How to create a brush with a gradient effect in a single stroke?

[Kapik]

Hi guys, 

I have this brush with the setting as shown below. It produces the stroke labeled as A. The issue is it won't get darker with a single stroke (paint with constant pen pressure) like the one labeled as B. So, I have to lift up my pen and then paint on top of it to make it darker.

I really appreciate if anyone knows how to adjust this brush for the following effects:

1. With a constant pen pressure, the area will get darker as I keep painting on it.

2. As I press the pen harder, the strokes will get darker without lifting up the pen.

[Trevor.Dennis]

You can do a Dark to Light stroke by setting Opacity Jitter to Fade.  Fade value is controlled by brush spacing. Each stamp of the brush reduces the value by 1.  So a 5% brush spacing would need a higher Fade value than a 25% spacing.

I can't think of a way to do a light to dark and back to light stroke other than using Pen Pressure, but what you can do is stroke a Path using Simulate Pressure so in the screen shot below, Opactity Jitter has be set to Pen Pressure. A workpath has be made, and right clicking the path, and choosing Brush with Simulate Pressure

This might seem like a lot of work, but you can make elaborate, and editable strokes that are perfectly placed.  It's a technique used a lot by illustrators including Bert Monroy

My last suggestion depends on whether you are using a Mac or Windows.  If Windows then have a look at Lazy Nezumi Pro.  You can get amazing control of pen pressure with it, plus it has dozens of genuinely useful presets.  It's the best $35 you can spend to get more out of Photoshop if you use a tablet.

[Kapik]

Hi Trevor,

Thank you for your suggestions. I managed to get a single stroke that change from dark to light with the fade option.

But what if I want to create the same effect labeled as B with multiple strokes, but with a constant pressure and without taking my hand off the tablet?

Fyi, both of these effect above are done with multiple strokes but with a constant pressure and not taking my hand off the tablet.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Maybe you should switch to Illustrator for this. 

[Semaphoric]

Instead of the Brush, you could make a path using the Freeform Pen tool, and then stroke that with the Simulate Pressure option.

[Kapik]

Hey guys, thank you for the inputs. 

But I prefer to use the brush instead of the pen tool.

Let me use the following picture for better explanation of what I want to achieve.

I hope you guys understand what I am trying to achieve.

In case you guys dont understand, I also took a short video to explain.

[Semaphoric]

If I understand you correctly, you want to use the Airbrush option for the Brush:

A lower Flow value will build up slower, which offers more control. I used a blend mode of Darker Color for this test; differnt ones may suit you better, so experiment there.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

That does not seem to be at all what you asked for originally. 

Even a low Flow might be able to achieve that effect. 

[Kapik]

Hi,

Im sorry for my languange limitation but what you demonstrated is absolutely the effect that I want.

I have tried to play around with the flow and the pen pressure. It worked but not to some of my textured brush. I have to take my hand off the tablet and repeat a multiple strokes until I get the actual/maximum saturation of the color chosen.

The following is the flow of how I experiment to get the effect I want with textured brush:

1. I Choose a random textured brush

2. I experiment with the flow and pen pressure

3. If I have to take my hand off the tablet and repeat a multiple strokes until I get the actual/maximum saturation of the color, then I unticked all the boxes in the brush setting.

4. Unfortunately, even if I unticked everything, it still produces a desaturated color eventhough I press it really hard.

Why does this issue happen to some of the textured brushes?

[Kukurykus]

btw. this thread has nice id: 12222221 😄