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I had heard of Ambient Design’s ArtRage software before, but I never really desired to try it out. After all, why would I need another program cluttering my computer when I already owned Photoshop? Well, I recently sat down and finally gave it a try, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s fun, unique, and intuitive, and the price is very hard to beat (free!).
What is ArtRage?
ArtRage’s website describes it as an “easy to use, stylish painting package that lets you get painting from the moment you open it up.” It is different than Photoshop, which is intended to be an image editor for photographers. ArtRage is meant specifically for painting and its interface, tools, and features all work toward replicating the traditional painting experience.
How ArtRage is Better Than Photoshop
Since Photoshop wasn’t meant to be a painting program, ArtRage will be easier for artists to learn and use. The brushes blend differently and look more natural, and you can do things like tilt your canvas or “wash” your brush. ArtRage is more similar to Corel’s Painter software in this way. In fact, if you are thinking of buying Painter, I would recommend trying ArtRage first. Painter can be very intimidating with all its various brushes and tools, most of which you probably won’t use.
Why Keep Photoshop Around?
You will still need Photoshop to edit your images, convert to different formats, and basically do anything outside of the “oil painting” style. I’d imagine that ArtRage can be a great tool to use alongside of Photoshop, not a replacement.
A Tour of ArtRage Free Version
What might be confusing for Photoshop users:
- Resizing the image
When you open up ArtRage, it automatically creates a new document. I like to paint on something bigger, but in the free version, the option to Resize the Canvas is grayed out. To create a bigger document, simply go to File->New and enter a new size in the resulting window. Note that this will replace the document you already had open, and you won’t be able to resize your new one once you’ve created it (at least in the free version). - Clean and dirty brushes
Rather than painting solid colors as in Photoshop, the brush tool simulates oil by blending into the colors around it as you paint You can further this feature by turning off the Auto Clean feature, found on the left side of the screen at the bottom of the brush settings. This makes it so that the color on your brush stays “dirty” according to what colors you paint on. When you turn the Auto Clean off, a glass of water will appear at the bottom right of your screen. Click on it to “clean” your brush and return to your original color. Cute, huh? - Layers and Tracing Images
Layers are not supported in the free version of ArtRage. If you import in Photoshop image into ArtRage, you will have to flatten it first, otherwise the program will crash. You can, however, put a “tracing image” onto your ArtRage painting. This will put your image on top of your painting, as if it were on a separate layer at a lower opacity, and you can turn it on or off as you need it. This feature is a little annoying because the white space on your drawing still shows and is not “multiplied” as you would do in Photoshop, so you can’t see accurate colors when your tracing image is on. - Resizing the brush
In Photoshop, I would normally use the bracket “[ ]” keys to resize my brush. But this doesn’t work in ArtRage, and at first I couldn’t find how to do this. The solution however is easy and kind of cool: click and drag your cursor over the brush preview in the bottom left of the screen, and watch as your brush quickly changes size. - Saving a Photoshop file
You can’t simply “Save As” and choose to save a .psd file. Go to File->Export and choose the Photoshop format. If you’re working with the free version, this will be a flattened image.
The Difference Between the Free and Paid Versions
After trying out the free version of ArtRage, I decided to just go buy the full version. Here are a few of the features that I liked:
- Layer support and the ability to import/export layered Photoshop files
- Custom textures
- Save color swatches
- “Pin” a reference picture on your board
- The ability to use thinners on your oil paint
You can also find a comparison on ArtRage’s website here.
Overall, I think you can get away with just the free version. You can work around the limitations, and some features such as the glitter and paint tube brushes were a bit extraneous. You can still import/export flattened Photoshop files and the included canvas textures work well. But the added features did make things easier, and at $20 I would hardly call it a waste of money if you do decide to buy the full version.
Who is this software for?
I think the people who will most like this program are traditional oil painters trying to transition into the digital medium. The tools, brushes, and palettes are all designed to work with the same flow and methods. All of the basic oil painting tools are included in the free version.
ArtRage is also great for beginning digital artists. Compared to Photoshop and Painter, it is easier to learn and MUCH more affordable.
Who this software isn’t for…
Watercolor painters won’t find much use for ArtRage, as there isn’t any watercolor effects or tools. For that, stick to PS or Painter. Texture lovers will also want to work in Photoshop. Even so, it isn’t a huge investment to simply download the free ArtRage and try it out. I am personally going to be using it for sketching and as a tool to use alongside my daily Photoshop painting.
Download ArtRage Now
Link: http://www.artrage.com/artrage.html
If you decide to give ArtRage a try, let me know what you think. Leave a comment on DaniDraws.com
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March 17th, 2007 at 6:22 am
A great book to reference for painting in PhotoShop along with Pinter is a book by Cher Thrainen-Pendarivs called
The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting. Of course one has to have a digital tablet to go along with it.
I myself have downloaded the ArtRage and even paid for the full version (A whopping $20) and it is fun, a bit confusing at first but they have a great online demo to teach you lots of stuff. I recommend it whole heartedly to have as a non memory hogging application that seems fully supported. Though I would say it would be for quick drawing and painting nowdays for me. If I wanted to do something majorly serious I might turn to Painter.
Though I did find ArtRage a good alternative to Sketchbook Pro that appears to have been abandoned for future updates by Alias. At a $195 price tag for Sketchbook Pro I believe ArtRage is a good inexpensive alternative.
June 27th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Sketchbook Pro wasn’t abandoned by Alias because they no longer own the software. It was purchased and killed (????) by Autodesk. I spent $180 on this software and now I cannot use it with my black intel MacBook. It supposedly works on MacBook Pros, though. However, it was never actually ported to an Intel version and the system requirements are misleading on Autodesk’s website. It just says “Power Mac® G4 or better with at least 256 MB RAM”
I’ve been thinking about nationalizing my copy of it because it makes me so sick that Autodesk did this.!!!!
I guess it stings the most because Sketchbook was so perfect for my needs and now I’m having to deal with alternatives like Art Rage - which is a nice alternative although I don’t care for how it takes over the entire screen and cannot stop at the dock like SBP. It also lacks a decent smear tool - the palette knife is a joke. The paint tube is also a waste. I don’t like the glitter and the metallic paint options as well. The really cool aspects of the program is the non-destructive canvas movement and horizontal/vertical temporary flipping commands. You can also use images as palettes and the trace image is also a nice feature.
I’m proceeding to boycott all Autodesk software in any way I can and advocating alternatives to ALL of their software. Need CAD?, use Google Sketchup….Need Maya, use ZBrush instead…..and so on.
AD needs to be taught to respect their customers even when it means a slight negative flux in their bottom line. I mean,….I know that SBP wasn’t a very profitable software and that is probably why it was so expensive, but they don’t listen to their customers’ complaints about compatibility issues with newer machines. I got forwarded to a forum that they don’t even seem to look at and the customers are all jaded after having paid so much for a program that they cannot use anymore. They even seem to have the audacity to keep selling this software!!????
June 16th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
I am learning layering on artrage and add a new layer. There is a thin box around it that I can’t get rid of unless I erase it. I was wondering if you knew a quicker way to show your new layer blended in the backround picture without the outline box that it came with. I tried to send e-mails to the technical people in art rage but did not get an answer. I tried to go on Photoshop and Illustrator older version that I have to learn how to do this. I have 7.0 and 10.0 respectively. I’m not sure what to do because I am a beginner and these programs seem so much more complicated than art rage. If you can help I would really appreciate it.