Tutorial 002 - Useful painting shortcuts in Adobe Photoshop(tm)
Welcome to my second tutorial, this time i will try to give you usefull
information on keyboard shortcuts, dialogs and tricks in Adobe Photoshop(tm).
Using the techniques explained in this tutorial can help you improve
your efficiency and speed when painting.

I will also go over some functions in Photoshop that can quickly change
the mood and colors in your painting. I'm talking about the powerful
"Curves", "Hue/Saturation", "Color Balance" and other dialogs.
These functions can be VERY useful to fix problems, add fx postwork
and much more.

NOTE:
This tutorial is currently in Beta mode, it has NOT BEEN CORRECTED,
and probably have many mispelled words. I will go trough this text
asap and update to Final.



This tutorial is based on Adobe Photoshop 7.0, but most rules aply
to older versions as well. Contact me if a certain function don't work
for you and I'll update the tutorial.




Note: I will only go trough those functions that i found to be very helpful
to an artist when painting. Adobe has put together a quick reference paper
on many of the most used shortcuts. The file is availiable as PDF.


Click here to download Adobes Quick Reference paper.

(you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed)




I would love some input and feedback
on these tutorials so please don't hesitate to comment on my portfolio
or mail me at nicklas@nalf.it - portfolio: http://www.nalf.se/paintings



 


    Painters most used tools:
 
 
     Eraser Tool (E)

Hold over
tool to see
shortcut.


   
Brush Tool (B) Brush Tool Keyboard shortcut: B
          The most common tool, used for painting in the canvas. Can be set to have soft edges (airbrush) or hard edges. In Adobe Photoshop 7.0, these brushes can be modified using the brush engine.
To reach this tool just press the keyboard button "B".


ALT + mouseclick
Quick eyedropper mode:
Hold down ALT and click on the painting to pick the color beneath and use it as the current drawing color. Very handy! I think i use this function the most when painting.

SPACEBAR
Move in canvas:
Hold down SPACEBAR when using the brush tool to use the Hand Tool and you can then move on the canvas. When you release SPACEBAR you can continue painting. Good to use when working on details zoomed in.

SHIFT
Draw straight lines: If you hold down SHIFT while painting your brush strokes will become vertical or horisontal straight lines.

SHIFT + mouseclick
Draw more specific lines: If you hold SHIFT and click in the canvas the line will go from point A to next click point. This is realy good for doing perspective layouts. See example image here.



Opacity
Opacity defines how much color to paint with and how much of the background to go trough. 50% will paint with half the color you choose and let the background be 50% visible in the background.

While using the brush tool you can set the opacity using following:

Opacity %: 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Keyboard: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

To use 45% in opacity you first click 4 and directly after a 5.







. and , (semicolon and dot)
Select brush
There also is a keyboard shortcut for choosing brushes. You can go forward and backwards in the brush list. I usually paint with the default brushes. They come in sizes from 1 pixel to 300 pixels. So i'ts a quick way to increase and decrease size of brush.


[ and ]
Increase and Decrease brush size
Using these keys to change the size of the current brush.
Note: I haven't been able to use this on my swedish keyboard, if you have any information or tips on this, please contact me.




Exact brushes
Most artist want to see the exact size of the brush when you are painting. This is not turned on by default. To change this, go to "Edit" in the menu. Then choose "Preferences" and "Display and Cursors".
Set the settings for the cursors as the image below.

  


 

 
        
Burn Tool (B) Burn Tool Keyboard shortcut: O
         

Burn tool is a great tool for darkening areas you painted. Some uses it for shading in their paintings. I mostly use this tool for adding texturising and dynamic lighting. When using this tool you can configure it the same as with a brush.

Dodge Tool (O)

Sponge Tool (O) 
Note: If you can't find this tool do the following. See if you find the tools you have here to the left. They are called the "Dodge Tool" and the "Sponge Tool". You see the little arrow in the right
bottom corner. If you hold down the mousebutton on these tools with an arrow a list of other tools folds out.

All of the tools in the list have the same keyboard shortcuts, you can choose the next tool by holding down SHIFT + and the tools shortcut. For example:
SHIFT + O to change between Dodge, Burn and the Sponge tool.


ALT + mouseclick
Dodge mode:
Hold down ALT and use the burn tool as usual, but when holding down ALT it will dodge the painting instead of burning. In other words, holding down ALT will lighten instead of darkening.




Using burn tool to add basic depth and shadows.
When i paint my paintings i usually start with a sketch, then i do a quick base coloring. After that begins texturing, first step i do when i texturize is to add shadows. I add shadows using the burn tool.





Darkening painted areas...
As i continued working on my painting Skullbridge i needed to add more contrast and mood to the painting. By darkening some areas my overal feeling changed greatly. Below you can see a before and after picture. It makes a great difference.




I usually add details that have a brighter color on top of the parts i just darkened. This will make the details "pop" out and give depth.
Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture.
  
 
  

Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) Move tool (V) Magic Wand Tool (W) Lasso Tool (L) Crop Tool (C) Slice Tool (K) Brush Tool (B) Healing Brush Tool  (J) Clone Stamp Tool (S) History Brush Tool (Y) Paint Bucket Tool (G) Eraser Tool (E) Blur Tool (R) Burn Tool (O) Path Selection Tool (A) Horizontal Type Tool (T) Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) Pen Tool (P) Notes Tool (N) Eyedropper Tool (I) Hand Tool (H) Set Foreground color ( DOUBLE-CLICK ) Set background color ( DOUBLE-CLICK ) Default Foreground and Background color (D) Switch foreground and background colors (X) Move the toolbox, double click to hide toolbox. Click here to visit Adobe Online. Edit in standard mode (Q) Edit in Quick Mask mode (Q) Standard Screen mode (F) Full Screen mode (F) Fullscreen mode with menus (F) Jump to Image-Ready (CTRL+SHIFT+M)
 
        
Eraser Tool (E) Eraser Tool Keyboard shortcut: E
         

Eraser tool practicaly much do what it suppose to do, it erases what you have painted. It acts just as a brush, so you can configure the eraser just as an brush. All brush shortcuts also works on the eraser.

Tip 004 - Don't undo faulty brushstrokes
If you are painting a sketch or an outline where you for example needs to draw a line. But you don't manage to get it correct... Don't erase or undo your faulty brushstrokes (apply this only if you are painting on a transparent background). Instead have the faulty stroke visible and draw the new on top over the old one. Then you can more easily avoid doing the same mistake again.
When you have a correct brushstroke, use the eraser tool to remove the faulty one. If you are used to layers, why not draw the new stroke on a seperate layer. Then it's just to remove the other layer.


 







Useful shortcuts:

  
 
    

Photoshop has many shortcuts for often used actions, and some of them can greatly help you paint faster and more efficient. Other shortcuts will make Photoshops interface less "in the way" and let you use all your creativity on a big canvas without annoying dialogs and menus. Shortcuts that handles the brushes are explained in the text above.

Note: Some stupid programs that interface with windows such as ICQ can sometimes be configured to take over some shortcuts. So if ICQ or another program pops up when you use these, check that programs configuration. I know ICQ has a setting to disabling this.

  



INTERFACE

TAB
Hide all dialogs and windows in Photoshop. Leaving an empty work-space where you can work with a big canvas without beeing distracted. Note: you can still paint. If you already know shortcuts for the most used tools then it should be a breeze.
 
SHIFT + TAB
Hides all dialogs and windows except the toolbox and the tool setting window. Good for quickly hiding the layer, history, info window and still be able to edit and paint on your painting.

F
Click F once to switch to full screen mode with menus. It will hide all open files and canvases, centering the current selection canvas. And the workspace around the canvas will be a grey color.
Click F one more time to go from full screen mode with menus to a complete full screen mode without menus. The workspace will now be black. This mode combined with TAB will let you paint without any distraction only showing the canvas. THIS IS HOW I PAINT.

SHIFT + F
When working in full screen mode you can force the menu to be hidden or visible by pressing SHIFT + F. If the menus are hidden a little arrow will come on the top part of the toolbox. Clicking on this arrow will bring up the menu.

CTRL + H
In Adobe Photoshop 7 comes some annoying functions such as the slices. Although they can be very useful for a web designer such as myself, they become a burden for a painter.
CTRL + H will hide all "extras" such as slices, guides, audio, notes selections and so on. If you press CTRL + H while these are hidden they will become visible once again. When starting on a new painting i always hide these elements directly.

CTRL + R
CTRL + R will hide or show rulers to the painting. Rulers can be a great tool when doing perspectives and web designs. If you click on the ruler and drag out to the canvas a guideline will be created.
Using the move tool these guides can be moved or deleted. To delete a guide just drag it to the ruler or outside the canvas. A painter ordinary doesn't need the rulers to be visible.




ZOOM


CTRL + (+)
Shortcut for zooming in on the painting. Zooming is useful for adding details. When zoomed you can navigate on the canvas using the hand tool. A shortcut for this when your are painting is to hold down SPACEBAR.

CTRL + (-)
Shortcut for zooming out on the painting.
When working on paintings for print, the size often increases to severeal thousand pixels in both height and width. It can be practical to paint in 25%, or 50% on a 5000 pixel big painting. When working out zoomed the painting looks best in 12.5%, 25% and 50%.

CTRL + ALT + (+)
This zoomes in on the painting and increases
the canvas window according to the zoom.

CTRL + ALT +
(-)
This zoomes out on the painting and decreases
the canvas window according to the zoom.

ALT + MOUSE SCROLL UP
Most new mouses have a scroll mouse attached to itself. Some of these (most microsoft and logitech) can be used as a zoom shortcut in Photoshop. Scroll the scroller up to zoom in on the painting.

ALT + MOUSE SCROLL DOWN
Scroll the scroller down to zoom out on the painting.




UNDO


CTRL + Z
Very useful :) Poor traditional artists, but when you start getting used to painting and you are getting good you don't use this feature as much as a beginner. Instead of undoing every missplaced stroke I simply paint over it and uses the faulty stroke as a texture. CTRL + Z will only undo latest change. Pressing undo again directly after undoing will undo the undoing :)

CTRL + ALT + Z
In Photoshop there is a history window, it stores all your actions. (max 99 actions, can be configured in photoshop settings). This shortcut will go one step back in the history window. Allowing you to undo multiple actions.

CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + Z
This shortcut will instead go one step forward in the history window.
If you just have undone several steps and went one step to much. Use this shortcut to go forward again. It looks like a shortcut from hell but when you know it, it's very useful.




FEATURES/WINDOWS IN PHOTOSHOP


CTRL + B
Brings up the Color Balance window. - read more.
I will in detail go over this further down in this tutorial.

CTRL + U
Brings up the Hue/Saturation window. - read more.
I will in detail go over this further down in this tutorial.

CTRL + M
Brings up the Curves window. - read more.
I will in detail go over this further down in this tutorial.




OTHER


CTRL + T
Mostly useful when editing. If you have selected a part of a painting this will let you freely transform the selection. Can be useful for adding perfect reflections in water. I briefly explained this in my first Tutorial - 001 - Desirable Thirst.

CTRL + BACKSPACE
Fills a selection or the canvas with the current background color.
I usually use this when starting on a new painting.

ALT + BACKSPACE
Fills a selection or the canvas with the current foreground color.
I usually use this when starting on a new painting.


Click here to download Adobes Quick Reference paper.

(you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed)


  

Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture.




    What can Curves do for you?:
 
 
         

Curves is a very useful feature and function in Photoshop. Mostly used on photos by photographers. Curves can fix bad contrasts, too light highlights, details gotten lost in shading and much more. When i paint skin tones i found it very useful to use curves. Sometimes i get the color balance wrong and i have to much midtones everywhere. Using curves usually fixes this.





The Keyboard shortcut for Curves is CTRL + M.
This will open a Curves window, and the settings you apply here will only affect the current layer. But if you want some insurrance you can add an "Adjustment Layer". You add such in the "Layer" menu, under "New Adjustment Layer". This will create a layer with your Curves settings. You can later delete this layer, change opacity or blending mode. You can even paint with black on this layer making everything that is black to not be affected by the curves.

Note:
It can sometimes be sufficient to just press the "Auto" button.



Tip 005 - Paint with value, not color:
When an artist paint, the artist should paint using values instead of color. Since if you paint with correct values a painting can look great in greyscale, red colors or even blue.. But if you have incorrect values it won't look good in any way you show it. Beginners usually paint a portrait in greyscale, that way it's much easier to draw the correct values. When you have a correct value template they add a new layer with the blending mode set to "Multiply". Now can they paint with color and the values will be intact.


Fixing midtones in shadows.
Here is a work in progress, I'm painting a portrait of my sister. This is far from done, but here i had to use Curves to fix the midtones. I had pretty much nailed the values in it. But i had to much "red" in my shadows. Using Curves i managed to fix the most problems. (I know that i have added some hair in the after painting).

Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture.
Click on either the Before or After painting too see full view version.

   
 



    What can Color Balance do for you?:
 
 
         

Color Balance is something i almost always play around with when i have finished a painting. It can create amazing moods and color variations. But once started changing it can be hard to quit. You can change the midtones, highlights and the shadows base color. I would recommend you to use the "Adjustment Layer" just as we did with the Curves. But if you only want to use this function on a layer, then the keyboard shortcut is CTRL + B.






Changing the mood and concept.
Here below is my first edition of my painting Evergrey. I just fooled around in the Color Balance dialog and made a fantasy world concept. It's green :) I used this function to get the cold blue mood that i have in my finished painting Evergrey.

Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture.
Click on either the Before or After painting too see full view version.
 


 


    What can Hue/Saturation do for you?:
 
 
         

Hue/Saturation works almost like the Color Balance, but instead of defining midtones, shadows and highlights seperatly this function changes the color on all simultanius. If you click in the "Colorize" box in the window, it will change all colors and to your color. And because nothing is just one color this isn't a very useful function. Except for experimental paintings and post fx.
The Keyboard shortcut for Curves is CTRL + U.







Quick change of color.
Here below is a speedpainting that i did some years ago. Using Hue/Saturation i could quickly change the color of this greyscale painting. I could just as easily made it blue, matrix green, made it darker or lighter.

Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture.
Click on either the Before or After painting too see full view version.
 



 

Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture.


We have now come to the end of Tutorial 002.
I hope you learned something and picked up a few tricks. Please tell me what you thought,
and you are always welcome to mail me suggestions and tips for future tutorials. Errors and
mispelled words is also appreciated, i'll fix them at once.

Take care.

Sincerely
Nicklas Forsberg


Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture. Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture.


 

Post a comment
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Comment:



 
 
 
last 20 comments
2003.07.24 - 20:56 by SeventhVirgo
These are very helpful dude. Thanks. Oh and your sisters is hot! :P
 
 
 
2003.07.25 - 03:28 by PunkClown
Thanks Nicklas, this is a very useful tutorial. Not only do we get shortcut hints, but creative suggestions for working in Photoshop as well! :-)>
 
 
 
2003.07.27 - 23:09 by lordolof
THANK YOU!.
du är bäst som vanligt! avgudar dig (oj skapligt smör) men fan du är grymm!

 
 
 
2003.07.28 - 01:39 by OiledMonkey
LOL omg...this will really help me to speedin up my speedskills lol. very helpfull mate!

greetings froo OiledMonkey a.k.a. DOBSC

 
 
 
2003.07.29 - 18:57 by Fishmonger
U know your stuff, an exellent tutorial from a exellent artist.


 
 
 
2003.07.29 - 20:19 by Gunblade
useful tutorial, and really good paintings, thanks :)
 
 
 
2003.08.13 - 07:53 by TitanSolaris
Nice job on that tutorial, helps alot, thanks :)
 
 
 
2003.08.20 - 07:31 by Gt33ts
Thanks a ton great work...
 
 
 
2003.09.19 - 18:22 by Gaurang
Click here to download Adobes Quick Reference paper.
(you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed)
is corrupted .could not open

 
 
 
2003.11.18 - 20:11 by Bassem "BlackZer0" Boustany
little addition... for exact brush sizes just press "Caps Lock". This is a quick temporary way.

Your tutorials are very helpful to me... thank you.

 
 
 
2003.11.19 - 05:32 by Kaity
That was extremely helpful!! Thanks heaps!
 
 
 
2004.01.01 - 12:34 by WatchYour6
Beautiful. Simply beautiful.
 
 
 
2004.01.23 - 13:54 by treeheadmonkey
this awsome dude, photoshop rulez!!!!!
 
 
 
2004.03.14 - 12:22 by Martin
Very good tutorial. You forgot about the ctrl+space+leftclick or ctrl+alt+space+leftclick for zooming though, pretty usefull shortcut :)
 
 
 
2004.06.09 - 05:07 by nefariouschick
wow.
 
 
 
2004.06.13 - 18:25 by bhush
thanks buddy very helpfull
 
 
 
2004.08.20 - 10:52 by ramesh adhikari, Nepal
Great help for all and espeically who want to learn more about photoshop, Thanks bro.
 
 
 
2005.05.31 - 20:42 by Murray
Wow! nice work! Hopefully it will be useful to me when I get better at painting.
 
 
 
2005.06.21 - 08:54 by Kyuubi
excellent
 
 
 
2005.06.21 - 23:26 by Daniel Klingmann
Nice, that s really helpful. Thanks!
 
 
 
All paintings are protected by copyright laws. © 2002-2003, Nicklas Forsberg - NALF
This tutorial has been viewed 40288 times.




Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) Move tool (V) Magic Wand Tool (W) Lasso Tool (L) Crop Tool (C) Slice Tool (K) Brush Tool (B) Healing Brush Tool  (J) Clone Stamp Tool (S) History Brush Tool (Y) Paint Bucket Tool (G) Eraser Tool (E) Blur Tool (R) Burn Tool (O) Path Selection Tool (A) Horizontal Type Tool (T) Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) Pen Tool (P) Notes Tool (N) Eyedropper Tool (I) Hand Tool (H) Set Foreground color ( CLICK ) Set background color ( CLICK ) Default Foreground and Background color (D) Switch foreground and background colors (X) Move the toolbox, double click to hide toolbox. Click here to visit Adobe Online. Edit in standard mode (Q) Edit in Quick Mask mode (Q) Standard Screen mode (F) Full Screen mode (F) Fullscreen mode with menus (F) Jump to Image-Ready (CTRL+SHIFT+M) Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture. Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture. Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture. Click here to see full view on the BEFORE picture. Click here to see full view on the AFTER picture.