Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual

The Impressionist Brush

When you paint with the Impressionist brush, you blur and blend the edges of the objects in your photo, just like an Impressionist painting. At least that's what's supposed to happen. This brush is very tricky to control, but you can get some very interesting effects, especially if you paint with it on a duplicate layer and play with the Opacity control (Managing Layers). Usually you want a very low opacity with this brush, or some of the curlier styles will make your image look like it's made from poodle hair.

The Impressionist brush has most of the same options as the regular Brush, but if you click the More Options button (the icon to the right of the Opacity setting), you'll see three new choices:

• Style determines what kind of brushstroke effect you want to create.

• Area tells Elements the size and number of brushstrokes.

• 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). Using Filters explains how to use them. The Impressionist 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 (The Smudge Tool) is another excellent, though time-consuming, way to create a painted effect.