Where do I put "free" Brushes in Painter 12 ... - Painter Factory

Kenneth Evans:

First, I really appreciate your help. 

You're welcome...'-}}

Kenneth Evans:

Second, I had the Suminagashi 2 brushes installed incorrectly.  I had the Folder with .nib .stk .xml .jpg files directly under Application\Brushes and it was missing the .jpg as well.  I fixed it, and it is working correctly now.  Sorry.

No prob! I'm glad you got it figured out...

Kenneth Evans:

I think this is what you mean by inserting a subfolder.  In this case Tablet Book brushes-Cher appears as a Brush Library in the Brushes Library Panel. 

Yeah...that's got it...

Kenneth Evans:

Since these are libraries, they can only be loaded by themselves, and I lose the default brushes.

Yeah...that's the problem (at least for me) with putting brushes/brush categories in Application\Brushes\ . What I did was to move out the brush categories I don't use or rarely use from \Painter 12 Brushes\ into a separate folder and I have all the brush categories I use regularly in \Brushes\Painter 12 Brushes\ so I rarely, if ever, have to switch from brush library to brush library.

Kenneth Evans:

I tried moving the Tablet Book brushes-Cher folder to Application\Brushes\Painter 12 Brushes so they would appear along with the defaults.  This didn't seem to work.  I don't see them.

I'm a little confused by the folder names you used but if I'm understanding it correctly, I think you are copying the wrong folder. You need to go down one level.

What you want to copy to Application\Brushes\Painter 12 Brushes\ is (given your layout described in your post) "Tablet Book Airbrushes" which is the actual brush category folder (I think)--it's really a subfolder since you are putting it in another folder but let's not get picky...'-}}

So after you copy "Tablet Book Airbrushes" folder, in Explorer (My Computer) you should see something like:

Brushes

     Painter 12 Brushes

          Airbrushes

          Blenders

          Chalk & Crayons

                .

                .

                .

          Tablet Book Airbrushes

You also need to copy "airbrushes.jpg" to  Application\Brushes\Painter 12 Brushes. "airbrushes.jpg" is the brush category jpg (what shows up in Painter's Brush Selector drop down menu to identify the brush category) and you should see other jpgs in the \Painter 12 Brushes folder which correspond to the other brush category folders

I've attached a screen shot (see below) to show you the setup in Explorer on my WinXP system--my guess is that you are running Win7 (Vista?) so the Explorer display is a bit different but I think you can get the idea.

Kenneth Evans:

I should say I am completely deleting my workspace from the User directory after each change for now.  This should replace it with the Default and read any new brush locations.

That's not a bad idea although it's a bit drastic as all you should really need to do it to delete the appropriate folders/subfolders from the User area \Painter 12\Default\Brushes but, then again, Win7 is well...I find it annoying and odd, so it might be the best thing to keep doing what you are doing...'-}}

Kenneth Evans:

I have also taken your suggestion and made both an Original and Backup location somewhere apart from the User and Application folders.

Oh yeah! Very good idea! As I noted, I have a master Painter backup folder outside of any Painter installation/application folder with a number of different subfolders 3 of which are my master custom brush categories--"tlbdwc" (contains custom Digital Watercolor brushes), "tlbrwc" (contains custom Real Watercolor brushes) and "tlbcustom" (contains odds and ends of custom brushes that are not DWC or RWC).

I am religious after closing Painter about copying new saved variants I might have created during the Painter session to the appropriate custom brush category in the installation/application area and to my master Painter backup--when I open Painter the next time, the new variants will be copied to the that custom brush category in the User area.

If the new saved variant was created/saved in either a Painter supplied brush category or a brush category I got from someone else, then after I've copied the new variant files (.stk, .nib, .xml and ,jpg if it exists) to my own brush category (whichever is appropriate) and the master backup, then I go to the User area and delete the new variant files from what was their "source" brush category. That leaves either the Painter supplied brush category or the brush category I got from someone else cleaner and neater and I know that I have all my own brushes in my own brush categories.

Kenneth Evans:

Thanks for your help.

You're welcome...hope the above (and the attached screen shot) helps...let me know if you have more questions...

Terrie