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Selecting a Painting or Drawing Instrument

There are five painting and drawing instruments available from the Toolbar. After you select a painting and drawing instrument, you will see a number of options listed in the Properties bar. These options give you control over the width and shape of the brush or nib, the spacing and opacity of strokes, and more.

The Pencil is one of the five painting and drawing instruments, but it has no options. You can, however, change the pencil color.

To Change the Width of a Brush or Nib:

From the Toolbar, under Create, select the Paintbrush, Airbrush, Marker, or Neon instrument.
In the Properties bar, click the arrow beside the Brush Size box and drag the slider to the left or right until the brush or nib is the desired size.

To Change the Brush or Nib Shape:

From the Toolbar, under Create, select the Paintbrush, Airbrush, Marker, or Neon instrument.
In the Properties bar, select the Brush Options drop-down menu.
Drag the Hardness slider to the left to soften the brush or nib or to the right to harden.
Drag the Roundness slider to the left to flatten the brush or nib or to the right to make the brush or nib round.
If you flattened the brush or nib, you can drag the Angle slider to the left or right to change the angle of the brush or nib.

To Change the Spacing and Opacity of Strokes:

From the Toolbar, under Create, select the Paintbrush, Airbrush, Marker, or Neon instrument.
In the Properties bar, select the Spacing drop-down menu and drag the slider to the left to create a smooth, continuous stroke or to the right to create a dotted stroke.
If using the Paintbrush or Marker Instrument, in the Properties bar, select the Opacity drop-down menu and drag the slider to the left to reduce opacity or to the right to increase opacity.

To Create the Impression That a Stroke is Shrinking and Fading:

From the Toolbar, under Create, select the Paintbrush, Airbrush, Marker, or Neon instrument.
If using the Paintbrush, Airbrush, or Marker Instrument, in the Properties bar, select the Fade drop-down menu, and select one of the following:
- Select Size to create the impression that a stroke is shrinking, as if you are slowly lifting the brush or nib off the work area.
- Select Opacity to create the impression that a stroke is fading, as if the brush or nib is slowly running out of ink.
- Select Size and Opacity to create the impression that a stroke is shrinking and fading.

To Change the Blend Mode:

Select a blend mode to control how pixels are affected by the painting tool.

From the Toolbar, under Create, select the Paintbrush or Airbrush instrument.
From the Mode drop-down, select a blending option:

Normal	Select Normal to display the transparent object over the underlying object or photo without blending the colors together.
Dissolve	Select Dissolve to randomly replace pixels with the base color, depending on opacity.
Multiply	Select Multiply to multiply the colors in the transparent object with the colors in the underlying object or photo. The blend area is usually darker than the original object or photo.
Screen	Select Screen to multiply the inverse or opposite of the colors in the transparent object and the underlying object or photo. The blend area is usually lighter than the original object or photo. When the transparent object is over a black area, the colors in the object remain unchanged. When the transparent object is over a white area, the colors in the object become white as well.
Overlay	Select Overlay to mix the colors in the transparent object with the colors in the underlying object or photo. The blended area maintains the brightness of the underlying object or photo, and as a result you can see shadows and highlights in the blended area.
Soft Light	The Soft Light blend option will darken or burn the colors in the underlying object or photo if the transparent object above is darker than 50% gray. It will lighten or dodge the colors in the underlying object or photo if the transparent object above it is lighter than 50% gray.
Hard Light	The Hard Light blend option will darken or multiply the colors in the underlying object or photo if the transparent object above is darker than 50% gray. It will lighten or screen the colors in the underlying object or photo if the transparent object above it is lighter than 50% gray.
Darken	The Darken blend option identifies the darkest color in the blend area and leaves the darker colors unchanged, but replaces the colors that are lighter.
Lighten	The Lighten blend option identifies the lightest color in the blend area and replaces the colors that are darker, leaving the lighter colors unchanged.
Difference	The Difference blend option identifies the lightest color in the blend area. If the color in the transparent object is lighter, that color is subtracted from the color of the underlying object or photo. If the color in the underlying object or photo is lighter, that color is subtracted from the color of the transparent object. When the transparent object is over a black area, the colors in the object remain unchanged. When the transparent object is over a white area, the colors in the object are inverted.
Hue	The Hue blend option creates a color by mixing the saturation and luminance of the base color with the blend color.
Saturation	The Saturation blend option changes the saturation of the area painted to match the saturation of the applied color, without changing the hue or luminance values.
Color	The Color blend option changes the hue and saturation of the painted area to the hue and saturation of the applied color, without affecting the shadow, highlights, or midtones of the original image.
Luminosity	The Luminosity blend option changes the lightness of the underlying color to the lightness of the applied color, without affecting the hue or saturation of the image.

To Change the Pressure of the Airbrush:

From the Toolbar, under Create, select the Airbrush instrument.
In the Properties bar, click the arrow beside the Pressure box and drag the slider to the left to reduce pressure or to the right to increase.

Changing pressure changes the amount of ink projected onto the work area. When you reduce pressure, less ink is sprayed onto the work area and when you increase pressure, more ink is sprayed onto the work area.

To Change the Neon Glow:

From the Toolbar, under Create, select the Neon instrument.
In the Properties bar, click the arrow beside the Glow box and drag the slider to the left to reduce glow and to the right to increase.

The glow is created by adding an outline around the stroke. The glow is diminished by reducing the width of the outline around the stroke. The glow is increased by increasing the width of the outline around the stroke.

In the Toolbar, use the Color Picker to select the glow color. Click the foreground box to select the stroke color. Click the background box to select the outline or glow color.