ArtRage, furiously fun

I found ArtRage while looking for free/cheap graphics software. Is sounded great, and the screenshots looked pretty simple. I downloaded the free version to try it out. Less than a week later I bought the full version, and here’s why.

ArtRage is a natural media graphics program. Translated, that means that the tools mimic non-digital art tools. The paint acts like paint. The markers act like markers. The pencils act like pencils. It works very well. The interface is simple and easy to use. The tools are very well designed. More importantly, everything works and it works pretty much the way you’d expect.  The only thing that might cause you some confusion is the color picker. They use a different icon than almost every other graphics program. It looks like it’ll add water to the painting, which could be handy to soften and blend. When you select it and start using it you might wonder why nothing is happening, other than the pallet going nuts.

As an added bonus, it’s fun. It’s a blast to to fiddle with the options and see what happens.

 ”I wonder what would happen if I use markers over paint, then smear it with the pallet knife?”

That’s the kind of stuff you start thinking after 2 to 3 minutes in the program. After about 20 minutes you start wondering how much the full version costs. Good news. It’s only 20 bucks. If that’s too much for you, stay with the free one.  It’s great for a free program.

The free one is great, but I really wanted a couple of features from the full installation. I wanted layers and the ability to edit how my canvas worked. Those are locked out of the free one, as are some of the tools and tool options. So far I’m enjoying experimenting with the new features.

This is a picture I did completely in ArtRage.

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