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Overview

The Pencil and Brush tools are your primary freehand drawing instruments in Aseprite. They use the Freehand Controller which tracks mouse movement to create natural, flowing strokes.
Keyboard Shortcut: Press B to quickly select the Pencil tool

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Basic Usage

1

Select the Tool

Click the Pencil/Brush icon in the toolbar or press B
2

Choose Colors

  • Left-click draws with foreground color
  • Right-click draws with background color
  • Alt+Click picks color from canvas (eyedropper)
3

Start Drawing

Click and drag on the canvas to create freehand strokes

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Brush Configuration

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Brush Size

Adjust the size of your brush: 
[ - Decrease brush size
] - Increase brush size
Shift+[ - Minimum size (1px)
Shift+] - Maximum size
You can also adjust brush size in the context bar at the top of the window, or by right-clicking on the brush size indicator.

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Brush Types

Aseprite supports multiple brush shapes:
Round brushes create smooth, circular strokes
  • Best for: Organic shapes, soft edges
  • Default brush type
  • Anti-aliasing option available

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Advanced Features

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Pixel Perfect Mode

The Pixel Perfect intertwiner automatically removes redundant pixels from your strokes, creating clean lines perfect for pixel art. 
// From: source/src/app/tools/intertwiners.h:593
class IntertwineAsPixelPerfect : public Intertwine {
  // Removes redundant corner pixels for clean L-shapes
  // Maintains stroke history for undo operations
};
When to Use Pixel Perfect:
  • ✅ Line art and outlines
  • ✅ Geometric shapes with clean edges
  • ❌ Textured or intentionally rough strokes
  • ❌ When using custom image brushes (limited support)
Enable via: Tools → Pixel Perfect or the context bar checkbox.

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Brush Dynamics

Add variation to your strokes with dynamics:
Requires a graphics tablet with pressure supportConfigure dynamics:
  • Size: Vary brush size with pressure
  • Angle: Rotate brush based on pressure
  • Opacity: Control transparency
  • Gradient: Shift through gradient colors
Access via: Edit → Preferences → Tablet
Respond to drawing speed
Faster strokes = lighter/smaller
Slower strokes = heavier/larger
Useful for natural variation without a tablet
Add organic randomness to strokes
  • Size jitter: Randomize brush size
  • Angle jitter: Random rotation
  • Color jitter: Slight color variations

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Drawing Modifiers

Hold keys while drawing for special behaviors:
ModifierFunctionUse Case
ShiftDraw straight line from last pointQuick straight segments
Shift+ClickContinue from last stroke pointExtend existing lines
Ctrl/Cmd+ClickEyedropper (pick color)Sample colors quickly
Space+DragPan canvasNavigate while drawing
Shift+Click Workflow: Click once to start, hold Shift and click again to draw a straight line. Keep Shift held and click multiple times to create connected line segments.

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Ink Modes

The Pencil tool supports multiple ink modes that change how color is applied:

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Paint Inks

Simple

Direct color application at full or specified opacity
  • Default mode
  • Fastest performance
  • Opacity from tool settings

Alpha Compositing

Blends colors with existing pixels
  • Natural color mixing
  • Respects layer blending
  • Slightly slower than Simple

Copy

Replaces pixels completely
  • Ignores alpha blending
  • Overwrites transparency
  • Use for: masks, cutouts

Lock Alpha

Preserves transparency
  • Only paints visible pixels
  • Maintains alpha channel
  • Use for: recoloring, texturing

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Special Inks

Keyboard Shortcut: Shift+RUses color ramps for pixel art shading:
  1. Configure color ramps in Edit → Shade
  2. Draw with Shading ink
  3. Left-click: Shift to lighter colors
  4. Right-click: Shift to darker colors
Shading ink reads your palette and uses configured color relationships. Perfect for consistent cel-shading and pixel art highlights/shadows.

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Practical Examples

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Creating Clean Pixel Art Lines

1

Enable Pixel Perfect

Tools → Pixel Perfect ✓
2

Use 1px Brush

Set brush size to 1 pixel
3

Draw Freehand

Draw your line naturally - redundant corner pixels are automatically removed
4

Use Shift for Straight Lines

Hold Shift while clicking to snap to 45° angles

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Working with Custom Brushes

1

Create Selection

Select a region of your sprite you want to use as a brush
2

Save as Brush

Edit → New Brush or Ctrl+B
3

Configure Brush

  • Set center point (click on preview)
  • Enable/disable alpha transparency
  • Save to brush collection
4

Paint with Custom Brush

Select your saved brush from the brush selector
Performance Note: Custom image brushes with large dimensions or complex alpha channels may cause slower drawing performance. Consider using smaller brushes or geometric shapes when smooth real-time feedback is important.

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Tablet Support

Aseprite fully supports drawing tablets:
Edit → Preferences → TabletSettings:
  • Pressure curve adjustment
  • Minimum pressure threshold
  • Tilt support (hardware dependent)
  • API selection (Windows Ink, Wintab)
If pressure isn’t working, try switching the tablet API in preferences.

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Technical Details

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Tool Architecture

The Pencil tool is implemented using: 
// From: source/src/app/tools/controllers.h:62
class FreehandController : public Controller {
  bool isFreehand() override { return true; }
  
  // Adds each mouse position as a stroke point
  void movement(ToolLoop* loop, Stroke& stroke, const Stroke::Pt& pt) {
    stroke.addPoint(pt);
  }
};
Key characteristics:
  • Accumulative trace policy: Each stroke builds on previous
  • Controller adds all mouse points to stroke
  • Intertwiner connects points based on selected mode
  • Ink processor applies color to affected pixels

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Related Topics

Tool Overview

Shapes

Symmetry Mode

Tiled Mode