[beckaroonaz]

I have been searching for help on the internet....I am hoping you trusty folks can help me. My brushes all seem to be transparent. I have checked the opacity, used my mouse instead of my pen, reset PSE7 with no luck. For example, I am making a scalloped edge using a round brush...no matter what color I use, my brush is transparent. The only way to have the opacity at 100% is to continue to go over the same spot....

Thank you in advance for your help!

[AggieB]

Sounds very frustrating. I don't use PSE of any flavor so can't really help. Do you have a brush and a pen, might one work better for these brushes than the other? I know in my software, one tool makes a semi transparent mark and the other a solid one. Someone will be along soon who knows.

[teecee]

In the options bar, right next to the brush size is the mode set to normal?

[beckaroonaz]

teecee, on 28 January 2011 - 06:11 PM, said:

In the options bar, right next to the brush size is the mode set to normal?

Yes, it is set to normal. I forgot to mention that in my frustration.

[teecee]

Is the opacity of the layer you are brushing on at 100%?

[beckaroonaz]

teecee, on 28 January 2011 - 06:23 PM, said:

Is the opacity of the layer you are brushing on at 100%?

yes

[teecee]

Sorry I can't help. Maybe someone else will come along soon with some help for you.

[mbc72]

This happens with some of my brushes-don't know why, but what I do is to brush on whatever brush i want and then duplicate the layers until I get it to look like I want. I know that won't solve your problem, but it is an easy work around for now.

Just curious, is it all brushes, even the pre-installed ones, or just purchased ones?

[beckaroonaz]

mbc72, on 28 January 2011 - 07:10 PM, said:

This happens with some of my brushes-don't know why, but what I do is to brush on whatever brush i want and then duplicate the layers until I get it to look like I want. I know that won't solve your problem, but it is an easy work around for now.

Just curious, is it all brushes, even the pre-installed ones, or just purchased ones?

Thank you! I will try that to finish this layout....it happens with all of my brushes. Enough to drive a person batty...

[beckaroonaz]

Found a solution....there is a very tiny down arrow to the left of the brush selection ....I clicked reset all and it seemed to work. I am sure it was operator error..but at least it is fixed now.

[Belle]

Thank you for saying how you fixed it. You never know when someone else might have a problem.

[Collette L]

Absolute newbie here ... Have had PSE for months & just now forcing myself to figure it out ... I tried everything you mentioned above ...
Opacity 100%
Normal
I even found a reset brushes ...

I can't find the tiny arrow mentioned or I would have clicked that on.

Am I doing it right:
Loaded background
clicked on brush I wanted
clicked on color I wanted
then go to background to 'stamp' the brush

I just printed the ScrapSimple Handbook and both of the Companion books ... I think I need something quick 'n easy with some results to show for me to want to delve further. I'm such an "I want it now" person
Collette

[klingon_princess]

Collette L, on 15 June 2011 - 04:42 PM, said:

I just printed the ScrapSimple Handbook and both of the Companion books ... I think I need something quick 'n easy with some results to show for me to want to delve further. I'm such an "I want it now" person
Collette

Oh Collette, you sound so frustrated. I hope you don't mean to stop digi-scrapping! I just started too, my first lay out was about figuring out PSE9 and using supplies. I did not use SS items. (Saved that for my next one. ) I found reading through some of the SG University articles helpful. There are videos too. As a total novice, those resources got me feeling more confident. I subscribed to both monthly clubs as I really wanted some of the products in the SS Club last month even though I didn't know how to use them. The SS club includes short videos. VERY helpful. Keep playing and asking questions. I've saved everything I opened as a copy to work with - can't ruin anything that way. Second most useful advice I've found - duplicate (triplicate, quadruplicate...) your layers and play with them instead of the original layer, can turn on and off to see effect. Keep asking and reading.

Blessings,

Gina

[BarbaraC1977]

beckaroonaz, on 28 January 2011 - 05:58 PM, said:

I have been searching for help on the internet....I am hoping you trusty folks can help me. My brushes all seem to be transparent. I have checked the opacity, used my mouse instead of my pen, reset PSE7 with no luck. For example, I am making a scalloped edge using a round brush...no matter what color I use, my brush is transparent. The only way to have the opacity at 100% is to continue to go over the same spot....

Thank you in advance for your help!

I'm not at my computer that has PSE installed, so please forgive me if this is not quite right, but brushes have both an opacity and a FLOW. The flow determines how fast the effect takes effect. In PSE, it looks like the equivalent setting to turn off is the AIRBRUSH button. Airbrush makes the brush work like a real airbrush--you have to hold it there for some time to see the effect. Apologies that I can't check it explicitly, but see if turning this button off, so the brush is back in BRUSH mode helps!

6:29 pm
Now that I've had a chance to try it, my suggestion above doesn't seem to solve the problem. Sorry, will put my thinking cap back on.

This post has been edited by BarbaraC1977: 15 June 2011 - 07:33 PM

[BarbaraC1977]

OK, another suggestion: next to the size indicator on the menu bar, check the MODE option. If it's not normal, that could be causing the brush to be transparent. There are probably more possibilities than I have identified!

[Collette L]

Thanks for the tips - I'm going to try them all ... Not discouraged, just need for something to actually work right, lol, or this'll sit for another few months w/no action.
So glad to know that you're all so helpful ... I'm sure I'll be back.
Collette

[Belle]

I think you are pretty brave to start out with brushes. I took a year before I understood it. A good tip Barbara gave you was the New Layer. This way if it's not right, you don't have to 'undo, undo, undo' but can just delete the layer and start over. Good luck.

[Rose Ann]

One more thing to consider: make sure you have the brush tool selected. I know this sounds a little elementary, but when you're first starting out PSE isn't easy to figure out. The brush tool has 4 tools that share that one button. Here's a picture of the brush tool so you can be sure.

Hope that helps.

Attached File(s)

•  brush icon.PNG (1.69K)
  Number of downloads: 1

[RGal]

I know this is an old topic, but just in case someone is watching it....

I was wrestling with this in Photoshop and this is what I see:

All brush tips are grayscale. Black areas are fully opaque while gray areas are transparent. If your brush tip was created from something with a lot of shading, it will be largely transparent.

Make it darker by:
1. Stamp your brush once in black, then apply a levels adjustment to make it darker, and therefore more dense. Merge the adjustment layer with the stamp. Select the stamped motif and save it as a new brush. (Make this easy by creating a new file. Once the brush is saved, you can close the file without saving it. You don't need it anymore.)

OR, using the brush as-is:

2. On a new layer, create your brushwork. Duplicate the layer (Cmd-J or Ctl-J)as many times as you need to get the look you want. Then select all the layers and merge them.

Make sure that the layer you are stamping on is set to 100% opacity! No matter how you set up your brush, the layer setting trumps all! Another good reason to do your brushing on a new layer.

Hope this helps!