# Brushes & Brush Studio

> CrowDraw's 92 brushes in 14 categories, size and opacity, smudge and blending brushes with Strength and Pull, wet paint mixing, the stroke eraser, and Brush Studio: every brush setting, a drawing pad, your own shapes and grains, and .crowbrush files.

Source: https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/docs/brushes/

CrowDraw has 92 brushes in 14 categories, from pencils with paper grain to oils that mix on the canvas and blenders that push paint around. Every one can be changed in Brush Studio, and you can make, share and import your own.

## Paint, Smudge and Erase

The **Paint**, **Smudge** and **Erase** buttons in the top bar all use the same brush library. Each tool remembers its own brush, size and opacity, so you can paint with an oil brush and erase with a soft airbrush. Paint starts with Studio Pen, Smudge with Blender and Erase with Soft Airbrush.

Tap the active tool's button again to open the library. Its title tells you which tool you are choosing for: **Brush library**, **Smudge** or **Erase**. The Smudge library lists the Blending brushes first and has the **Pull** slider at the top; the Erase library starts with the choice between **Pixels** and **Strokes** (see [the stroke eraser](https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/docs/brushes/#stroke-eraser)).

## Size and opacity

The sidebar has two vertical sliders, each with an icon above it: **Size** on top, shown in pixels with a preview dot while you drag, and **Opacity** below it, in per cent. While you use Smudge, the second slider is **Strength** instead. The sliders move relative to where your finger lands, so you can start anywhere on the track. Slide your finger sideways, away from the slider, for finer steps (**Fine**). Between them is the square modify button, which picks up colour (see [picking a colour](https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/docs/colour/#pick)).

With a keyboard attached, `[` and `]` make the brush smaller and larger, `⇧[` and `⇧]` change the opacity (or the smudge strength), and `B`, `S` and `E` switch to Paint, Smudge and Erase. Press the same key again to open that tool's library. See [all keyboard shortcuts](https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/docs/gestures/#keyboard).

## The brush library

Categories are listed on the left. Once you have used a few brushes, a **Recent** category at the top holds the last 12. **Search brushes**, above the list, finds brushes by name or category in every category at once. Tap a brush to use it; tap it again to open it in Brush Studio. A pencil badge marks a brush you have edited, and a drop marks a brush that mixes wet paint.

![The brush library with the Watercolour set open beside a botanical ink-and-wash study](https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/screens/03-brushes.webp "The Watercolour set in the brush library")

| Category | Brushes | Including |
|---|---|---|
| Sketching | 7 | HB Pencil, 6B Pencil, Mechanical Pencil, Coloured Pencil |
| Inking | 8 | Studio Pen, Technical Pen, Fine Liner, Dip Pen, Ink Bleed |
| Calligraphy | 7 | Monoline, Script, Brush Pen, Pointed Pen, Chisel Nib |
| Painting | 9 | Round Brush, Flat Brush, Oil Paint, Gouache, Palette Knife, Wet Blender |
| Blending | 5 | Blender, Soft Blender, Bristle Blender, Knife Blender, Smear |
| Watercolour | 6 | Watercolour Round, Wet Wash, Bloom, Granulation |
| Airbrushing | 6 | Soft Airbrush, Hard Airbrush, Soft Glow, Grainy Airbrush |
| Charcoal | 6 | Vine Charcoal, Compressed Charcoal, Willow |
| Textures | 8 | Halftone, Crosshatch, Canvas, Concrete, Wood Grain |
| Markers | 6 | Felt Marker, Highlighter, Alcohol Marker, Paint Marker |
| Spray paints | 5 | Fine Nozzle, Medium Nozzle, Fat Cap, Splatter, Flicks |
| Elements | 8 | Leaves, Grass, Clouds, Smoke, Snowflakes, Bokeh |
| Artistic | 7 | Soft Pastel, Oil Pastel, Conté, Stipple, Hatching |
| Pixel | 4 | Pixel Pen, Pixel Round, Pixel Dither, Pixel Spray |

### Brush options

Touch and hold a brush in the library for:

- **Edit**: open it in Brush Studio.
- **Duplicate**: make a copy ("Studio Pen Copy") to change without touching the original.
- **Rename**: give it another name.
- **Smudge with this brush** and **Erase with this brush**: give the brush to the Smudge or Erase tool, so you can smudge or erase with its shape and texture. The other tools keep their own brushes.
- **Share**: export it as a `.crowbrush` file.
- **Reset**: put an edited built-in brush back to how it shipped.
- **Delete**: remove a brush you made or imported. Built-in brushes can't be deleted, only reset.

The **+** button (**New brush**) at the top of the library makes a new brush called "New Brush" in a **Custom** category and opens it in Brush Studio. To move a brush to another category, open it in Brush Studio and use **Properties**.

## Smudge and blending

**Smudge** (the finger next to the brush) blends the paint that's already on the layer. It picks up colour under the brush, carries it along the stroke and mixes it where colours meet, keeping the brush's texture. Press harder to blend harder.

Two controls set how it blends:

- **Strength**, the sidebar's second slider while you smudge: how much each smudge stroke blends the colours.
- **Pull**, at the top of the Smudge library: how far and how hard the smudge drags colour, from **Mix where colours meet** (low) to **Push paint far** (high), like a palette knife. Pull belongs to each brush and is saved with it. It's also in Brush Studio under **Wet mix and smudge**.

The **Blending** brushes are made for smudging:

| Brush | What it does |
|---|---|
| Blender | A firm round that mixes colours where they meet, with a clean edge. The default Smudge brush. |
| Soft Blender | A soft round for gradients, skin and skies, without hard edges. |
| Bristle Blender | Bristles that drag paint in streaks. |
| Knife Blender | A flat, hard blade that pushes paint a long way. |
| Smear | A soft fingertip that drags paint and leaves the paper's tooth in it. |

Any brush can smudge: touch and hold it in the library and choose **Smudge with this brush**, so a textured brush smudges with its texture.

### Wet paint

Brushes with **Wet mix** on blend with the paint already on the layer as you paint, like real wet paint. Oil Paint, Gouache, Palette Knife, Wet Blender, Wet Wash and Water Pen work this way, and you can switch it on for any brush in Brush Studio (**Paint mixes with the canvas**).

Smudge and wet paint respect alpha lock and the current selection, and each stroke is one undo step. Smudge doesn't work on layer masks.

## The stroke eraser

The eraser can take away whole strokes instead of rubbing out pixels. What's under and over the stroke stays as it is.

1. **Choose Strokes**

   Tap **Erase**, then tap it again to open the Erase library, and choose **Strokes** at the top. Or press `⇧E` on a keyboard. The eraser's icon changes to a dashed eraser.

2. **Touch the strokes**

   Drag across the canvas. Every stroke you touch on the active layer is removed, whole. The **Size** slider sets how far the eraser reaches.

3. **Undo if you need to**

   One drag is one undo step: undo brings back every stroke it removed.

Choose **Pixels** (or press `⇧E` again) to go back to the ordinary eraser. CrowDraw remembers your choice.

- It works on strokes you paint in CrowDraw, including smudges and wet paint. The panel says how many strokes on the active layer can be removed.
- Fills, adjustments, Liquify, Clone, transforms, pastes, merges and canvas changes turn the strokes painted on that layer before them into ordinary pixels. Imported images and photos are pixels too. Erase those in **Pixels** mode; if you touch only pixels, CrowDraw says so.
- Each layer keeps its latest strokes removable, up to about 1,500 (fewer when a big canvas has many layers with long histories). Older ones become pixels.
- With a selection, only strokes you touch inside it are removed. Strokes are removed from the layer itself, not from its mask.
- The strokes stay removable after you close the canvas, and in a **CrowDraw** export.

## Brush Studio

Tap the selected brush again, or touch and hold it and choose **Edit**. Brush Studio opens full screen: the list of sections, the settings for the section you pick, and a **Drawing pad**. Try the brush on the pad as you change it: switch between Paint and Smudge, change the size, choose a light or dark background, and **Clear** it whenever you like.

**Done** keeps your changes; **Cancel** throws them away (after **Discard your changes?** if you changed anything). The reset button asks **Reset this brush?**: a built-in brush goes back to its original settings, and your own brushes go back to how they were when you opened Brush Studio. Opened from the Smudge library, Brush Studio starts at **Wet mix and smudge**, with the pad set to Smudge.

![Brush Studio for Oil Paint: the drawing pad on top, the section list and the Shape settings below](https://crow.sg/apps/crowdraw/screens/06-studio.webp "Brush Studio, with the drawing pad")

| Section | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Stroke path | Spacing, Jitter, Scatter and Fall off, and how many stamps each dab lays down. |
| Stabilisation | StreamLine and Stabilisation, for smoother lines. |
| Taper | How strokes thin at the start and end, separately for Apple Pencil and for touch, and how much size and opacity taper. |
| Shape | The brush tip (round, square or a texture, or your own image), Hardness, Roundness, Angle, Rotation, jitter, flipping and inverting. |
| Grain | The paper texture inside the stroke: Texturised or Moving, Scale, Depth, Multiply or Paper height, Contrast and Brightness. |
| Rendering | Build up or Even (no build-up), Flow, the brush's own blend mode, pixel snapping for hard edges and the procedural tip. |
| Wet mix and smudge | Wet mix: whether paint mixes with the canvas (**Paint mixes with the canvas**), with Dilution, Charge, Attack, Pull, Grade and Wetness jitter. Smudge: the brush's **Pull** when the Smudge tool uses it. |
| Colour dynamics | Hue, saturation and brightness jitter, per dab or per stroke. |
| Dynamics | How speed and random jitter change size and opacity. |
| Apple Pencil | How pressure changes size, opacity, flow and softness, the pressure **Response**, and how tilt changes size, opacity and shading with the flat side. |
| Properties | Name, Category, minimum and maximum size, and the default size and opacity. |
| About this brush | A preview, author, notes, its textures, and Share brush… |

## Your own shapes and grains

In **Shape** or **Grain**, tap **Import** and choose an image from **Photos** or **Files**. CrowDraw turns it into a square greyscale texture from its brightness, where light areas take paint and dark or transparent areas stay clear. **Invert shape** flips a shape the other way. Imported textures travel inside the brush when you share it.

## Sharing and importing brushes

A brush is shared as a `.crowbrush` file: touch and hold it and choose **Share**, or use **Share brush…** in Brush Studio. Send it with AirDrop, Mail, Messages or save it to Files.

To add brushes, tap **Import brush** at the top of the library and pick one or more `.crowbrush` files, or open a `.crowbrush` file from Files, AirDrop or Mail. Imported brushes go into an **Imported** category.

> [!NOTE] Brushes from other apps
> CrowDraw reads its own `.crowbrush` format only. Brush sets from other painting apps can't be imported, but you can rebuild a favourite in Brush Studio, using your own images as its shape and grain.