combinations in the next drop down menu that helps jumpstart you into painting. These choices were created using the options for Wet, Load, and Mix and are listed under the Custom option.
Make your own combinations by adjusting these options yourself:
Wet = how “wet” the existing paint on the canvas is. A dry canvas will show a lot of the selected color being applied. A wet canvas will immediately begin blending existing color into your applied color. As the wet setting increases, the amount of paint picked up from the canvas while painting also increases. A Dry brush will not pick up paint while painting so no mixing is involved. A Wet setting with no color loaded on the brush allows blending of existing colors.
Load = how much paint you have in the brush, or how long your color will last in a stroke. High loads last longer than low loads.
Mix = how much the color on the canvas blends into the color being applied. Low mix settings pick up less paint from the canvas so more of the color being applied will show. High mix settings will not be as pure because the picked up paint will fully cover the brush.
Flow = how fast the paint comes off the brush. Visually it looks like opacity. High flow gives a lot of paint at one time. Low flow layers it on more slowly.
The next option is to choose whether or not to use the airbrush option. This option gradually continues to build color as if you were using a traditional airbrush.
Sample all layers allows you to create your painting on a New Layer instead of working directly on the background. Many artists who paint from photographs like to paint on layers so they can refer to the original image when needed. Artists who paint from scratch often like to work on layers so they can back up when they need to or make image adjustments to specific parts of the painting during the painting process.
The last option is for letting the tablet pressure determine the size of the brush, overriding settings in the Brush Panel. This means that if you apply light pressure the brush is small. Harder pressure makes the brush larger. This settings override option is not available for the Bristle Tip Brushes.
The above new options are available for all brushes in Photoshop.
And there’s MORE!
CS5 includes a new set of Bristle Tips that are capable of delivering a variety of stroke shapes and opacities that are user controlled with the direction and tilt of the Wacom pen. I’ve chosen the Round Tip Bristle brush to show you some of the new features.
As soon as you choose one of the new Bristle Tips a Preview of the brush tip and tilt becomes visible just to the top right of the vertical tool bar and under the tool options bar. This proxy can be used to visually learn how the brush responds to the tilt, rotation and pressure of the Wacom pen. It can also be turned off (upper right corner x) should you prefer not to see it. View / Show / Brush Preview will bring it back again.
I chose the Very Wet option from the drop down brush combinations and made two strokes, one using the tip of the pen and the other using the side. These brushes offer great variety of stroke and with a bit of practice allow you to paint with more control than is possible with static tip brushes.
The difference between using the standard brushes with the Mixer Brush and the new Bristle Tips is that the standard brushes apply paint more accurately for shaping objects and adding detail while the Bristle Tips offer more variety of stroke and better blending capabilities. This is because static tips use a single brush shape to generate the stroke while Bristle Tips are 3 dimensional models with individual bristles that bend and deform according to how you move, tilt and press the pen. Bristle Tips are available for all painting tools.
There are a few other important notes and changes for painting in CS5.
When regular brushes are selected, there are new options added for controlling brush size and opacity using pressure without having to select them from within the Brush Panel.
If you choose to rotate the canvas, the brushes will retain their relative angle.
Brush Presets are no longer required to be size specific. They will take their size from the current brush setting.
Brush Resize and Hardness, brackets [ ] for size and { } for hardness can now be accessed with a single shortcut on screen. Control Opt (Mac) or Alt Right Click (Win).
AND there are new Color Picker options. Opt (Mac) Alt (Win) brings up a new Sample Ring that allows you to see the color you currently have compared to the color you are choosing prior to selecting the new color. You can choose to see or not see the Sample Ring by enabling or disabling this option located in the options bar for the Eyedropper Tool.
There is a new HUD Color Picker as well. Access it with Control+Option+Command (Mac) or Alt+Shift+Right Click (Win). This is a really fast way to choose colors that visually fit in with the project you are working on. You can set the size you want to see the HUD Color Picker in General Preferences.
In addition
CS5 is packaged with many new features and incredible new technology. The new painting capabilities are just one of the exciting things you have to look forward to. Be one of the first to upgrade and experience it for yourself!
Jane Conner-ziser
Jane is an independent consultant and teacher for the professional photography industry. With 27 years of experience, 16 of them in digital imaging and evolving technologies, Jane's projects have spanned across a large segment of the studio photography market - freelance art, photography, lab systems, digital imaging, Internet, teaching PhotoShop and Painter, fine arts, writing for industry publications and being part of development teams for marketing/selling software and strategies using new technologies. Jane has served on the Digital and Advanced Imaging Committee for the Professional Photographers of America. Considered to be one of the most talented and well rounded experts in the industry, her clients include Canon, Art Leather Manufacturing Co, Marathon Press, Kodak, many of the nations largest professional color labs, and numerous studios of fine portrait and commercial photography. Her engaging style, impressive knowledge of her field and her easy and entertaining way of presenting material make her one of the most significant educators in the industry today.
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