# Paint with brushes

> Paint in PlexiiDraw with twelve brushes, from hard round to watercolour. Set size, opacity, flow and texture, and use the eraser, bucket and eyedropper.

Source: https://plexiidesk.com/help/draw-painting-and-brushes
Section: Office > PlexiiDraw
Plans: All plans
Updated: 2026-10-15

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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/draw-start-artwork).
- 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/draw-layers-and-blending).

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 | What it is for |
| --- | --- |
| **Hard round** | A crisp, fully opaque round brush. The everyday mark. |
| **Soft round** | A feathered round brush for blending, shading and glows. |
| **Airbrush** | Very soft and low flow. Colour builds up as you work over it. |
| **Pencil** | Hard, fine and grainy. For sketching and hatching. |
| **Ink pen** | Solid line work that tapers as the stroke speeds up. |
| **Calligraphy** | A flat nib held at an angle. The stroke swells and thins with direction. |
| **Marker** | A flat chisel tip that darkens where strokes cross. |
| **Charcoal** | Broken, scattered and dry. Good for tone and rough sketching. |
| **Chalk** | Dusty and textured, with a soft edge. |
| **Spray** | A cone of fine dots, for stipple, texture and soft gradients. |
| **Watercolour** | Translucent washes that deepen where they overlap. |
| **Oil bristle** | A rake of bristles that leaves visible brush marks in the paint. |

## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/draw-layers-and-blending). 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/draw-overview)
- [Layers and blend modes](https://plexiidesk.com/help/draw-layers-and-blending)
- [Vector tools and Pathfinder](https://plexiidesk.com/help/draw-vector-tools-and-pathfinder)
- [Export artwork](https://plexiidesk.com/help/draw-export)
- [Start an artwork and set up the artboard](https://plexiidesk.com/help/draw-start-artwork)