Im having a problem when using certain brushes or the smudge tool on a seperate layer to the background. When i start to brush or smudge a part of the image on the layer unless theres a colour already under it it becomes white. This means that layers are effectively useless. I've attached a picture of the problem, the pink strokes are on a layer above the purple which is on the canvas layer, the bottom part is a pink blob i have tried to smudge over a transparent part of the layer. Any ideas whats causing this cause it's driving me mental?

Check the "pick up underlying colour" checkbox in the layers palette. I used to get this all the time without that box checked until kazky pointed it out to me. The strange thing is that I now don't have that problem even without the box checked unless I toggled the setting on and off a few times. It appears to be one of Painter's bugs.

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What he said.  Used to do that all the time and curse the thing.

That also happens with the 'Preserve transparency' box next to it too sometimes.  If ever you find that the brushes don;t seem to want to make a mark when you first start, it's worth clicking in that tick box then too. 

A recent quirk I've been having is that the actual tick boxes for these two useful options have disappeared.  Yet I have found that if I click where they should be, it still works.  Who ever said Painter could be a bit 'quirky'?  Understatement or what? Got to love it for what it can do though.

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http://nickillus.co.uk

Yes I have suffered the loss of window borders and tool bars as well on many occasions. Just NEVER EVER open the brush creator with your canvas maximised on the screen. That way lies madness, but it does save a trip to the hairdresser.

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thank you Painter Masters, i shall take on board your wisdom and go forth to correct this "bug" forced upon me :)

You still have hair BJ?!?!?!

Oh you join a select bunch of weirdos if you like Painter to actually paint and draw Bubs.  We have to stick together.  I have some glue.

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http://nickillus.co.uk

does anyone have this problem in photoshop? sometimes when i'm using the smudge tool (i use smudge with a spackle brush to make hair strands), on the area without colour there are white marks left.

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Nickillus:

You still have hair BJ?!?!?!

Yes, loads of the stuff. Trouble is none of it is mine.

kazky:

does anyone have this problem in photoshop? sometimes when i'm using the smudge tool (i use smudge with a spackle brush to make hair strands), on the area without colour there are white marks left.

Not sure about that. Maybe you had the smudge tool set to a blend mode other than normal. I just tried and managed to get some white appear with the smudge set to luminosity instead of normal. Other than that I don't know.

[edit] Ignore that. I had the smudge set to use all layers. Without that I get the white streaks you mention. So to get rid of it set it to use all layers and it does the same as Painters pick up underlying colour option.

[another edit] Possibly.

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i thought being the whizz that i am  i'd tried that, thinking it might behave that way, but maybe i didn't, or maybe i did, and i've neglected to do it since, hence, therefore, vis a vis, forgetting it again. 

i knew you couldn't not know the answer banj, for a second there, my heart stopped, and also did the space time continuum thingy. Now it's all ok again.....  

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I know many things, but I still don't know how a cat can lose approximately 3 tonnes of hair every day and still not go bald.

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WOW! Thank you so much. This problem of not being able to use layers in painter is what forced me to work in Photoshop. Awesome.

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"Never compare your inside with someone else's outside."