How do I change a curved line thickness as it goes?

[Monique236926556xja]

Im trying to make a design that involves lines with different thicknesses on the same curved line. Is it possible? I can't find anyone else asking about it!

Thanks

[Leslie Moak Murray · Accepted solution]

If you mean what I think you mean, there are brushes that can do it. You can make your own. Here are three angled brushes I use, next to the strokes they make (you can play with the thickness and angle etc):

[Monique236926556xja]

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for!

[jane-e]

@Monique236926556xja 

Leslie has a good answer for Photoshop's brushes. If you also have Adobe Illustrator, it includes a Width tool for variable width strokes. You can create multiple width points and drag them out/in as far as you want to achieve the desired effect.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/tool-techniques/width-tool.html

Jane

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Yes, this. Another approcah is to create the shape you want in Illustrator then bring it into Photoshop as a Smart Object that can be edited if necessary.

[Conrad C]

In both Photoshop and Illustrator, changing the width of a stroke as you draw or paint is much easier using a graphics tablet with a pressure-sensitive stylus. Then you can control the width by how hard you press down the stylus tip while drawing.

There is also a very manual way to create these kinds of designs, if you’re familiar with using the Pen tool to draw and edit vector paths. (1) Draw a path, (2) duplicate and offset it, (3) connect both into one closed path, (4) convert to a shape layer and fill the shape. At any time you can change the shape layer path by editing its points and handles.

[Trevor.Dennis]

The Calligraphy presets are good for freehand drawing, but if you want a brush stroke to decrease gradually in size thoughout its stroke, then set Size Jitter to Fade.  To give yourself complete control of the brush stroke, make a workpath and stroke the path with Simulate Pressure checked.  The fade rate is a function of brush size and spacing.

You can combine the effects, but note that Calligraphy presets tend to have very tight spacing, so need higher values for Fade.