Monday, May 14, 2012

Paper: a fantastic new drawing app!

Hey folks, it's been a while since I've written, I have been recovering from an ACL surgery repair. I'm glad to report i am feeling great and I'm ready to get back to writing.

While I was recovering I stumbled upon an app called Paper by Fiftythree. This is not really an educational app, however it has become my latest favorite as an artist.
The app has a beautiful appearance, starting you out with three different notebooks that you can navigate between. The first notebook is a step-by-step tutorial. The other two are blank and allow you to draw or take notes whatever your pleasure is. You can add notebooks as you need to, and customize their covers for easy identification.

The drawing tools handle very nicely. The tools use a technology they call "EXPRESSIVE INK ENGINE" which "reacts to your movements to optimize each tool for the process of creation. Get a range of expressions from a single tool without fussing with settings for great handwriting, beautiful coloring, and sketching that just works." what this translates to is the ability to actively effect line quality!

The app is free theoretically. When you first download you get the pen and eraser. You will want to get the pencil, watercolor brush, and the two different magic markers. By the time you're done outfitting yourself you will spend approximately 8 dollars. This is well worth it, but maybe the developers should have just sold it to me straight from the start.

Swiping the page from the bottom up brings up a control panel and from there you are allowed to choose between your ink pen, pencil, thin or thick marker, or watercolor brush. You also can choose an eraser, or from approximately 8 different colors. The color palette may look limited at first glance, however, much like real water-colors or magic markers you are able to blend and mix colors on the page to great effect.

There are three functions I sorely wish were available in Paper. Layers, zooming in for detail, and pasting images. That being said, no other app seems to replicate the watercolor brush affects that Paper offers. This really allows for some truly unique drawing and painting experiences. With none of the mess of actually carrying water colors about with you.

You can learn more about Paper at Fiftythree's website: http://www.fiftythree.com/

Happy drawing!

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