Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: 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 in an Impressionist painting. At least that's what's supposed to happen. This brush is very tricky to control, but you can get some really interesting effects with it, especially if you paint on a duplicate layer and play with the Opacity setting (Adjusting Opacity). Usually you want a really low opacity with this brush, or some of the curlier styles will make your image look like it's made from poodle hair. Changing the Mode (Blending and Smudging) can also help to control the effect.

To activate the Impressionist brush, press B or click the Brush tool's Tools panel icon, and select it from the pop-out menu. This 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 settings:

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

• Area tells Elements the diameter of the painting area.

• Tolerance is how similar in color the 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 isn't really the best tool for creating true Impressionist effects, although its blurring qualities can sometimes be useful because it covers large areas faster than the Blur ...