Description
To paint on a computer, the built-in Paint is too basic, while professional suites charge a subscription and bury you in menus. Artweaver is a Windows digital painting program offered as a free edition and an enhanced Plus edition: the free edition already has realistic brushes, layers and filters, and is licensed for non-commercial and academic use, enough for sketching, illustration and adding brushwork to images.
The layout will feel familiar. Tools run down the left, the color wheel, brush settings and layers sit on the right, and the canvas is in the middle. Brushes are grouped by category, from acrylics, airbrushes and artist brushes to calligraphy, chalk, charcoal, crayons, felt pens and erasers, each with several variants and settings such as grain, spacing, jitter, bristles and water. With a drawing tablet, pressure can shape the stroke. You can also build custom palettes to keep favorite brushes in one place. The free installer on the official site is about 17 MB and Windows only.
Realistic brushes: acrylics, airbrushes, chalk, charcoal, crayons, calligraphy, felt pens and more, each with variants and adjustable type, method, opacity and grain
Layers: multiple layers with blend modes and layer opacity, so painting and edits never touch what is underneath
Selections and filters: limit changes with selections, process images with built-in filters, and extend the program with plugins
Color wheel: a triangle color wheel with RGB value entry and clear foreground and background swatches
Rotate view: turn the canvas like a sheet of paper to draw lines at a comfortable angle, with a navigator for zooming and positioning
History: every step is kept in the history panel, so a wrong stroke can be undone at any point
Custom palettes: collect favorite brush variants and commands into your own panel and switch with one click
The layout will feel familiar. Tools run down the left, the color wheel, brush settings and layers sit on the right, and the canvas is in the middle. Brushes are grouped by category, from acrylics, airbrushes and artist brushes to calligraphy, chalk, charcoal, crayons, felt pens and erasers, each with several variants and settings such as grain, spacing, jitter, bristles and water. With a drawing tablet, pressure can shape the stroke. You can also build custom palettes to keep favorite brushes in one place. The free installer on the official site is about 17 MB and Windows only.
Features
Realistic brushes: acrylics, airbrushes, chalk, charcoal, crayons, calligraphy, felt pens and more, each with variants and adjustable type, method, opacity and grain
Layers: multiple layers with blend modes and layer opacity, so painting and edits never touch what is underneath
Selections and filters: limit changes with selections, process images with built-in filters, and extend the program with plugins
Color wheel: a triangle color wheel with RGB value entry and clear foreground and background swatches
Rotate view: turn the canvas like a sheet of paper to draw lines at a comfortable angle, with a navigator for zooming and positioning
History: every step is kept in the history panel, so a wrong stroke can be undone at any point
Custom palettes: collect favorite brush variants and commands into your own panel and switch with one click
