Re: NEWBIE ???: stroke weights on Paintbrush tool

Hard to understand if your post is about Illustrator, and if you are using a brushstroke from the brushes palette called Thick to Thin(don't knwo of one by that name in the defaults of any Illustrator).

Sounds like you want to use a digitizing tablet and the pressure to vary the thickness of your stroke. In that case choose a Calligraphic brush like 3pt. You can doubleclick on it if you want to dial up the sensistivity.