Bristle Brushes: Shape & Bristles¶

Source¶

Brush Shape - Choose the shape of your custom brush. Click the shape thumbnail to open the image library of shapes.

Texture Properties - Scale or change the brightness and contrast of the shape.

Rotate - Rotate the shape clockwise.

Flip Horizontally - Flip the shape horizontally.

Invert - Invert the shape.

Note

Shapes and Grains are accessible via the Help menu > Show Library folder, where you can paste any custom shape or grain to their respective folder in PNG, JPG or BMP format.

Shape¶

Angle - Set the angle of the brush shape (0-100):

Rotation - Select the rotation mode of the brush shape:

None - The brush shape does not rotate.
Follow Trajectory - The brush follows the stroke's trajectory rotation.
Pen Tilt - The brush shape follows the pen tilt.
Pen Rotation - The brush shape follows pen rotation.

Tip

Brushes that follow a trajectory, pen tilt and pen rotation have a cursor displayed as a circle with direction. You can choose other cursor types in Preferences > Tools > Painting Cursor.

Note

You can select "Always use Pen Tilt / Rotation instead of Follow Trajectory in Brush Creator" option in Preferences > Tools. When selected, the brush shape follows the pen tilt or rotation if the pen supports them, even when "Follow Trajectory" is selected for brush rotation.

Force Rotation Mode - Lock the currently selected rotation setting for the particular brush so that no other settings override the rotation mode.

Bristles¶

Random Span - This setting controls the randomness in their placement within the brush. (0-200) At 0, there is no randomness: bristles are evenly spaced and consistently positioned. Increasing the value introduces more randomness to their placement, resulting in a more natural and varied brushstroke.

Variations - Bristle brushes use two types of bristles: those that carve valleys in the impasto and those that build up peaks. This parameter adjusts the sequence in which valley-forming and peak-forming bristles are arranged within the brush. (0-20) At 0, there is no randomness: the bristle order is fixed and predictable, e.g., peak–valley–peak from top to bottom. Increasing the value introduces randomness to this sequence, allowing for less uniform combinations, e.g., peak–peak–valley.

Noise Frequency - Using Perlin noise, this setting controls the size of bristle groups that have similar behavior. (0-100) For example, bristles within a brush can behave differently in how they scratch the surface of the paper or how they react to mixing, blending or painting based on the pressure. At 0, brush will contain all bristles using similar values, while with higher values you can see several groups of bristles.

Random Noise - This setting controls the randomness of noise frequency. (0-100) At 0, there is no randomness. The higher the value the more noise used vs. smooth transitions from Perlin noise.

Per-bristle Pressure - Set the pen pressure multiplier. (1-100) This slider controls how much variation is added to the pressure response of each bristle. At 0, all bristles follow the exact same pressure curve. As you increase the value, each bristle begins to respond differently to pressure.

Each bristle brush can consist of Thin bristles, Thick bristles and Edges.

Thin:

Activate thin bristles within the brush by checking the Enabled box.
Density - Set the density of the thin bristles within the brush. (1-100)
Add Impasto - Add impasto to the thin bristles. The more impasto, the thicker the bristle. (0-100)
Remove Impasto - At 0 no bristles remove impasto. With higher values, half of the bristles start removing the impasto with the slider controlling the intensity of this effect. (0-100)
Wave Length - Each bristle can periodically change its size and amount of impasto. This parameter controls the length of these waves. (1-100)
Jitter - Randomly modifies the length of each wave. At 0 there is no randomness, all waves will have the same length. (0-100)
Min Width - Controls the minimum size a Bristle will have during the wave. (0-100)

Thick:

Activate thick bristles within the brush by checking the Enabled box.
Density - Set the density of the thin bristles within the brush. (1-100)
Add Impasto - Add impasto to the thin bristles. The more impasto, the thicker the bristle. (0-100)
Remove Impasto - At 0 no bristles remove impasto. With higher values, half of the bristles start removing the impasto with the slider controlling the intensity of this effect. (0-100)
Width - Set the width of the thick bristles in pixels. (1-100)
Width Jitter - Set how much the width of individual thick bristles varies randomly. At low values, the thick bristles maintain more uniform widths. As the value increases, the thick bristle widths vary more significantly. (0-100)
Quality - Set the quality of the bristles. The higher the value, the better the quality. (1-100)
Wave Length - Each bristle can periodically change its size and amount of impasto. This parameter controls the length of these waves. (0-100)
Jitter - Randomly modifies the length of each wave. At 0 there is no randomness, all waves will have the same length. (0-100)
Min Width - Controls the minimum size a Bristle will have during the wave. (0-100)

Edges:

Activate edges within the brush by checking the Enabled box.
Add Impasto - Add impasto to the edges. The more impasto is added, the thicker the edge becomes. (0-100)
Width - Set the width of the edges. (1-100)
Pressure Curve - This curve can be used to fine tune how edges react to Pen Pressure. Low values will produce thin edges with low impasto. At high values, edges will be wider and have stronger impasto.
Tilt Curve - This curve controls how edges react to Pen Tilt. With curve set to horizontal line, edges on both sides of the brush strokes will have the same strength (influenced by Pressure Curve). With a linear curve, the strength of edges depends on the Pen Tilt in relation to the stroke.
Quality - Set the quality of the edges. The higher the value, the better the quality. (1-100)
Wave Length - Each bristle can periodically change its size and amount of impasto. This parameter controls the length of these waves. (1-100)
Jitter - Randomly modifies the length of each wave. At 0 there is no randomness, all waves will have the same length. (0-100)
Min Width - Controls the minimum size a Bristle will have during the wave. (0-100)