Photoshop Ninja
Expert Photoshop tips and tricks for designers and photographers since 2005
Photoshop Troubleshooting – Why is my brush not doing anything?
We have all had this happen at one stage or another – you brush…nothing, you brush again…arghh, its broken you might think! However, there are lots of little things that stop brushes doing what they are meant to do before you reach up for the Adobe install discs, and here are the solutions!
The first, most obvious cause of this is a rouge selection – you may be brushing outside a selection you didn’t know you had made which will cause your brush to do nothing. Either invert selection to select the area you want to brush or use the shortcut Apple+D to deselect and remove the rogue selection.
Another cause is opacity – do you have this set to 0% or a very low percentage? Obviously this will reduce the opacity of your brush work.
Another cause is blending mode – depending on what you are brushing on and what colour your foreground colour is set to, this can render your brush strokes invisible or near invisible.
Another cause is the blending mode that the layer you are trying to brush to or its opacity level- for the same reasons as above.
Finally, you should check your brush size, is it set so small you can’t see your brush work?
If you go through this whole checklist you should soon be brushing happily away again! If not, try deleting your preference file – I will cover this in more detail in another tip.
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Written by Jonny Allbut - freelance graphic designer
Last modified: 6 September, 2006 (09:49) | First published: 6 September, 2006
Filed under Photoshop Troubleshooting 5 Comments »
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Comment by Spoon
October 9, 2008 @ 4:16 am
Oddly enough, this worked. My probelm wasn’t described above; simply the brush wouldn’t become selected properly: I’d select a brush ( I tried many) but I only ever got the hand tool when I hovered over the picture. Any idea what might’ve been causing that? Thanks
Comment by admin
October 12, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
I would try resetting your preferences – sounds like Photoshop has got a bit confused!
Comment by kate
September 1, 2009 @ 7:57 am
thank you for your help… I was getting so frustrated and it was because of all the reasons you said… opacity, small brush, foreground!! I just did all!!!
Comment by Angie
September 10, 2009 @ 4:35 am
I have the same problem as Spoon, and I’m a beginner at this program… ^.^’ how do I reset the preferences? Thanks
~Angie
Comment by Photoshop Ninja
September 28, 2009 @ 4:49 pm
You may find http://photoshopninja.com/photoshop-troubleshooting/deleting-photoshop-preference-files/ a good read!