Paint with brushes

PlexiiDraw's painting tools work on pixels, like painting on paper: the brush lays down colour, the eraser rubs it out, the paint bucket fills an area and the eyedropper picks up a colour. Painting happens on a paint layer, separate from vector shapes, so you can sketch, shade and texture without disturbing your clean lines.

Before you start

• Painting is on every plan.
• Open an artwork. See Start an artwork and set up the artboard.
• A drawing tablet works with the brushes. Pen pressure can change the size of a brush's mark.

Paint

1. Choose Brush (B) in the toolbox. The top of the inspector shows the brushes and their settings.
2. Click a brush under Brush. Rest the pointer on one to see its name and what it is for.
3. Set the Colour under Brush settings.
4. Paint on the artboard.

Painting needs a paint layer. If the layer you are on is a vector layer, the first click switches to a paint layer, or adds one called Paint 1, and a message says Added a paint layer for you — draw away. Then paint as normal. See Layers and blend modes.

Each stroke goes onto the layer when you lift the pen or mouse button, and each stroke is one step to undo.

The brushes

Brush settings

Under Brush settings:

• Size: from 1 to 400 pixels. Press [ and ] to make the brush smaller or larger as you paint.
• Opacity: how strong the whole stroke is. A stroke at half opacity is even all the way along, even where it crosses itself.
• Flow: how much colour each touch of the brush lays down. Low flow builds colour up gradually.
• Hardness: from a soft, feathered edge to a crisp one.
• Colour: the colour you paint with.

Click Texture & dynamics for more:

• Grain: gives the stroke the broken, dry texture of chalk or charcoal.
• Scatter: spreads the marks out from the line you draw.
• Spacing: how far apart each touch of the brush is along the stroke.
• Angle: the angle of a flat brush tip.
• Pressure: with a drawing tablet, presses harder for a bigger mark.

Choosing a brush sets these to suit it. Adjust them after you choose.

Erase

Choose Eraser (E) and paint over what you want to remove. The eraser uses the brush's size and softness, so a soft brush gives a soft-edged eraser. It works on paint layers. To remove a vector shape, select it and press Delete.

Fill an area

1. Choose Paint bucket (G).
2. Set the colour as the Fill colour in the inspector.
3. Click inside an area of paint.

The bucket fills the area of similar colour around the point you click. If the area is already that colour, a message says so.

Pick up a colour

Choose Eyedropper (I) and click anywhere on the artboard. It picks up the colour of the shape or the paint under the pointer, makes it both the fill colour and the brush colour, and a message shows the colour code. If there is nothing there, it says so.

Paint over vector shapes

The brush cannot paint into a vector layer's shapes directly. To paint over them, turn the vector layer into pixels with Rasterize layer in the layers panel. See Layers and blend modes. Rasterizing cannot be reversed except with Undo, so you may want to duplicate the layer first.

Common questions

My first click did not paint. There was no paint layer selected, so PlexiiDraw switched to one or made one. Paint again.

The message says the paint layer is locked. Unlock the layer in the layers panel, or click another layer.

My strokes look faint. Check Opacity and Flow under Brush settings, and the opacity of the layer itself in the layers panel.

Does pen pressure work with a mouse? A mouse has no pressure, so strokes are drawn at a medium setting. Pressure makes a difference with a drawing tablet.

Related tasks

• PlexiiDraw overview
• Layers and blend modes
• Vector tools and Pathfinder
• Export artwork
• Start an artwork and set up the artboard