Paint > Effectbrush > Sharpen brush

The following sharpening brushes are provided: Small Sharpenbrush, Medium Sharpenbrush, and Large Sharpenbrush.

To select a brush and sketch with it

Markers, airbrushes, and solid brushes are not available in SurfaceStudio. The default pencils in SurfaceStudio are colored.

Choose a brush tool (Paint > Brush type > Brush name).

You can also select a brush from the default Sketching or Annotate shelf.

The Pencil, Marker, Airbrush, and Solid tools let you drag the stylus to apply strokes of paint to a sketch image plane.

The Eraser tool lets you drag the stylus to remove paint from a sketch image plane in strokes.

When a brush tool is active, the cursor becomes a crosshair with the letter P (for paint) or E (for eraser).

When you hold the cursor over a sketch image plane, the cursor also displays a preview image of how the brush will apply paint to the sketch.

Drag the stylus on the sketch image plane to begin sketching.

Notes and tips

To erase, use the eraser on the stylus.

To create a horizontal brush stroke in an orthographic window, drag the middle mouse button

(or the equivalent stylus button).

To create a vertical brush stroke in an orthographic window, drag the right mouse button (or the equivalent stylus button).

To snap a brush to a curve, click the Crv

button to the right of the prompt line (or hold down the Ctrl

and

keys).

To draw a curve or straight line with more precision, use the predictive stroke hotkeys. (See Sketch using predictive strokes)

Brushes are most responsive when you are viewing the sketch image plane at its actual size (1:1).

Brush strokes may appear slow when you are zoomed out of a sketch image plane; however, this is because the stroke is actually very large relative to the sketch image plane.

Some of these options are also available in the Paint Panel when this tool is active.

Brush Options

Reset

Resets all Brush Options to their default settings. If brushes have been saved to the shelf, reset will reset to those settings at the time the brush was saved to the shelf.

Properties tab

Brush Mode

apply paint as a brush (Paint) (see Paint and erase

erase paint (Erase) (see Paint and erase

hide paint (Hide)

show hidden paint (Show)

smear paint (Smear) (see Smear paint

blur paint (Blur) (see Blur paint

sharpen paint (Sharpen) (see Sharpen paint

lighten paint (Dodge)

darken paint (Burn)

Min Radius

The radius of the brush (measured in pixels) when you press the stylus lightly against the tablet. The valid range is 0 to 255. See Set brush size, shape, and profile.

Max Radius

The radius of the brush (measured in pixels) when you press the stylus strongly against the tablet. The valid range is 0 to 255. See Set brush size, shape, and profile.

Min Opacity

Controls how see-through the paint applied by the brush is when you press the stylus very lightly against the tablet. If Min Opacity is less than 1, and you sketch several times in the same spot, the paint will build up and become more opaque. The valid range is 0 (fully transparent) to 1 (fully opaque). See Set brush and paint opacity.

Max Opacity

Controls how see-through the paint applied by the brush is when you press the stylus very strongly against the tablet. If Max Opacity is less than 1, and you sketch several times in the same spot, the paint will build up and become more opaque. The valid range is 0 (fully transparent) to 1 (fully opaque). See Set brush and paint opacity.

Aspect

Controls how flat or circular the brush stamp is. The valid range is 0.01 (very flat and thin) to 1 (circular). See Set brush size, shape, and profile.

Rotation

The angle (measured in degrees) of the brush stamp. If Aspect is less than 1, changing Rotation makes the brush stamp more horizontal (0) or more vertical (90). The valid range is 0 to 360. See Set brush size, shape, and profile.

Sharpen Properties

Sharpness

Controls how much the brush will sharpen paint on the active image layer. The valid range is 0 (no sharpening) to 10 (strong sharpening). See Sharpen paint.

Sharpen Strength

Controls the extent that the brush will sharpen paint on the active image layer. Each pixel in the image layer is sharpened by comparing it with a certain number of its surrounding pixels based on the Sharpen Strength value. For example, if Sharpen Strength is set to 4, then each pixel is sharpened by comparing it with all surrounding pixels within a 4 pixel radius. The valid range is 0 to 4. See Sharpen paint.

Stamp tab

Profile

> Brush Profile

Controls the softness or hardness of the brush stamp edges. See Set brush size, shape, and profile. Select one of Regular, Solid, Hard Solid, or Buzz from the pop-up menu to obtain the following brush profiles.

To use a brush profile you have customized, select the Custom menu item. To create a custom brush profile, double-click any brush icon in the Sketch#2 shelf to open the brush editor.

Stroke tab

Changing these settings changes the appearance of a sequence of brush profiles laid down by dragging the stylus or mouse across the image layer.

Spacing Bias

Controls the space between stamps in a stroke. Low values produce smooth strokes with no spaces between stamps. Higher values produce strokes that appear as a series of dots. The valid range is 0 to 255. See Set brush stroke properties.

Spacing Noise

The amount of random variation in the space between stamps in a stroke. The valid range is 0 (no random variation) to 25 (high random variation). See Set brush stroke properties.

Rotate to Stroke

Check-The brush stamp rotates in the direction of the brush stroke as you sketch.

No check-The brush stamp always remains in the same direction and does not rotate in the direction of the brush stroke.

Rotation Jitter

The amount of random variation in the brush stamp direction. The valid range is 0 (no random variation) to 255 (high random variation). See Set brush stroke properties.