Brushes normally interact with previously applied colors by sampling underlying pixels and then loading the brush with one new color — the average color of those that were sampled. With the Brush Loading feature in Corel® Painter™ IX, brushes can literally "pick up" existing colors, hair by hair. The brush loads multiple colors at a bristle level, picking up different colors with each "hair." This capability offers truer color interaction, astounding color variations, and better cloning results.

To paint with multiple colors

1. Choose a brush.
   
   
2. Choose Window menu > Show Brush Creator.
   
   
3. On the Stroke Designer page of the Brush Creator, click General.
   
   
4. Choose Static Bristle from the Dab Type pop-up menu.
   
   
   
   
5. Choose Multi from the Stroke Type pop-up menu.
   
   
   
   
6. On the Stroke Designer page, click Well, and enable the Brush Loading check box.
   
   This step activates the brush's ability to pick up underlying colors.
   
   
   
   
7. Adjust the Resaturation and Bleed sliders. The Bleed setting determines how much underlying paint is affected by the brush stroke. A higher Bleed setting, combined with a low Resaturation setting, can enhance the Brush Loading feature. A resaturation value of 0, combined with different levels of bleed, will cause your brush to smear image color, rather than deposit it. In this case, the lower the bleed, the longer the smear.
   
   
8. On the Stroke Designer page, click Spacing, and adjust the Spacing and Min Spacing sliders to create fewer "echo" artifacts in your smeared stroke.
   
   
9. Drag a brush stroke through existing paint to see how the paint is "picked up" from the underlying pixels and moved across the canvas.