Paint with the Brush tool or Pencil tool

The Brush tool and the Pencil tool paint the current foreground color on an image. The Brush tool creates soft strokes of color. The Pencil tool creates hard-edged lines.

You can change the size and hardness of the tip of a painting tool. To change size, Control+right-click+drag (for Windows) or Command+Control+click+drag (for Mac) to the left (to make smaller) or the right (to make bigger). To change hardness, Control+Alt+right-click+drag (for Windows) and Command+Control+click+drag (for Mac) to the left (to soften) or right (to harden).

Note: The Rotation tool rotates the canvas, which can facilitate easier painting. See Use the Rotate View tool.

Choose a foreground color. (See Choose colors in the toolbox.)
Select the Brush tool or Pencil tool .
Choose a brush from the Brush Presets picker. See Select a preset brush.
Set tool options for mode, opacity, and so on, in the options bar. See Paint tool options.
Do one or more of the following:
- Click and drag in the image to paint.
- To draw a straight line, click a starting point in the image. Then hold down Shift, and click an ending point.
- When using the Brush tool as an airbrush, hold down the mouse button without dragging to build up color.