

Hold down on the Pencil tool to select the Brush tool.

Take a look at your tools and make sure you actually have the Brush tool selected. The keyboard shortcut for the Pencil tool is also, you guessed it, “B.” When the pencil tool is selected, all the brushes will appear pixelated. This is probably because you are not actually selecting the brush tool. You probably think you're crazy because you hit “B,” the keyboard shortcut for the Brush tool, and all your brushes still look like crap. Photoshop features are a lot more complex than you think therefore you have to keep a keen eye on advanced settings and customizations.

This tutorial lesson is important for beginners who are struggling with keyboard shortcuts. Photoshop isn't broken, you aren't missing a setting, and you probably got here because you like keyboard shortcuts. If you've ever wondered why your brushes look “pixelated,” there's a perfectly good explanation. This question has come in through various channels in recent years, so I thought I'd do a write up on a quick fix.
