Sketching Gone Simple

Turn your desktop into a canvas and sketch beautiful pictures using this simple and easy-to-use software called ArtRage

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

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ArtRage is an easy-to-use software for painters. We played around with the free edition of ArtRage, which is a 3 MB download and extremely easy to install. The software, by default, starts with a white interface that actually has the look and feel of a canvas. Using the software is also very easy. Just select the brush, 'dip' it in the color and off you go on a painting spree. Let's now draw a simple sketch of Calvin using this software.
To zoom in, rotate or scale the canvas, select the icon at the centre-bottom. From the File menu select 'new' and choose the image size, canvas paper, background color and option to load a tracing image. ArtRage provides several tools that can be adjusted to give different effects. On the left-hand corner there are various sketching tools; simply click to make them active. Below them is the tool size control, use either the mouse or the plus/minus icon to adjust the size. To create an outline, select the pencil tool, go to the tracing image and press the left mouse button, keep the button pressed and move the mouse over the canvas. The pencil tools offer options like setting the pencil pressure for dark and light marks and the tilt angle of the pencil to adjust the shading strokes.

The color palette, in the right-hand corner, is very easy to use. Click on a color and then drag the slider on the side to adjust the shade of the color. To fill color, select the oil paint brush tool and use 45% pressure and 75% loading option and paint the centre of the face. Although it gives a thick layer of paint, do keep in mind that like a real oil brush, it eventually would run out of color if used continuously. The amount of pressure can be adjusted to get a thick or thin layer of paint, and the loading settings determine the amount of paint the brush can carry on one continuous stroke. Keep the auto-clean option on to clean the brush at the end of each stroke, thus, avoiding mixing of colors. Select the felt pen tool and stroke across the body. Make sure to stroke evenly over the whole area, else you would get different shades of the same color. To fill the color near the outline, select the palette knife and carefully smear the paint near the outlines. Make sure you smear in a circular motion to get an equal color shade over the entire area. Once you are done, go to the toolbar on top and save your painting. The painting would be saved in .pgf format. However, if you need to use it in other software, export the image using the Export image option in the File menu and save it as an image file.

The free version disables the use of multiple layers and a few sketching tools. Overall, this is one of the cheapest and the easiest sketching software with loads of options and great results.

You can choose from various canvas sizes and types, colors and loading of a tracing image

The selected tracing image is visible in a background layer on the canvas	A basic outline of the character is drawn using the pencil tool. Defining an outline would help while inputing colors
Use the oil brush to fill the face, start from the centre and move outwards in circular motion. Now color the hair	Select the felt pen tool and strike across the body in even strokes. Do the same for shoes
Use the palette knife to spread the paint near the outlines. Make sure the paint does not go outside the outline	The final output can be saved as an ArtRage file or you can export it as an image file to use it in other software

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