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.