New fingerpainting app ArtStudio
ArtStudio is a new iPhone/iPod Touch painting app by polish developer Sylwester Los of iPhone Clan.
iPhone Clan is another one-man-shop, “I implemented everything myself”, says Sylwester Los, “only with some design-help. After testing all drawing/painting apps i was not happy with either quality, performance or the interface. So i decided to create my own app”.
Here’s a good video-walkthrough:
ArtStudio is a feature-rich painting app, and with it’s simulated pressure activity, 25 brush tips, straight line option, etc. it’s a fresh competitor to SkecthBook Mobile which is another app that’s aims for a more clean sketchy style. Here’s the full feature list of ArtStudio:
- 25 brushes including pencils, brushes, eraser, smudge tool, bucket fill (simple and smart mode), glow, tube, airbrush and many more
- advanced settings offer 8 different parameters and real-time preview for all brushes
- simulated brush pressure
- line smoothing, antialiasing, zooming with filtering
- 3 drawing modes: free draw with smoothing, free draw without smoothing, lines
- very comfortable interface; screens can be displayed in simple or advanced mode.
- quality and performance unmatched by any other app in the app store
- 5 layers with options: add new / delete / reorder / duplicate / merge / clear / transparency / visibility
- multi-touch navigation with unlimited zoom
- advanced color editing with customizable color swatches
- 6 levels of undo / redo
- drawing lessons (animals, human, 3d, perspective)
- filters: blur, sharpen, edge detect, sepia and more…
- load/save/export to iphone gallery / import from gallery / get from camera / send by e-mail
- additional “shake menu” with the most frequently used functions
Quite loaded, the two drawbacks so far are the missing tap’n’hold eyedropper tool and a higher resolution than just 320×480.
The most promising feature in my opinion though is the one hiding behind ‘drawing lessons’:
Lessons are step by step
“It’s a plain XML-format” Sylwester says in an interview. The lessons are step by step, with an animated tool cursor. I think there’s a huge potential in that.
Thanks to Corliss Blakely for the heads up, she also created a nice slideshow on how she painted her red poppy piece:
Red Poppy, by Corliss Blakely
February 28th, 2010 at 14:04
Thanks for this article.
I’d like to inform that i will submit ArtStudio update in next few days with the following features: scale/move/rotate layer (with multitouch), online gallery, tap-and-hold to enable color picker and few more small improvements.
February 28th, 2010 at 21:34
this will be great new features!
February 28th, 2010 at 23:30
Can’t wait for the new features. Do you think you’ll be ever be able to increase resolution. Your app is amazing so far. Congratulations.
March 1st, 2010 at 09:33
About resolution, here is the plan:
1. i have to finish current update (i have it about 80% ready)
2. ipad version
3. higher resolution for iphone and maybe iPad
March 1st, 2010 at 16:49
Nice work! it’s a fine painting app.
There are more useful day to day filters though than emboss and find edges… like adjustable Brightness/contrast and hue/saturation.
On top of the other request, it would be great to have a transparency lock on layers and various brushes (same ones as in the other tools) for the smudge tool.
Will look forward to try the next versions 🙂
Well done!
March 2nd, 2010 at 09:35
Transparency lock – i’m not sure if i understand.
I think you can create new layer, set transparency slider, then paint. After that you can merge layers.
ps. Update is almost ready, i will submit it today.
March 2nd, 2010 at 18:50
i really really am so used to brushes that is difficult to break into another app without running back to brushes in a panic! lol…that said, this app is pretty nice…has an organic feel to it. I like the develoopment of the color picker…for me, with apps, the biggest issue is the color picker and the brush selection, I like to be able to do as much as I can in ONE window…like to be able to adjust my full brush in one place, and same thing with the color. I will use this one–in fact, I may try to use it exclusively for a stretch of time just to get comfy with it. Very nice development. Looking forward tot he updates! 🙂
November 11th, 2010 at 02:37
Nawet interesujący tekst, aczkolwiek nie jestem pewien czy autor ma pełną rację.