Using the smudge tool

The smudge tool simulates the actions of dragging a finger through wet paint. The tool picks up color where the stroke begins and pushes it in the direction you drag.

To use the smudge tool:

1 Select the smudge tool ().

2 Choose a brush size from the pop-up palette in the options bar. To learn more about using pop-up palettes, see Using pop-up palettes.

If a brush is too large to fit in the palette, it appears as a smaller brush with a number indicating the actual diameter in pixels.

3 Specify a blending mode and pressure. (See  Setting options for painting and editing tools.)

4 Select Use All Layers to smudge using color data from all visible layers. If this is deselected, the smudge tool uses colors from only the active layer.

5 Select Finger Painting to smudge using the foreground color at the beginning of each stroke. If this is deselected, the smudge tool uses the color under the pointer at the beginning of each stroke.

6 If you are using a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet, specify the effects of stylus pressure. (See  Specifying the effect of stylus pressure.)

7 Drag in the image to smudge color.

Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you drag with the smudge tool to use the Finger Painting option.

Transforming and Retouching > Retouching an image > Using the smudge tool