Hidden Treasure, originally uploaded by purple0wl.
In the mysterious under-screen world of Sketchbook Pro I’ve been exploring for brushes.
There are several versions of Autodesk Sketchbook for tablets and smartphones. Sketchbook Pro for iPad is best of them all.
This version of Sketchbook has over 70 preset brushes, all editable for tip and tail width, transparency and spacing. I tried them all and in the phantasmagoria above – yes, I found hidden treasure.
I’ve often complained about the lack of a smudge brush in several top painting apps. I always thought Sketchbook was one of those inconsiderate apps, but I was wrong.
If you want to play Hunt the Brush, you may find the smear from a quite respectable smudge brush in the picture. (Numbers are placed to give a rough idea of the menus where I doodled with the various brush effects.)
Tags: art, brushes, digital artist, digital painting, doodle, DRAWING OR PAINTING ON APPLE OR ANDROID, drawing tablet, learn, purple owl, valerie beeby
Apple Painted in Android App Sketchbook , originally uploaded by purple0wl.
BATTLE OF THE APPLES 8
Sketchbook Mobile App on the (Android) Galaxy Tab
Last in the Battle of the Apples
With the arrival of Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile, my Galaxy Tab became more of a professional artist’s tool. I’m still amazed by the number and variety of painting, drawing and photographic apps there already are for Android. Sketchbook takes another step up.
When its Honeycomb operating system gets going, specially written for tablets, Google is sure to gather more than the few current serious painting apps. Meanwhile Sketchbook Mobile is surely top Android finger painting application.
It’s possible to try the app out with the free version first, Sketchbook Mobile Express.
Even this free basic version is fast and responsive on the Galaxy touch screen (which actually is higher resolution than the iPad).
Choice of brushes is less in Express, and layers are fewer and less versatile than in the paid version.
Saving and exporting options are limited for free, but you may still have all you need.
Pay a ridiculously small sum compared with desktop prices, and you get a lot more in Sketchbook Mobile – er – Non-Express for Android.
Forty five brushes can be fine tuned like those for the iPad in Sketchbook Mobile. (See my previous apple, painted in Sketchbook Mobile on iPad. The app is very similar for both machines.)
Layers can be skewed or sized.
Select your colours from a rainbow or a palette in both versions, with sliders for tone and transparency.
On the unfortunate side, there are very few stages of Undo here, so you’ll have to save your work often.
Still, talking of saving, Sketchbook Mobile exports or emails artwork not only as .jpg or .png, but with layers intact as a Photoshop .psd.
Tags: android, apple, art, digital artist, digital painting, drawing tablet, purple owl, sketching, tablet, tutorial, valerie beeby
iPad Sketchbook Apple, originally uploaded by purple0wl.
BATTLE OF THE APPLES 7
Sketchbook App on the iPad
Autodesk Sketchbook is a professional drawing and painting app that comes in a rather bewildering variety of versions.
There are Sketchbook Mobile apps for both iPad and Galaxy Tab as well as the desktop heavy-lifters.
For iPad you have SketchBook Pro, specially made for the tablet, together with SketchBook Mobile, originally for iPhone or iPad Touch. There’s also SketchBook Mobile Express, which is free and a good way of trying the app out.
For Android the free version is also called SketchBook Mobile Express. The paid (but not very much) variety for Android is labelled Sketchbook Mobile.
Add Oprah Winfrey’s SketchBook O (I think that’s just for iPad) and that’s plenty to be going on with.
Each version has a different number of brushes, layers and tools, but even the most basic offers quite a few ways to fine tune them. Updates adding more functions are frequent and free.
The apple here was painted on my iPad in plain old Sketchbook Mobile 1.4. (Since then version 1.5 has appeared with even more bells and whistles.)
Even in my sub-Pro iPad version, I had many brushes to choose from, all adaptable for minimum and maximum transparency and width (useful for fading or tapering strokes). Choose your spacing (for a dotted line) and whether your finish is soft, solid or hard.
I find it useful to be able to fine tune the eraser here as well, just like the brushes.
There’s nothing like a smear tool for giving a fruity look to fruit. Sketchbook has one.
On the minus side, I still find the way this app arranges tool icons in a seemingly random fashion, in a what I suppose is meant to be a quick-access circle, merely confusing.
Save your work often. In most versions of Sketchbook there are a limited number of Undos.
Speed can be an issue too, but if Sketchbook – or for that matter any painting or drawing app – slows down, close and reopen the app, or even power off your machine to clear memory. That should speed things up again.
Tags: apple, art, drawing tablet, iPad & iPhone Painting, ipod touch, painting, purple owl, sketching, valerie beeby
iPad ArtRage Apple, originally uploaded by purple0wl.
BATTLE OF THE APPLES 6
Art Rage App on the iPad
Art Rage allows you to fine tune your finger painting tools with more precision than any other app on the iPad.
Sharpen your pencils, adjust the amount of water or oil in your brush, change the reactivity of pigments and paper and generally tweak your tools to your heart’s content. Art Rage can take it.
…Well, Art Rage can almost take it. Truth to tell, this app, so versatile on the desktop, is a little too powerful for the iPad’s rather limited RAM memory, and tends to respond a bit slowly.
Yes, it sometimes slows down. All the same, Art Rage has a fine range of facilities to start with and lacks no more than a few found in the desktop version.
Selection and ‘Stickies’ are missing in the iPad version, but that’s about it.
Art Rage layers offer a Photoshop-like list of blend modes.
Tracing or working from a reference image is made simple.
There’s an appealing range of papers.
The apple here was made with the Art Rage watercolour brushes, with a few fancy settings on the palette knives to build up the texture.
Tags: app, apple, art, digital artist, digital painting, drawing tablet, ipad, painting, purple owl, valerie beeby
Android Apple Painted in Canvas App, originally uploaded by purple0wl.
BATTLE OF THE APPLES 5
Canvas App on the Samsung Galaxy Tab
Once you get the feel of it, Android finger painting app Canvas is convenient and versatile . At first I missed a Smear tool, but by loading my brushes with plenty of blur and transparency, I managed to build up a fair amount of polish and glow for this Android apple.
Canvas even offers a Selection tool. This is your magic Lasso that summons up an army of marching ants, patrolling a selected area for manipulation. Selection doesn’t run to intricate outlines here, but you can, for instance, transfer an area from one layer to another, say to put one object behind another. Few mobile apps offer a Selection facility.
More. Canvas offers pressure sensitivity. That would be remarkable if it worked. Alas on my Galaxy Tab, it didn’t…
Still, Canvas has a host of useful tools. It’s well organised, simply laid out and well explained. You can even make your own brushes.
Tags: apple, art, digital artist, digital painting, drawing tablet, fruit, mobile digital art, tablet
COME ALONG NOW, PUT YOUR WORST FACE FORWARD!
PAINTER 12 BRUSHES