Transparent custon brushes

[jackamus]

Is there a way of producing a transparent background to a custom brush?

 

The attached file shows a candy cane and the image I used to make the custom brush. I would like to be able to add a gradient to the white areas of the cane. I could edit the brush and put in a background but that will restrict the colours to just one.

Candy cane.afdesign

[Leafdancing]

I've probably got the wrong end of the stick ( no pun intended! ), but you can insert more stops on a transparent to colour fill. Say you made a shape, for instance, between 2 red segments of the cane, filled it with transparent to white, then select the fill at the top left there, then the gradient tab and choose insert, and you can add another colour, and insert as many as you like, so you aren't stuck to one colour, like in the shape I've added to your cane in the attached file. Sorry if this isn't what you meant!

Jacks.afdesign

[jackamus]

I know what you mean and I had thought of that but this could be tedious when creating shapes to fit round the handle. In the absence of a way to have a transparent background this would be the only solution.