7 Art History Brush
Used for painting
Found at #21 in the Toolbar diagram at left
The art history brush is grouped with the history brush in the toolbar.
If it is hidden, click on the history brush’s icon, and select it
from the pop-up menu.
This tool copies image data from a state you choose in the History palette, and applies it to the current active layer in a stylized or modified way. It’s a little bit like applying a filter effect one stroke at a time.
This is a tool that you will learn to appreciate if you play with it. You can make radical changes to the original image and then paint from the normal image, or, do it in reverse; make radical changes, undo them, and then paint from the weird version into the normal one. The Photoshop manual suggests filling the entire image with white and then painting from the original while experimenting with various settings in the tool’s option palette.
A shortcut for changing brush sizes while using this tool is to press the left bracket [ to decrease brush size, and the right bracket ] to choose a larger brush.
Shift-right-clicking on your document while using this tool will open its Style menu next to your cursor.
If you choose Edit > Fade immediately after using this tool, you can change the opacity of the strokes you have just applied.
The keyboard shortcut for this tool is the letter Y. Toggle between the history brush and this brush by holding down the Shift key while pressing the shortcut letter.
Please note that this entire tools section has been updated from a Photoshop 6 version (which was updated from a 5.5 version). Wherever the tool is essentially the same as it was in 6, I have continued to use the screen capture illustrations made using that version. So if you notice cosmetic discrepancies in the options bar, menus or palettes, that’s why. In all instances where features were added or changed, I have made new screen captures.
The illustration below, is the art history brush’s options
bar. To choose a brush size and type, click on the brush thumbnail. A
pop-up palette of available brushes will appear. Or if you want to access
the full brushes palette with its many options, click the brushes palette
button at the far right end of the options bar.
You can also right-click on your document to open the brushes pop-up palette
next to the cursor. Press Enter or click on your document’s blue title
bar to close the palette after you’ve chosen a new brush. For more information
on brushes, please see the Brushes
in 7 tutorial. If you are still using Photoshop 6, find information
on the your brushes palette on the old brushes
page.
To find any tool presets that have been made for this tool, click on the tool’s thumbnail at the left end of the options bar. To reset the tool to its default settings, right-click on the tool’s thumbnail and choose Reset Tool from the menu that appears.
Type a value in the Opacity text box, or click on the arrow to the right of the percentage value box to access a slider. A high setting is more opaque, a low value is more transparent.
The box titled Mode, and showing Normal is a drop down menu of the blend modes you can choose from. The Area box determines how far from the brush strokes is affected by the chosen style. It’s not the same as brush size, but you’ll have to try both to see. I recommend using a small brush size and varying the Area setting.
Tolerance can be set by the same type of slider as Opacity. This setting determines how different a color must be from the original in order for the brush strokes to be applied to it. Lower values allow painting everywhere. High values limit strokes to areas that are very different from the source state.
Shown below, is a portion of the art history brush’s options bar showing the brush stroke drop down menu activated. These are the stylized brush strokes that will be used to apply the source history state to the current state. You need to experiment with all the choices to see what they’re like. If you want an exact, and not stylized application of your history state, switch to the regular history brush.
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