What am I doing wrong?

[Black Sun]

I'm trying to learn how to paint in photoshop, and I'm using the common method of lowering the brush opacity, and color picking to shade. How do I get it to look smooth? I thought that lowering the opacity really far would help, but it's not. So what am I doing wrong? Is it the size of the image? The brush? What? Thanks for your time.

[OTTA]

It's not only lower opacity of brush to make it lighter, you may choose the color exactly that is in the middle of 2 colors to make it blend.When I blend something, I always use ALT to pick up some color that is already blended, and paint over the edge.Do it again and again till you happy. I do it several time.

Let's try on it man! Do practice a lot and you'll find your own answer about this.

And remember , study about light&shade too because It'll help you understand how to pick color & where to paint for your shade . Good Luck :)

[Mirana]

Well first off, you're working much too small. I tend to work at 25-16% of my image size so boost your dpi and/or overall image size so you can zoom in properly.

Secondly, your brush is craptastik at smoothing and that's why you're getting that displaced circle look. I don't know what brush (or setting) you're using, but just try this technique with the standard round and no customizing.

Blending-wise, you should be moving with the shape of the apple and not just diagonal. It'll give a better texture and not flatten out.

You might post a question like this in the Photoshop/Painter forums in the future to get max responses.

[Iridyse]

In your brushes tab, click on 'Brush Tip Shape' .On the right you should see an option called Spacing. Looks like your brush spacing is currently at the default 25%, drag it to something lower, like 1%.
Reset your opacity and flow to 100% in the main window. In the brushes tab again, click on 'Other Dynamics' (not on the checkmark but on the text itself) .On the right side make sure your the opacity and flow is set to pressure with minimum jitter.What this means is the opacity and flow will be controlled by the amount of pressure you apply when you paint( this is of course assuming you're using a stylus)You can also try enabling just one of the options, either opacity or flow to see if that works better for you.
Oh and yea, paint bigger.

[Black Sun]

Oh wow, I've been doing it all wrong then. Thanks guys, now I have a better idea of how to do this!

[Grief]

surprised no one has mentioned the fact that youre using a hard-edged brush.

use one of those fancy soft diffused ones from your list. then play with opacity, pressure, and such.

[Mirana]

You can use the hard edged for that technique. Over-use on the soft brushes makes everything fuzzy.

[Renegade89]

Hard edge brush will work like a charm for the moment, working with soft brushes can be quite useful, but using them to blend will depend on wether the edges call for it or not. You dont always need soft edges

Practice with the default hard round one for a while, play with flow, opacity and size, and then experiment and do some trial and error with customs as you go and as your necesity requires.

You are doing it with a tablet? If you are then you also have pen pressure to play with. Try turn it on for size and oppacity, it feels more natural when i have both turn on, try with just size or just opacity, or maybe other settings you can use with pressure.

At the end theres no exact formula, take your time to try a lot of stuff and see what suits you fancy.

[nicehighs]

ummmm an apple is not this soft. too many soft edges not enough hard edges. rather than lowering the opacity pick the correct color and find out how to blend your planes together. you can blend by using smaller brushes to make a transition between planes. but your best bet is to figure out the edges on what you are painting. I am learning why photoshop is the most difficult but also the most versatile painting program. you can adjust the brushes hardness manually as well. look up the edges thread if you haven't yet it'll give you an a ha moment. I think its safe to say that if you search this site enough you have all the information to last you your entire career. ART ON!!!!!!!!! ummmmm turn off other dynamics and adjust your stuff manually or you'll have to use a filter to un mud your art I can see this happening in your picture as well. too many values(and layers) all over you apple is what you just did. I didn't blend I just painted the planes over your apple