Where You Can Paint

You can paint on the Canvas or on a layer above the Canvas. When a layer is selected (highlighted on the Layers palette), it is the target for your brush strokes.

If you are using a Water Color brush, you can paint only on a Water Color layer. If you are using a Liquid Ink brush, you can paint only on a Liquid Ink layer. For more information, refer to "The Water Color Layer" and "The Liquid Ink Layer".

If you try to paint on a shape, dynamic layer, or reference layer, you must commit it to a standard layer so that your brush strokes are accepted.

Another possible destination for your brush strokes is a channel or layer mask. When a channel or layer mask is selected, it is the target for your brush strokes. For more information, refer to "Editing Channels" or "Working with Layer Masks".

When you have an active selection, painting is confined to the selection by default. Refer to "Working with Selections" for more information about selections.

In all cases, your brush strokes go to the selected target, so make sure of the destination before starting to paint.