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How do you change brushes with the smudging tool and how does the finger tip works ?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 9, 2025
2 replies
1156 views

Hey everyone,

I got a problem with the smudging tool. Whenever I click on it and when i try to change the Brush to use it, it changes the tool from smudge to brush.

And the fingertip doesnt seem to work either, I would like to use a color directly (that isnt on the layer yet) and smudge with it. But it just smudges without the color I picked. Do you have any solutions ?

I posted a video to show you.

Thank you !

476743083_28631867243128334_774584519293540194_n.zip

Windows

Correct answer jane-e

@pierre_2022

The smudge tool will blend existing colors. It won't add new ones.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/tool-techniques/smudge-tool.html

Some brush presets are assigned to a specific tool. You will see an icon for the tool in the upper right. To use the Smudge tool with a brush assigned to the Brush tool, for instance, click on the preset while holding down the Cmd+Opt keys (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt keys (Win).

You can also create a New Brush Preset from the Brushes panel menu and either uncheck "Include Tool Settings" or assign the brush to a different tool.

Jane

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

You might like to turn on all of the options in the brush fly-out menu so you can see what the preset looks like, and what tool that preset is for. You can see in this screenshot that those presets are for Brush, Smudge tool, Mixer Brush, and Eraser. It will change tools on you if you click on a preset that is for another tool. You can force Photoshop to keep the tool you are using if you Ctrl click a preset.

You might like to check out the Mixer Brush if you want to blend colours

jane-e

Correct answer

Community Expert

@pierre_2022

The smudge tool will blend existing colors. It won't add new ones.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/tool-techniques/smudge-tool.html

Some brush presets are assigned to a specific tool. You will see an icon for the tool in the upper right. To use the Smudge tool with a brush assigned to the Brush tool, for instance, click on the preset while holding down the Cmd+Opt keys (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt keys (Win).

You can also create a New Brush Preset from the Brushes panel menu and either uncheck "Include Tool Settings" or assign the brush to a different tool.

Jane

P

pierre_2022Author

Participant

Thank you very much for your answer,

On the link you provided it's writter "Select Finger Painting in the options bar to smudge using the foreground color at the beginning of each stroke. Deselect Finger Painting to use the color under the pointer at the beginning of each stroke."

It was what i was trying to do as i've seen some artists do it, but it doesnt work with me, i must be doing something wrong

jane-e

Community Expert

@pierre_2022

Do you you have Sample All Layers enabled? (Step 3)

What is on the layer underneath where your cursor is dragging? (Step 4)

From help:

Select the Smudge tool (R) from the toolbar. If you can't find the Smudge tool, click and hold the Blur tool to show the other related tools, and then select the Smudge tool.
Choose a brush tip and and blend mode options in the options bar.
Select Sample All Layers in the options bar to smudge using color data from all visible layers. Deselect the option to only use colors from the active layer.
Select Finger Painting in the options bar to smudge using the foreground color at the beginning of each stroke. Deselect Finger Painting to use the color under the pointer at the beginning of each stroke.
Click and drag in the image to smudge the pixels.

Jane

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