openCanvas Plus: Complete Guide to Features and Tools

Best openCanvas Plus Brushes and Customization TricksopenCanvas Plus is a powerful digital painting application favored by illustrators and hobbyists for its smooth brush engine, intuitive interface, and customization options. This article covers the best brushes in openCanvas Plus, how to customize them for different styles, workflow tips, and advanced tricks to speed up your process and get professional-looking results.

Why openCanvas Plus brushes matter

Brush choice defines the texture, flow, and character of your artwork. openCanvas Plus offers a range of brush types — from pencil and ink to soft airbrushes and texture brushes — that you can tweak extensively. Learning how to customize and combine brushes lets you mimic traditional media or create unique digital styles.

Essential brush types and when to use them

• Pencil (HB / mechanical): Great for sketching and detailed linework. Use low opacity settings and small size jitter for natural, hand-drawn lines.
• Ink / Pen: Crisp, pressure-sensitive strokes for clean lineart and comic-style inking. Adjust stabilization and minimum size for steadier lines.
• Round Soft Brush (Airbrush): Perfect for smooth shading, skin tones, and subtle gradients. Lower flow and build up color in layers.
• Hard Round Brush: Good for blocking shapes, painting edges, and cell-shading techniques.
• Texture / Grain Brushes: Add canvas texture, fabric patterns, or painterly grit. Use layer masks and blend modes for controlled application.
• Blending / Smudge Brushes: Soften transitions and unify colors. Vary strength to avoid over-blurring details.
• Specialty Brushes (Splatter, Chalk, Fur): For effects like foliage, hair, or weathering; combine with scattering and rotation settings.

How to create the perfect custom brush in openCanvas Plus

1. Start from a base brush: Choose a brush type close to your goal (e.g., Round Soft for smooth blends).
2. Adjust size and min/max pressure: Set maximum size to how large you want the brush at full pressure; set minimum size so light strokes still register.
3. Modify opacity and flow dynamics: Link opacity to pen pressure for natural buildup. Lower base opacity for glazing effects.
4. Tweak edge hardness and texture: Add a texture map or increase grain for tactile surfaces.
5. Set blending and smudge rules: Choose whether the brush mixes with underlying colors or simply paints over them.
6. Save variations: Export or save multiple preset sizes and pressures for quick access.

Tip: Name presets clearly (e.g., “Skin Soft 40%”, “Ink Fine S-2”) to avoid confusion.

Brush settings explained (important sliders)

• Size / Min Size — Controls stroke width and how thin it gets with less pressure.
• Opacity / Flow — Opacity affects transparency per stroke; flow controls paint layering over time.
• Hardness / Edge — Defines crispness: 100% for sharp edges, lower for softer transitions.
• Texture / Grain — Adds patterning; useful for natural media emulation.
• Blending / Mix — Determines how colors interact with existing pixels; set to “mix” or “blend” for painterly effects.
• Stabilizer / Correction — Smoothes shaky input for better inking lines.
• Tilt / Rotation / Scattering — Useful for stylus tilt-sensitive brushes and random distribution of brush stamps.

Quick presets every artist should have

• Sketching Pencil — low opacity, slight texture, medium hardness.
• Lineart Pen — high opacity, strong stabilization, small min size.
• Base Color Brush — hard edge, 100% flow, pressure-controlled opacity.
• Soft Shading Brush — low opacity, soft edge, blending enabled.
• Hair/Fur Brush — scattered stamp, slight rotation jitter, texture applied.
• Texture Overlay — large size, low opacity, textured grain with multiply blend mode.

Mixing and layer strategies

• Use separate layers for sketch, lineart, flats, shading, and effects. It’s easier to edit and apply layer-specific blend modes.
• For non-destructive work, paint shading on multiply layers and highlights on screen or add layers with clipping masks.
• Use layer masks instead of erasing; they let you refine edges without losing paint data.
• Lock alpha (or equivalent) on a color layer to paint within existing shapes without reselecting areas.

Advanced customization tricks

• Create brush families: Make 3–5 size/opacity variants of the same brush for consistent transitions between broad strokes and details.
• Combine texture maps with scatter: Use low-opacity texture overlays with scattering to create organic surfaces like stone or cloth.
• Use pressure curves: Customize the pressure-to-size/opacity curve on your tablet to get the exact responsiveness you need.
• Emulate traditional media: Set grain and blending to mimic watercolor (low hardness, high mix) or oil (higher texture, slower blending).
• Program quick shortcuts: Map your most-used brushes to hotkeys or the radial menu for rapid switching.
• Export/import brush sets: Share or back up custom brushes; useful when moving between machines or collaborating.

Workflow speedups

• Keep a palette of 8–12 frequently used colors saved as swatches.
• Use symmetry tools and rulers for precise compositions.
• Record and reuse actions/macros for repetitive tasks like resizing and exporting.
• Use reference layers: pin references inside the canvas instead of switching windows.

Troubleshooting common brush issues

• Lines feel jittery — increase stabilization or lower smoothing for more natural wobble.
• Brush too faint at low pressure — raise minimum size or adjust pen pressure curve.
• Texture looks tiled — increase scale or use randomized rotation and scattering.
• Colors not blending as expected — check brush mix/blend mode, layer blend mode, and matching color profiles.

Example workflows for different styles

1. Comic/Lineart

   • Sketch with Pencil preset -> Ink with Lineart Pen -> Flats on separate layer -> Cell shading with Hard Round Brush -> Effects with Specialty Brushes.

2. Painterly Illustration

   • Rough blocking with Base Color Brush -> Refine with Texture/Grain brushes -> Blend with Soft Shading/Smudge -> Final details with small Hard Round and Hair brushes.

3. Concept Speedpaint

   • Big silhouette blocking, use large textured brushes for shapes, add focal detail only, use overlay layers to push color.

Resources and further learning

• Explore community brush packs and adapt favorites to your workflow.
• Study process videos from digital painters to see real-time brush use and layering.
• Regularly back up presets and export brushes when you’ve polished a set.

Best custom brushes are the ones that match your hand and workflow. Start with a few versatile presets, refine pressure/texture, and build a small toolkit tailored to lineart, painting, and effects. With practice, openCanvas Plus’s brush system becomes an extension of your traditional technique.