Need a background on each layer to draw

[Badmanbacon]

So I want to have a background on one layer and then layers over that with whatever else on with a transparent background so the background layer shows under that. But I can't draw anything unless I fill my background. It just won't let me use brush on something with nothing on. Can anyone help me with this? I'm sure it wasn't like this yesterday.

[hartpaul]

The bottom layer is usually your background layer and cannot be transparent unless you promote it to a raster layer and then delete all on that layer or create it as a new document and tick the transparency box when it will appear as a transparent raster layer .

You can add other transparent layers on top of your background layer and can paint on any one of those layers (if that layer is selected in your layers palette) including a bottom

[Badmanbacon]

The bottom layer is usually your background layer and cannot be transparent unless you promote it to a raster layer and then delete all on that layer or create it as a new document and tick the transparency box when it will appear as a transparent raster layer .

You can add other transparent layers on top of your background layer and can paint on any one of those layers (if that layer is selected in your layers palette) including a bottom

Thanks for the reply but that won't work. I have a filled in background layer filled completely white and then I made a Raster that I can't draw on unless I fill it first.

[LeviFiction]

That's weird, most of the reasons that would prevent you from drawing in a transparent layer would also prevent you from filling that layer with color.

So some quick questions: 1) What tool are you attempting to use to draw with? 2) Does that tool have a blend mode setting and if so what is that set to? It should be set to Normal for most things. 3) have you tried resetting the tool? 4) as a last resort have you attempted a workspace reset?

If you don't know, a workspace reset destroys all customization and resets the workspace back to first installation defaults. The reason we use this is because sometimes PSP gets corrupted and tools start acting funny. Usually a reset like this fixes the problem. Not always, it depends on what the actual root cause of the problem is.

Here are the basic instructions for resetting a single tool and resetting a workspace if resetting the tool doesn't work.

Reset tool
1) Select tool
2) On Tool options Palette click on the "Presets" button
3) On the right-hand side of the document will be what looks like an "undo" arrow underneath a save icon. Click this arrow as it resets the tool to default
4) Did it fix your problem?

Reset Workspace
1) If you've made changes to your workspace that you want to preserve, save it first. File -> Workspace -> Save and give it a name.
2) Close PSP
3) Hold SHIFT and double click on the PSP icon to open it
4) You'll get a dialog asking if you want to reset the workspace to factory defaults
5) Say yes
6) See i the problem is fixed
7) If it is, reload your workspace
File -> Workspace -> Load
9) See if problem is still fixed.

[Badmanbacon]

That's weird, most of the reasons that would prevent you from drawing in a transparent layer would also prevent you from filling that layer with color.

So some quick questions: 1) What tool are you attempting to use to draw with? 2) Does that tool have a blend mode setting and if so what is that set to? It should be set to Normal for most things. 3) have you tried resetting the tool? 4) as a last resort have you attempted a workspace reset?

If you don't know, a workspace reset destroys all customization and resets the workspace back to first installation defaults. The reason we use this is because sometimes PSP gets corrupted and tools start acting funny. Usually a reset like this fixes the problem. Not always, it depends on what the actual root cause of the problem is.

Here are the basic instructions for resetting a single tool and resetting a workspace if resetting the tool doesn't work.

Reset tool
1) Select tool
2) On Tool options Palette click on the "Presets" button
3) On the right-hand side of the document will be what looks like an "undo" arrow underneath a save icon. Click this arrow as it resets the tool to default
4) Did it fix your problem?

Reset Workspace
1) If you've made changes to your workspace that you want to preserve, save it first. File -> Workspace -> Save and give it a name.
2) Close PSP
3) Hold SHIFT and double click on the PSP icon to open it
4) You'll get a dialog asking if you want to reset the workspace to factory defaults
5) Say yes
6) See i the problem is fixed
7) If it is, reload your workspace
File -> Workspace -> Load
9) See if problem is still fixed.

I selected a preset and that worked, thanks! But for some reason I get the problem when I select Wet Paint Look. Do you know why that is?

[hartpaul]

As they say the devil is in the details. Had you mentioned that you were using the paint brush with wet paint selected in your first post then it may have saved a number of posts and wild goose chases.
You should also have mentioned what version of PSP you were using and the version number to let us know what updates,/ patches you had applied.
The heading was a bit of a mystery as well - background can refer to the Background layer which is the bottom layer of a new filled document. It can also refer to the background or fill color.
I suspect a better heading may have been "Cannot use wet paint brush on a transparent layer" which almost says it all.

From the combination of your posts I gather that you want a normal background layer and a couple of transparent layers above that and want to paint on those transparent layers using the paint brush tool using the wet paint look.

Now the answer: this ability was broken in PSP X8 , X9, and 2018. You can paint with a wet brush look on a transparent layer in Jasc PSP8, Corel PSP X2-X7.

Congratulations you have discovered a 'new' bug. (Not sure if this has been mentioned in any other posts so you may be the first to have come across this bug)