Adobe Ideas is a snappy mobile sketching app. It is a well designed with a simple and clean user interface but not loaded with features like many apps we use.  Ideas is vector based, giving it almost unlimited canvas and no limits on output size. This is not a small thing considering that many great mobile apps output only at screen resolution. And of course it seamless integrates with Illustrator, Photoshop and other Adobe products.

You can download the app for free, but you will have to purchase “layers” as an in app add on (€3.99 $4.99). I tested the 1.2 in beta, just before it was released on Valentines day.

The new release will permit you to switch the navigation from left to right. It gives you VGA output from your iphone or ipad, though I haven’t had an opportunity to try this yet, but it makes for a great way to present an idea (pun intended). It has also considerably boosted performance, zoom is very fast.

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Autodesk (creators of Sketchbook Mobile and Sketchbook Pro for iphone and iPad) have teamed up with O Magazine to create Sketchbook O,  a free drawing/painting application for readers who’d like to explore and partake in the joys of fingerpainting. Continue reading

Fun new app (iTunes) that computes a watercolor particle system while you paint.

Auryn Ink’s Key features (from the press release):

• Watercolor simulation with edge darkening, granulation and back-run effects that all evolve and take form in real-time while you paint.
• Choice of canvas texture that affects your brush strokes and paint flow.
• Realistic brush model with control over pressure, bristle patterns, and more.
• Unique color selector that converts your color choice into a virtual pigment.
• Pigment simulation that blends color much like real watercolors combine: the wet pigments mix together and separate dry layers form glaze effects.
• Control over amount of water on the brush, which influences flow effects.
• Ability to paint with water alone to pre-wet the canvas for wash effects.
• Concise control over drying the canvas, and completing (fixing) glaze layers.
• Sensitivity to gravity: paint flows downward when the iPad is tilted.

The payoff for computing watercolor behavior seems to be resolution for now, but nice results nonetheless. The app is free for now.

Luis’ painting will become the new splash screen of SketchBook Mobile:

This might also mean, a significant update to SketchBook Mobile (iTunes) might be pending.

More impressive art by Luis is to be found in his flickr stream.

Will ArtStudio 3.0 for the iPad support vector graphics?At least this screenshot posted by the developer suggests so:

[Update] Probably shapes and gradient fills, not neccessarily vectors.

We previewed Inspire Pro for iPad by kiwipixel the other day, now it went live last weekend and seems to be doing fine in the app store. For the time of introduction it’s on sale for 0.99$/0.79€ instead of 7.99$ later.

Thanks to the generous folks of kiwipixel, we are able to give away three free promo codes for this app today to the first three readers to comment on this post. (Only valid for the us-store, sorry, blame apple for that. Make sure you leave your email for us to send the code.)

So hurry up before this lil guy chews them up!

AmbientDesign has just released Artrage for the iPad, and if you already know the desktop version, then you might have high expectations. I had. And I didn’t get disappointed at all when I was lucky to join the beta test phase just in time to take it with me to the beautiful tuscany.

The Tools

Artrage for the iPad comes loaded with a set of tools, including oils, watercolors, pencils, pastels and inking pens. Continue reading

(This is a guest post by fellow fingerpainter Luis Peso, all paintings in this post by him.)

(This fingerpainting inspired by this photo by AlleyCat91)

I can remember how happy I felt when I heard KiwiPixel was working on an iPad version of their great painting-simulator app Inspire. This new kid on the block is called Inspire Pro and it turns out to be even better than I could expect. Continue reading

A little while ago Performita, suggested that i try the app Meritum Paint Pro on my iphone. I took to it immediately. I love the organic nature of it’s painting engine. You can choose from three brushes, or better, styles of painting: Normal, Neon or Sci-Fi. You don’t really control them, so much as guide them through a series of happy accidents.

I have been lucky enough to try the ipad version of the app in Beta, and i can tell you that it’s a whole new ball game. The larger screen combined with the more powerful CPU means more detail and more fun.

My son and i calculated that it could take simultaneous input from 10 fingers at once, just in case you ever need it.

The user interface of Meritum Paint is a little unusual but adds to the mysterious nature of the creations you will make on it. Randomness is buit-in.

Choose a color palette, brush width, the force and tilt that you would like to be exerted, and start painting. It’s kind of magical.

Although i love the app i do not consider myself a Meritum Paint purist. I like to import my Meritum work into Brushes and elaborate it. My favorite brush is “Sci-Fi”, which allows you to noodle Gigerish tubes that intertwine and can apear to be pipes, tentacles or feathers.

I am not finished experimenting with this app and I am looking forward to seeing where Krunoslav Till and the Meritum Soft development team take it. Thanks Perf!

Like many others, I found my self in line on June 26th infront of an Apple store. I avoided most of the crowds by waiting to go in after I got off work. This proved to be a good plan resulting in only a 90 minute wait to get to the head of the line. I’ve only used an Original (noG) iPhone since day one. The upgrade to the iPhone4 for me has been a large leap forward. For some of you fellow finger-painters using the 3GS, the speed may not seem to be as noticeable, but the Retina display alone is worth the price of admission. Continue reading