Painting

The canvas, the tools, layers, and the Action Bar.

The canvas#

You paint on Image nodes. Each one is its own canvas with its own size and layer stack. Press B and paint on any of them.

An empty Image node is blank paper. Wire an image into its input and it becomes a viewer: it shows whatever flows in, and you can't paint on it. Disconnect the input and the last image stays, ready to paint over.

Right-click the node for Resize and Crop. The board itself has no resolution, so a small canvas and a huge one sit side by side.

Tools#

Tool Key What it does
Pointer V Select and move nodes. Drag inside a selection to lift pixels.
Brush B Paint. Press B again to open the brush picker.
Eraser E Erase. Keeps its own brush, picked from the toolbar.
Smudge S Drag paint around.
Lasso L Select a region of pixels.
Eyedropper I Pick a color off the canvas.
Color Picker C Open the color panel.

Retouch tools have their own keys: Heal H, Spot J, Clone K. See Retouch & AI. Pen P annotates, Laser G points. Vector tools: Frames.

Pressure works with Wacom, Apple Pencil, and most styluses. Calibrate your pen once in Settings > Painting so every brush responds the same. [ and ] size the brush.

Layers#

Up to 32 per canvas. Open them from the layers icon on the node's title.

Control What it does
Visibility Show or hide
Opacity 0 to 100%
Blend mode The full 22-mode set
Lock Read-only
Alpha lock Paint only where pixels already exist
Clipping mask Clip to the layer below
Filter Apply a node effect to just this layer

Right-click a layer for Fill Layer and the rest.

Brushes#

Ten brushes ship: Pencil, Ink, Marker, Charcoal, Paint, Watercolor, Airbrush, Spray, Pen, Chalk. Pick one from the picker: press B again, or click the brush at the top of the paint toolbar.

Want your own? Add a Brush node and turn on its Export toggle (the share icon on its title). It joins the picker. Details in Brushes.

QuickShape#

Hold at the end of a stroke and it snaps to a clean line, ellipse, circle, rectangle, or quad. Keep holding and move to adjust it, then let go. Tune it in Settings > Painting.

Action Bar#

Ten slots along the bottom of the board, keyed 1 to 9 then 0. Select some nodes and the empty bar shows the key that saves them. Drop in a color or a brush by dragging it onto a slot. Press the number to recall it. Each slot keeps its place, so a chip never moves when you fill another.

Cmd/Ctrl + number stores what you are working with: the current brush while you paint, the live lasso when the Lasso tool is active, otherwise the selected nodes. Press the number to bring it back. Press a group or lasso's number again to zoom to fit it. Shift + number adds to a slot instead of replacing it: more nodes join the group, a new lasso joins the old one.

A group's chip draws the shape of the group on the board, with a count in the corner. A lasso's chip draws its outline. Hover a chip to see what it holds. If a group's nodes are all deleted, its chip fades until you undo.

Stored the wrong thing? Cmd/Ctrl + Z puts the slot back. Right-click a chip to clear it. Each board and subgraph keeps its own bar, saved with the file.

Export#

Add an Image Exporter node and wire your canvas in. PNG, JPEG, WebP, TIFF, and EXR. EXR is currently macOS only. Put a Resize node in front to scale for output.

Where to next#