Fresh Paint App Information

I've had some questions about this paint app I'm using, so I thought I'd try to explain a bit more about it. It's a free Windows App. Viewing it in the App Store a serious artist might ignore it since it looks like it's entirely for kids, but don't be fooled. It's actually pretty interesting to use.

I'm working on a touchscreen laptop in Windows 10, using my finger to paint on the monitor. Sometimes I use my mouse if I want a long straight line, or to get into tiny corners with a very small brush, when my own fingertip gets in the way.  But most of the time my finger is my brush.

A few details about the app:

Surfaces

You're given a choice of a custom canvas in various sizes, with the option of rotating it from landscape to portrait. 

Custom canvas selection palette

You're also able to choose to work on canvas or paper, using six different textural options in each one. 

Canvas/paper textural choices

I've played around with the brushes and found the look of the strokes is very different on different textured surfaces. Sometimes I want the heavily textured canvas look, sometimes the softer-edged paper, and sometimes a tighter edge achieved on slick paper. You can change textures in mid-painting, which gives you even more options. 

Different paper textures:
1.  rough textured canvas
2. middle-textured paper
3. smooth textured paper

Brushes

You have different kinds of media (watercolor- oil- drawing media), along with different kinds of brushes/pens/pencils. I use oil most of all. 

Oil brushes palette, largest brush, largest width selected

Oil brushes, using the largest width for each brush:
fan brush
filbert
flat
large round
small round

Watercolor brushes palette, smallest brush, largest width selected

Watercolor brush selection, using the largest width  for each one:
wide bright
fan
flat
large round
small round

(I haven't shown the drawing options, but you'll find different pencils, pen, oil pastels and soft pastels.)

All this is just to show you how many different options you have. It's quite a bit of fun to play around with all the brushes to see what they do, but if you're like me, it's the painting that's really the most fun of all. I'm not interested in funny brushes or effects brushes, or any other computer program style options, so for me the number of choices and sizes here is  optimal. It allows me to find and use what I need.

Okay, just to show you how much crazy fun you can have, here's an abstract that began as a demonstration of strokes and took off on its own! 

It's all just for fun and relaxation! 

Different Palette

Sometimes I just want to play with different colors. In Fresh Paint I can mix my own colors and save them, even saving incidental colors that occur when I blend on the canvas. That leads to some pretty subtle blends that inspire me.

This one is derived entirely from imagination and memory, as it very loosely resembles a view across the valley, looking at Sandia from the West Mesa in Albuquerque, my hometown.

More Playful Fun

I'm feeling a little new energy now that the spring winds are blowing. The first one is a mental walk through my old stomping grounds, the West Mesa in Albuquerque. I lived near these extinct volcanoes.

And I wanted to try to paint the Northeastern areas a bit more. Here's one inspired by a snapshot taken last spring at Niagara Falls. 

Again, both are digital, done in Fresh Paint, a Windows app.

Fresh Paintings

A fresh look at things. I needed COLOR again!

I have to confess that these are all digital paintings. I used an app called Fresh Paint to make them. They feel so lively and new, reinvigorating me. 

Tell me honestly, did you look at them thinking they were digital or did you assume they were actually paint on canvas? 

I'd really appreciate knowing!