{"id":177,"date":"2013-06-12T16:40:10","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T16:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pixlrblog.wpengine.com\/?p=177"},"modified":"2013-06-12T16:40:10","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T16:40:10","slug":"using-the-history-brush-to-create-layered-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pixlr.com\/blog\/using-the-history-brush-to-create-layered-effects\/","title":{"rendered":"Using the History Brush to Create Layered Effects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re a regular user of the web version of Pixlr Express, you may have used the history brush before. If you\u2019re not, give it a look and see if it\u2019s a tool you might want to use. The history brush can sometimes be misunderstood, so I wanted to offer a few pointers for those folks who may have seen it show up but who don\u2019t know how it works.<br \/>\nI think of the history brush as an undo brush. You always have an undo button to fully undo the last effect or border or overlay you\u2019ve added, but what if you wanted to just remove part of an effect and not the whole thing? That\u2019s where the history brush comes in. I\u2019ll show you what I\u2019m talking about from the web interface, and then I\u2019ll show you what it looks like on an iPhone; they\u2019re both essentially the same tool.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37jcJ4Da1qz4rgp.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-178 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37jcJ4Da1qz4rgp.png\" alt=\"tumblr_inline_mp37jcJ4Da1qz4rgp\" width=\"500\" height=\"651\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI have this very colorful photo of a boy looking through a kaleidoscope directly at the camera (look closely and you can see his eye through the kaleidoscope lens). I\u2019m going to turn the entire photo into a sepia-toned image by applying one of the \u201ctoo old\u201d effects \u2014 the one called \u201cHenry\u201d \u2014 to the photo.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37liexV61qz4rgp.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-179 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37liexV61qz4rgp.png\" alt=\"tumblr_inline_mp37liexV61qz4rgp\" width=\"500\" height=\"422\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThen, I decided I wanted to undo part of the effect so the circle that represents the kaleidoscope will be in color \u2014 the look of the original photo.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37nb4iSr1qz4rgp1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-185 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37nb4iSr1qz4rgp1.png\" alt=\"tumblr_inline_mp37nb4iSr1qz4rgp\" width=\"500\" height=\"695\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI basically painted away part of the \u201cHenry\u201d effect using the history brush. I got a little sloppy while using it, so I used the eraser option of the history brush to bring back some of the color. I adjusted the size of the brush to get the finer points of erasing just right.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37r0hRLD1qz4rgp.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-181 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37r0hRLD1qz4rgp.png\" alt=\"tumblr_inline_mp37r0hRLD1qz4rgp\" width=\"500\" height=\"301\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nIn this way, I was able to partially undo an effect I added. The end result looks great and achieves what I was going for \u2014 a photo with a flourish that hints that what the boy is seeing through the kaleidoscope is way different than what we see when we look at him. Let\u2019s call him \u201cThe Boy with Kaleidoscope Eyes.&#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37tx5Vqf1qz4rgp.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-182 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37tx5Vqf1qz4rgp.jpg\" alt=\"tumblr_inline_mp37tx5Vqf1qz4rgp\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThere are lots of other uses for this like removing part of a border you\u2019ve added, a detail from a sticker that you don\u2019t like, or some of the stars from an outer space effect.<br \/>\nIt works essentially the same way on your phone or tablet. I\u2019ll show you.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37yogwHB1qz4rgp.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-183 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp37yogwHB1qz4rgp.png\" alt=\"tumblr_inline_mp37yogwHB1qz4rgp\" width=\"500\" height=\"750\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nHere I laid down a star pattern and then removed the stars from the area of the beer can itself with the history brush. Adding adding this mask of a sort makes the beer can stand out while giving a nice appropriate texture to the background.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp38mdanrX1qz4rgp.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-184 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pixlr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/tumblr_inline_mp38mdanrX1qz4rgp.png\" alt=\"tumblr_inline_mp38mdanrX1qz4rgp\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThose are the essential things to know about the history brush. Try it out the next time you\u2019re doing detailed editing on a photo with your phone or tablet. It can help you add just that little extra detail to your photos to make them a little more special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re a regular user of the web version of Pixlr Express, you may have used the history brush before. If you\u2019re not, give it a look and see if it\u2019s a tool you might want to use. The history brush can sometimes be misunderstood, so I wanted to offer a few pointers for those [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tutorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Using the History Brush to Create Layered Effects - Pixlr Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pixlr.com\/blog\/using-the-history-brush-to-create-layered-effects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using the History Brush to Create Layered Effects - Pixlr Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you\u2019re a regular user of the web version of Pixlr Express, you may have used the history brush before. 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