There's something very freeing about not having to buy paint and pencils, canvasses and watercolour paper in order to be able to mimic the effects of it all on the screen. I have always been a little intimidated to buy all of the paraphernalia; one needs enough to make things work well, but not so much as will be hard to give away if it's not the right thing...
I also love the "undo" and "trash" buttons. I can choose to struggle with a "fix" or just delete. Entirely freeing!
ArtRage is the app I am using, and it is quite wonderful with its range of tools and range of settings for each tool. Each new work is a sizeable file because of the way the app mimics wetness of paint and drying times, etc. There are layers to play with, colour samplers, importing of photos for tracing, and a palette knife (my personal favourite, so far).
One thing I haven't figured out yet is the "auto-namer" for paintings.
For example, one of our assignments was to do a series of self-portraits. Following is one of me with a bad cold:
ArtRage named this "Boy with a Red Waistcoat"!
Another piece I did especially to see what name it would receive:
ArtRage name: "Ballet at the Paris Opera."
Auto-fillers are the subject of much recent humour and for good reason. But I've yet to see anything so serendipitous and delightful as the ArtRage one.
I admit that I am hooked and look forward to seeing how some of my work will look when printed - and just what odd delightful name it will have.
