How to erase in Krita?

Unlike other graphic software, Krita doesn’t have any eraser tool. So how can we erase in Krita then? Well this tutorial answers that question.

In short summary there are at least 4 methods that you can use to erase pixels in Krita:

• Using the eraser brush presets.
• Using any brush presets with eraser mode on.
• Using any other tools in Krita, provided eraser brush presets or eraser mode is active.
• By pressing Delete. For this method you can create a selection first so only selected region get deleted.

Tutorial video

Here is a tutorial video to explain each of the methods more in-depth:

Written article

My name is Widhi Muttaqien from expose academy. Many many people have asked “how do I erase in Krita?” It seems that Krita doesn’t have any eraser tool like Photoshop do or Gimp do or Corel Painter do for example.

Well the answer is, of course Krita can erase! It’s a digital painting software. It would be very strange if Krita can not erase pixels in the canvas. But, Krita uses a different philosophy compared to many other graphic software that we may already have know of.

1. Using the eraser brush presets.

In Krita every drawing tools that you may find in the real world are all considered as brush presets. Okay. So a paint brush is a brush preset, a pencil is a brush preset, an airbrush is a brush preset, and guess what an eraser is a brush preset also.

So the first easy answer to this question is, if you want to erase, first activate the brush tool. To do that you can click this button in here, or you can also press “B” which is the default keyboard shortcut for brush tool.

Then find an eraser brush preset that you like. Any of these 3 will do.

Now you can erase any pixels that you want to remove from your drawing.

2. Using any brush presets with eraser mode on.

The second method of erasing in Krita is to use any brush preset that you like as an eraser. I mean any active brush preset that you have currently can be turned into an eraser by simply turning on the eraser mode. To do that you can click this button or you can also press “E” for the keyboard shortcut.

This button is a toggle button, so click to turn it on and click again to turn it off. For example, if I have an airbrush preset active. In normal mode I can paint like this.

But in eraser mode, the airbrush brush preset now actually erasing the pixels instead of creating them.

Okay. Now there is a catch here, and you have to remember this. The eraser mode button, only works on non-eraser brush presets. Meaning if you have an eraser brush preset active. It doesn’t matter whether you turn the eraser mode on or off, this brush preset will always erase. Again, very important and you have to remember this. Okay.

3. Using any other tools in Krita, provided eraser brush presets or eraser mode is active.

In Krita you can actually use any other tools as an eraser. Provided you have an eraser brush preset active or you have the eraser mode active. For example while the eraser mode is on, if you use the rectangle tool and create a rectangle like this, it will erase. Same thing with the line tool and ellipse tool and bezier tool etc.

What makes this erasing concept in Krita interesting is when we use tools like gradient tool and also when using pattern. So if you use the gradient tool and click drag like this, we are erasing the pixels using gradient, which is kind of cool. Because in order to do this in other graphic software, you will need to create the gradient first on another temporary layer. Then generate a selection from it and then use that selection to delete the pixels. It is a multiple steps process, while in Krita it is just a single step process.

And we can use pattern also to erase. But you need to use pattern that actually contains alpha information. Then we can create a selection. Go to edit menu and then choose fill with pattern. As you can see, the pattern erases the pixels because we have eraser mode turned on.

4. Create selection then press Delete

The fourth method of erasing in Krita is by using selection and then press Delete. Essentially you create a selection first and then press delete. But really this is a common concepts that you can find in any other graphic software, so I will assume you should already know how to do this or at least already expect Krita to be able to do this.

Okay guys, I think that is all from me. I hope you find this article and the tutorial video helpful. Wassalamualaikum.