Brush Pixelization Help?

[Deedee786]

Below is an Image of An eye I drew, I've been having a problem when it comes to my drawings being pixelized, but for some reason at certain zooms it's not if I fit to screen the image it has pixeilization (Image 2 is a fit to screen image of the drawing) Yet if I zoom in once its perfectly smooth but only at that zoom. again If I zoom out once from the fit to screen its perfectly smooth again (Image 3) I can't figure out what I am doing wrong, so many Youtubers I watch use Photoshop for drawing but I can't seem to understand how their art is so perfectly smooth and mine isn't,

My canvas Size is 5000 Pixels by 5000 Pixels  and Resolution is at 300 sometimes 400

[PECourtejoie]

Hello, what magnifications are used in the various images?

Also, can you post help>System Info (or Photoshop>System Info on a Mac), so that we can see if you are running the latest display driver?

[Deedee786]

The zoom tool in photoshop

Adobe Photoshop Version: 13.0 (13.0 20120315.r.428 2012/03/15:21:00:00) x32

Operating System: Windows NT

Version: 6.2

System architecture: AMD CPU Family:15, Model:2, Stepping:0 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2

Physical processor count: 3

Logical processor count: 6

Processor speed: 3500 MHz

Built-in memory: 8186 MB

Free memory: 5010 MB

Memory available to Photoshop: 3255 MB

Memory used by Photoshop: 59 %

Image tile size: 128K

Image cache levels: 4

OpenGL Drawing: Enabled.

OpenGL Drawing Mode: Basic

OpenGL Allow Normal Mode: True.

OpenGL Allow Advanced Mode: True.

OpenGL Allow Old GPUs: Not Detected.

Video Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation

Video Card Renderer: GeForce GTX 1050/PCIe/SSE2

Display: 1

[rayek.elfin]

A couple of ideas about gritty looking lines on your display:

• Depending on the video hardware, the version of Photoshop, and the performance settings, when zooming out the artwork may look gritty due to Photoshop having to interpolate pixels at an odd zoom level like 33.3%. In particular when "use Graphics Processor" is turned off, this WILL occur.
• In my experience Photoshop, even when the Graphics Processor option is enabled, the anti-aliasing of line art at odd zoom levels is reasonable, but leaves something to be desired. In particular at very low zoom levels thin lines just disintegrate in Photoshop's view.

Why your lines look wobbly/unrefined:

• Practice - plain and simple. It takes more of an effort to draw smooth strokes with a graphics tablet. Heck, I know - took me a while to get used to it.
• HOWEVER! Most painting applications offer some kind of built-in stroke stabilizer. This is a HUGE time saver, and allows the artist to draw very smooth looking line art. The problem is: unfortunately Photoshop does not offer a stroke stabilizer out-of-the-box. Photoshop (in my opinion) also doesn't have the proper 'drawing feel' that I do experience in alternative drawing software (see below).
• Stroke stabilizers are generally the key ingredient in achieving those beautiful smooth strokes. Do not underestimate experience with drawing on a graphics tablet, though. I found that taping a piece of drawing paper over my Wacom Pro surface really helps my line art. And I prefer the feel of paper as opposed to the sandy Wacom surface (and it saves nibs).

To solve your unrefined looking strokes, you have several options:

• Install Lazy Nezumi. Not free, but sort-of essential to have when drawing in Photoshop nowadays.
  https://lazynezumi.com/​
• Keep practicing those lines.
• Switch to (an) alternative(s). That is what I did for my digital drawing and painting - I left Photoshop behind for this type of work. I use both ClipStudio Paint and Krita. Krita is an open source and free digital painting alternative that is arguably miles ahead of Photoshop to draw and paint with, because that is its singular purpose. The on-screen anti-aliasing of your line art is much better, and it offers essential tools like a stroke stabilizer, a mirror tool while drawing, perspective tools while drawing, and the ability to quickly flip your artwork to check for left/right handedness. https://krita.org/en/​
  ClipStudio Paint's drawing feel is also hard to beat. A stroke stabilizer is built-in. Not free, though. I use both apps for my digital art.

Up to you! If you prefer Photoshop for drawing and working in, then I urge you to invest some money in Lazy Nezumi.

[Deedee786]

I know it isn't my stabilization I already own Lazy Nezumi, and I have a Cintiq so My lines are already pretty stable I feel it has to do with Photoshop it's self I also have a high quality video card as my computer is a gaming computer

[rayek.elfin]

Does this happen in other drawing applications as well?

In order to figure out whether your issue is caused by Photoshop or not, I would suggest downloading at least one other drawing app, and draw a bit in that (for example, Krita, which has a portable version available for download, so no need to install - and it uses OpenGL like Photoshop, so good for video hardware usage comparison).

Then report back here.

[Deedee786]

I did try out Paint Tool Sai and it was smooth but I want to stick to Photoshop since I'm more familiar with it

[rayek.elfin · Accepted solution]

Paint Tool Sai isn't video hardware OpenGL accelerated like Photoshop and Krita - that is why I suggested Krita, just to see if there is an issue with your OpenGL settings.

Have you tried changing the performance setting to "Advanced" in Photoshop? Preferences-->Performance-->Advanced Settings-->Drawing Mode "Advanced"? I noticed yours may be set to "Basic".

[Deedee786]

I'll try changing the setting first and if not I'll try kiria next and update you

[rayek.elfin]

Don't forget to restart Photoshop when you do.

[Deedee786]

It worked once I put it into advance now its all smooth

[rayek.elfin]

Good to know that worked for you!

[Trevor.Dennis]

We need to see the brush preset to understand what might be going on.  Unless it is a hard round brush with no scatter or random size dynamics, then how are we going to understand the resulting brush strokes?

You could maybe have a look at cache levels in Preferences > Performance, but I don't think the sort of pixelated effect having cache levels set to 1, is what is happening here.

The other thing is, to make sure you are using the brush and not the pencil, or that the Image Mode is not set to bitmap

[EDIT]   Just read your post again, and I see you are using a Cintiq.  We sometimes see issues with Wacam drivers for some Cintiq models, but I would have thought that Lazy Nezumi would iron those out.  LNP usually = nice brush strokes