Category: Digital Painting

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Wacom Stylus Pressure Not Working?

This will show you how to check if your tablet pressure is working in Photoshop. It can be tricky to tell if your stylus or pen is not working or if it is just that brush, especially with fancy brushes that seem to change as you paint with them. This test will account for that.

TLDR: In short, If you can vary the pressure and or transparency of your brush strokes while painting with the default hard round brush and pressing harder or softer on your stylus, then the pressure from your stylus is being successfully sent to Photoshop.

This first test will start you off with a basic brush, enable pressure and then test to make sure Photoshop is getting pressure data from your stylus.

Note: This video has subtitles available in about a dozen languages Click on CC to select

 

Next up is a similar test, to check your pressure response but using transparency

Make sure you have Opacity pressure set to “on” Watch the tutorial below to see how it’s done

Summary:
Wacom Pen not working? If a line drawn with your mouse looks identical to a line drawn with your stylus while varying the pressure you apply to it with your stylus, and the “opacity pressure” box is checked, then Photoshop is not getting any pressure signal from your pen, stylus or tablet. 

turn on 'use pressure' checkbox for pressure opacity
Make sure this box is checked ‘on’ if you want your pen pressure to affect the opacity of your brush stroke

The easiest and most successful solution is usually just to reboot. Especially if your stylus pressure was working fine just a few minutes before. If that doesn’t solve the problem then it is almost certainly a tablet driver issue and you should check for the latest appropriate driver for your tablet.  

Restart Wacom Driver Without Rebooting

If you are using a Wacom tablet on Windows, you can try to restart your tablet driver before trying a full reboot.

If the tablet driver has stopped working you can restart it by going to the Windows Start search bar, type “Services” and open the “Services app“

Scroll down until you see “Wacom Professional Service” Right-click on it and choose “restart” 

Windows services panel with 'restart Wacom service' selected to restart tablet driver without rebooting
You can usually restart Wacom Tablet driver in Windows without rebooting

For more problem solving tips, including very common Windows Ink issues and to download Wacom tablet drivers go here

Huion Tablet Driver downloads are here

Yiynova tablet driver downloads are here 

XP-Pen Pressure Not Working?

If you use an XP-PEN and your brush strokes are not responding to pressure from your XP-Pen, open the PenTablet properties and make sure that the ‘Windows Ink’ check box in the bottom left is selected as shown in the screenshot below.

XP-PEN PenTablet preferences with Windows Ink checkbox selected
Turn on Windows Ink checkbox in XP-PEN PenTablet preferences to use pressure in Photoshop (Thanks for the screenshot Beth M!)

 

When you restart Photoshop your XP-Pen pressure should be working in Photoshop  

Feel free to leave additional questions in the comments and I’ll answer if I can. 

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After The Flood by Valentin Kopetzki

“After The Flood ” digital painting by Valentin Kopetzki • Painted using GrutBrushes Photoshop brushes

Sometimes I see an artist use my tools and I feel like they have some innate connection to them. It’s such a thrill to see my brushes play a part in a brilliant performance by talented hands. This grand and masterfully painted scene by Valentin Kopetzki is one such example and also the latest addition to the GrutBrushes Gallery.

The Spectrum award winning “After the Flood” was painted as an illustration for the H. P. Lovecraft story “The Whisperer in Darkness” and was included in the 26th issue of Spectrum Fantastic Art.

You can see more of Kopetzki’s work on his instagram account where, as well as more landscapes and fantastical scenes you will also find some powerful portrait work

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Martin Guldbaek in the GrutBrushes Gallery

detail of boy light study by Martin Guldbaek
detail of boy light study by Martin Guldbaek

When I see how Martin Guldbaek uses my Oil Impasto Photoshop brushes it is such a thrill. He brings out their sculptural qualities and gives them weight, to create forms that feel almost physical even though they are mostly just broad brush strokes of digital paint, but so perfectly placed, thanks to Martin’s superb understanding of light and volume. Continue reading Martin Guldbaek in the GrutBrushes GalleryFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

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Digital Pencil Portraits by Josh McCann

Portrait by Josh McCann
Drawn by Josh McCann (Portfolio)

I have neither the skill nor the patience to draw the kind of portraits that Josh McCann does, but what makes them all the more remarkable is that he draws them with the GrutBrushes pencils! The piece above by Josh is the latest addition to the GrutBrushes gallery (Scroll down to see a timelapse video of this piece being created)

“For the most part I only use 4 [pencil] brushes (Mech Mini, Mech Mid, Maybe Sews and limbo lift.) I have saved each of those brushes out with varying levels of opacity and flow. And then I created my own mixer brush for blending. They’re great brushes for drawing!!”

 

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How to Export Multiple Photoshop Brushes as a Single TPL (to Import into Artstudio Pro)

Q: Can I use GrutBrushes on an iPad Pro?
A: Yes!

I get this question almost every day now and while I don’t have any proper documentation for it yet, you can import GrutBrushes TPL files into both Artstudio Pro (I love this app!) and Adobe Sketch apps

You can import any of the GrutBrushes TPLs right now, but you probably don’t want to import them one at a time. So, in this super-quick video tutorial I show you how to export a batch of TPL brushes into one file all at once. That way you can just upload that single TPL containing all your favourite GrutBrushes to DropBox, iCloud or whatever you use to get files onto your iPad.

Once you have it in the cloud you can import it into Adobe Sketch or Artstudio Pro (shown below) Someday I hope to make a video tutorial showing the whole process, but until then, both apps do currently have information in their documentation on how to import Photoshop brushes so have a look around.

Importing Photoshop Brushes (TPL) into the Artstudip Pro app on the iPad Pro
Importing Photoshop Brushes (TPL) into the Artstudip Pro app on the iPad Pro

Here I am using the GrutBrushes pattern brushes on the iPad pro! Using GrutBrushes with the Apple Pencil is a dream.

GrutBrushes pattern brushes work in ArtStudio Pro and Adobe Sketch on Ipad ios
GrutBrushes can be imported into ArtStudio Pro and Adobe Sketch on th  iPad Pros

 

…and no, sorry, you can’t use these GrutBrushes in Procreate! It has it’s own wonderful brush format but it can’t import Photoshop brushes. UPDATE: Procreate GrutBrushes are now available! They are not the same as the Photoshop brushes but I think you’ll like them just as much

There are dozens of  apps that claim to be able to import Photoshop brushes but what most of them mean is that they can import the tip shape, but that’s just the most visible but probably the least important feature of a good digital brush.

GrutBrushes are all about the dynamics…HOW the brush behaves, not what it’s brush tip shape looks like.

Unless an app imports all the brush dynamics it’s really not importing the brush.

Adobe Sketch and Artstudio Pro are currently the only apps that can import GrutBrushes Photoshop brushes. If any new apps come along that claim to be able to import Photoshop brushes and all the brush dynamics please let me know, I’ll be the first to buy it and test it out.Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

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How to Make a Photoshop Brush/Eraser toggle switch on your Stylus

1. Open Tablet Properties
2. Change one of the buttons to ‘erase’

Now when you are in brush mode and you hold down that button on your stylus, your brush will temporarily turn into an eraser! Just release it to return to brush mode and keep painting.

The temporary eraser will have the same settings as the last eraser you used

BONUS TIP: To do this without changing your preferences, just press and HOLD the “e” key to erase temporarily. Keep holding the “e” key until you are done erasing, then when you lift your stylus and then release the “e” key your tool will switch back to the brush tool!

I know you can flip the stylus over and erase, but why interrupt your flow when you can just press on a button?

BONUS TIP 2: Digital artist SyntheticGeek added this great tip for Wacom tablet users:

“I add Keystroke Modifiers to my Wacom Stylus buttons so I can more quickly use ANY brush preset as an eraser. One button to change it to a “Clear” GrutBrush and one to change it back. “Alt + Shift + R” will change it to a Clear (erasing) GrutBrush and “Alt + Shift + M” will take it back to “Multiply”.

NOTE; Not all GrutBrushes’ painting opacities are set to Multiply as their default, some are set to Normal, which would be “Alt + Shift + N”. (for Mac users Alt = “Option”). You can always just tap the brush preset again in the GrutBrushes Tool Panel. That way, you don’t have to wonder if its default was Normal, Multiply or Whatever. “

How to make a custom button that turns your Photoshop brush into an eraser
How to make a custom button that turns your Photoshop brush into an eraser

 

You could adapt it to any tablet or hardware that allows custom keyboard commands to be programmed to a button

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Adobe update breaks brush-to-eraser-tool hack Here’s a workaround

UPDATE 2020:  Simplest method of all…while painting, hold down the TILDE key: ` (usually at the top left of your keyboard while you are painting and your brush will turn into an eraser, with all the same properties, as long as you hold it down)

If, like me, you loved being able to select any tool (usually the eraser) and then pick from your most recent brushes to convert a paint brush to an eraser, or a mixer brush, or a smudge tool with all dynamic setting intact you can’t do this anymore with the latest Photoshop update (v 19) You can still use the clear mode trick to convert your brush to an eraser which I go over in the aboce video inclusing the keyboard shortcuts.

The keyboard shortcut I use in the video are
Normal Mode:
WIN: Shift+Alt+N
MAC: Shift+Alt+N)

Clear Mode (eraser mode)
WIN: Shift+Alt+R
MAC: Shift+Option+R

You can find the full list of brush mode keyboard shortcuts on the Adobe website here It’s a long list so search the page for “Use for blending modes”Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

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Free Photoshop Brush of the Week #56 “Jam Wiggly” ink Brush

 

Painted with the 'Jam Wiggly' Photoshop Ink Brush
Painted with the ‘Jam Wiggly’ Photoshop Ink Brush

This week’s free Photoshop brush is a sloppy ink brush with a broad erratic tip with generous flow but the edge contours of a dry brush This brush starts out as a scratchy intermittent texture and ends in a thick wet opaque line with a slight edge splatter at full pressure. As always, you can download this on the free brush of the week page through Sunday the 17th of April when there will be a new free brush.

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