When painting or drawing with the Brush tool in Photoshop, either on an image or a mask, we often want to switch to the Eraser tool if we’ve made a mistake we want to remove. We can use the B (for Brush) and E (for Eraser) keys to switch between tools, but the Tilde/Backquote key (see Figure 1) offers us another way to switch, with one huge advantage.
Fig 1 - Tilde / Backquote Key
When switching tools using the B and E keys, each of the tools remember their previous brush settings (which brush is being used and brush size), so the switching process often involves having to go and find the same brush and setting the size of the eraser tool.
When drawing / painting with the brush tool, if you hold down the Tilde/Backquote key (found on most keyboards just to the left of the number 1), the Brush tool will temporarily switch to the Eraser using the same brush (and brush size) you were brushing with. Releasing the Tilde/Backquote key switches back to the Brush tool.
Please note that the tool icon doesn’t change (ie you won’t see the Eraser tool activate in the toolbar), but your brush acts as the Eraser until you release the Tilde/Backquote key.
This can be much quicker if you do want to erase with the same brush you were using.
This article was first published in the November 2022 issue of Artists Down Under magazine.