Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual

Chapter 12: Drawing with Brushes, Shapes, and Other Tools 317

The Pencil Tool

• Tolerance is how similar in color pixels have to be before they’re affected by the

brush.

If you really want to create a hand-painted look, you may prefer the brushstroke

filters (Filter ➝ Brush Strokes). Page 342 explains how to use them. The Impres-

sionist brush is really not the best tool for true Impressionist effects, although its

blurring qualities can sometimes be useful, because it covers large areas faster than

the Blur tool. The Smudge tool (page 323) is another excellent, though time-

consuming, way to create a painted effect.

The Pencil Tool

The Pencil tool is basically just another brush. It shares the Brush tool’s slot in the

Toolbox. Click its icon in the Options bar or press N to activate the Pencil.

NOTE If you’re already using the Brush tool when you want the Pencil, you can also click the

Pencil icon in the Options bar to switch to the Pencil.

The Pencil has many of the same setting options as the Brush—like size, mode,

and opacity—but it offers only hard-edged brushes. In other words, you can’t

draw fuzzy lines with the pencil, not even the kind of lines you’d sketch with a soft

pencil. The Pencil’s lines are always very well defined. It’s especially useful when

you want to work on a pixel-by-pixel basis.

You use the Pencil tool the same way you use any other brush. The big difference is

the Auto