Brushes

Simple mode for quick tuning, Advanced for the full engine. Pressure, wet paint, grain.

Brush wet-paint controls

A brush that behaves like a real one. Pressure shapes the stroke. Paint runs out as you drag. Colors mix wet into wet. Any image can be your bristle or your paper.

Every brush is a Brush node. Add one and it joins the picker. Fresh nodes open on Pencil.

Simple mode#

Pick a category, tune a few sliders with physical names. That is all most brushes need.

Category Sliders
Pencil Hardness, Point, Paper
Ink Flex, Ink, Ink Flow, Taper
Marker Tip, Angle, Ink, Bleed
Charcoal Softness, Texture, Taper
Paint Loading, Bristles, Wetness
Watercolor Wetness, Edge, Pigment, Bloom
Airbrush Flow, Buildup, Overspray
Spray Density, Spread, Grit

Switching category resets the brush. Flip the Simple / Advanced toggle under the ports to see everything the category set up.

Advanced mode#

Pressure#

Size and opacity each get their own Min and Max, shaped by the pressure curve. Soft response for a feather touch, hard for instant ink. Mouse strokes are smoothed automatically.

Wet paint#

Control Effect
Dilution Water to paint. Higher is more transparent.
Charge Paint loaded on the brush. Runs down as you drag.
Pull Picks up what is already on the canvas and drags it along. Wet into wet.
Wet Edges Pigment pools at the edge, the watercolor ring.
Burnt Edges Darkens where the stroke crosses itself. Applies when you lift.
Wet Blur Softens the canvas under the fresh stroke.

Pull plus Wet Edges plus a low Charge is a watercolor wash. High opacity, no wetness, is hard ink.

Scatter#

Control Effect
Spacing Gap between dabs
Scatter Throws dabs out to the sides
Jitter Lateral / Linear Randomizes dab position sideways and along the stroke
Count Dabs per step, for sprays

Same stroke, same result. The randomness repeats.

Shape and grain#

Two images define the look. Shape is one dab's silhouette. Grain is a paper texture pressed into every dab. Wire any image into either port. Set grain to follow the stroke, or pin it to the canvas like real tooth. Dry media like Pencil and Charcoal push harder into the grain with more pressure.

Both travel inside the document, so a brush looks the same on any machine.

Blend modes#

Per-dab modes: Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay. Eraser, Smudge, Clone, and Heal are brush modes too.

The picker#

Press B with the brush active, or click the toolbar pill. It lists the ten defaults plus every Brush node on your board. Each paint tool (Brush, Eraser, Smudge) remembers its own pick. Right-click a Brush node's preview to reset or save its default stroke.

Where to next#