Create textured brushes

A textured brush uses a pattern to make strokes look as if they are painted on textured canvas.

Click the pattern sample, and select a pattern from the pop‑up panel. Set one or more of the following options:

Inverts the high and low points in the texture based on the tones in the pattern. When Invert is selected, the lightest areas in the pattern are the low points in the texture and therefore receive the least paint; the darkest areas in the pattern are the high points in the texture and therefore receive the most paint. When Invert is deselected, the lightest areas in the pattern receive the most paint; the darkest areas in the pattern receive the least paint.

Specifies the scale of the pattern. Type a number, or use the slider to enter a value that is a percentage of the pattern size.

Applies the selected texture individually to each brush mark in a brush stroke, rather than to the brush stroke as a whole (a brush stroke is made up of many brush marks, applied continuously as you drag the brush). You must select this option to make the Depth variance options available.

Specifies the blending mode used to combine the brush and the pattern. (See Blending modes.)

Specifies how deeply the paint penetrates into the texture. Type a number, or use the slider to enter a value. At 100%, the low points in the texture do not receive any paint. At 0%, all points in the texture receive the same amount of paint, therefore hiding the pattern.

Specifies the minimum depth to which paint can penetrate when Depth Control is set to Fade, Pen Pressure, Pen Tilt, or Stylus Wheel, and Texture Each Tip is selected.

Specifies how the depth varies when Texture Each Tip is selected. To specify the maximum percentage of jitter, enter a value. To specify how you want to control the depth variance of brush marks, choose an option from the Control pop‑up menu:

Specifies no control over the depth variance of brush marks.

Fades from the Depth Jitter percentage to the Minimum Depth percentage in the specified number of steps.

Varies the depth based on the pen pressure, pen tilt, position of the pen thumbwheel, or rotation of the pen.

Copy textures between tools

When you specify a texture for the current tool, you can copy the texture’s pattern and scale to all tools that support textures. For example, you can copy the current texture pattern and scale for the Brush tool to the Pencil, Clone Stamp, Pattern Stamp, History Brush, Art History Brush, Eraser, Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools.

Dual brushes

A dual brush combines two tips to create brush marks. The second brush texture is applied within the brush stroke of the primary brush; only the areas where both brushstrokes intersect are painted. Set options for the primary tip in the Brush Tip Shape section of the Brush panel. Select a second brush tip from the Dual Brush section of the Brush panel, and set any of the following options.

Sets a blending mode to use when combining brush marks from the primary tip and the dual tip. (See Blending modes.)

Controls the size of the dual tip. Enter a value in pixels, drag the slider, or click Use Sample Size to use the original diameter of the brush tip. (The Use Sample Size option is available only if the brush tip shape was created by sampling pixels in an image.)

Controls the distance between the dual tip brush marks in a stroke. To change the spacing, type a number, or use the slider to enter a percentage of the tip diameter.

Specifies how dual tip brush marks are distributed in a stroke. When Both Axes is selected, dual tip brush marks are distributed in a radial direction. When Both Axes is deselected, dual tip brush marks are distributed perpendicular to the stroke path. To specify the maximum percentage of scattering, type a number or use the slider to enter a value.

Specifies the number of dual tip brush marks applied at each spacing interval. Type a number, or use the slider to enter a value.