ArtRage 2.2 Free Edition (Windows and Macintosh)

ArtRage 2.2 Free Edition

Publisher's Description:

ArtRage [is] the easy to use, stylish painting package that lets you get painting from the moment you open it up. You can paint with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle glitter, and more. You can paint with gold leaf, silver foil, and other metallic colors. You can even load in your photos as Tracing Images to help you recreate them as paintings.

• Each of the tools in ArtRage is designed to work like its real world counterpart (minus the smell of paint thinners, and that piece of glitter you just can't get out of the carpet).

• Thick paint smears and blends, pencils and chalks smudge, and markers work just like they do in the real world. Many of the tools can be adjusted to give different effects.

• ArtRage makes it easy to recreate photos or other images using its paint tools. When you load a Tracing Image the original is projected on to your canvas so that you can use it as a guide while you sketch and paint.

Guide Comments:

ArtRage started out as a free program for Windows only, but as new features were added and a Mac version was developed, it was offered for sale--very reasonably at US$19.95. The Free Edition lives on however, with some full version features disabled.

ArtRage 2 free version contains all the features from ArtRage 1, and is also greatly improved in the areas of performance, pressure sensitivity, and multi-monitor support. Painting and drawing tools in the free edition of ArtRage include: oil brush, pencil, palette knife, chalk, color sampler, felt pen, crayon, and eraser. (The new airbrush, glitter, paint roller, and paint tube tools are reserved for the full version.) You can also work with tracing images in the free version. Both versions share the same stylish and unintimidating user interface where tools and palettes automatically hide themselves as you paint near them. You can find a full feature comparison of ArtRage versions on the Ambient Design Web site.

All-in all, ArtRage is a fun, easy to use program that's great for experimenting with digital art, especially if you also own a pressure sensitive graphics tablet. The free version is a great way to see what digital painting and drawing is like, but for the small upgrade price, you'll no doubt want to move up to the full version.

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