When you pick up a paint brush and apply it the paint has texture, it mixes with the paint already on the surface just as it would on a canvas. What do I mean? Well when you choose a pencil and start drawing you forget that you are using a digital pencil. I’ve tried other drawing programs but have not found any that come close to ArtRage in terms of recreating the feel of the drawing/painting experience. Or at least it is the closest that you can get to doing so on a computer. For me the number one attraction is that it is just like using actual art materials. But if you want to you can adjust pressure, paint loading, tilt angles, noise levels, load in different paper sets and colour palettes, etc.īut let’s get back to basics and why, as an artist, I love this program. I’m not one for endlessly tweaking settings as I would rather just focus on drawing. There are huge parts of the capability of the program that I have not touched and probably never will because they are beyond my current needs. Even though I have used ArtRage quite a bit I primarily use the pencil tools. You can play with the options as little or as much as you like. Yet, don’t be fooled by the simple, clean interface because hidden beneath it are some very complex tools and options. Basically you select a canvas size to work on, pick your surface (canvas, paper, etc), grab a tool (pencil, brush, etc) and then set to work. Even someone not familiar with the program can get going very quickly. It is all done within the program and the work can be exported in a variety of formats.ĪrtRage is an incredibly easy and intuitive program to use. This approach negates the need for photographing, scanning and converting a painting to an appropriate digital format for the printer. Finished artwork for use as cards and prints.I don’t need to redraw the image from scratch every time as I’ve always got the original. I prepare the original drawing in ArtRage and then using a projector I transfer that image to a surface of my choice. Sometimes I want to try different techniques with the same drawing. I can use it to see what sort of colours might work in a background. For example, I might use it to try different highlight placements in an eye. Then I can play around with different things without fear of ruining my actual artwork. Sometimes I’m not sure where to go with a work so I might take a picture of the painting and import it in to ArtRage. This enables me to play around with compositional ideas (or sometimes simply just to play around and enjoy myself without worrying about the result)! I currently use ArtRage on a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 with the Surface Pen for a variety of things: I paint mostly in acrylics and soft pastels. How do I use it?Īs a wildlife artist I work primarily in traditional media. Is their work any less relevant than an artist who works solely in traditional media? Is their art “less than art” because of that? I don’t believe that to be the case. There are some incredibly talented artist producting fantastic work solely by digital means. You need to use those tools to express your unique creativity. You need to know how to use those tools to best advantage. It’s not going to miraculously turn you into an artist. A digital painting program is simply a tool. Do you know of artists that use a camera to take reference photos? They are taking advantage of a tool. Have you ever seen someone enlarge an image using a grid? They were using a tool. Artists have been using tools for centuries. It is a creative tool in the same way that a pen or a brush is a tool. Isn’t using a digital art program cheating? In addition there are apps for iPad, iPhone and Android which are much cheaper although these obviously do not have all the features of the desktop version. It is available for both Windows and MAC. If you are an existing user they are offering very attractive upgrade options. $US79 for a first time purchase (there is an even cheaper ArtRage Lite version). It is designed to be accessible to a wide range of users and support professional quality illustration while remaining focused on traditional media.” How much does it cost? ArtRage offers incredibly realistic oils, pencils, watercolor, canvas textures and other traditional painting tools, along with a range of powerful professional features and digital editing functions. “ArtRage is a traditional media painting program that mimics real life painting and drawing. Here is what Ambient Design says about ArtRage: I’ll be talking about the Windows version of the product in this review. I’ve been a user of ArtRage since version 2.5 and am currently using both the desktop and Android versions. The company recently released version 5 of ArtRage and have kindly given me a copy to review. ArtRage is a digital painting program made by Ambient Design, a New Zealand based software development company specializing in creative tools for artists.
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