Different strokes

Bespoke brushes Bleank updates its painting software, with a Mac version in the offing

Not every digital artist wants to paint with tools that replicate traditional brushes. That’s the idea behind Black Ink, Bleank’s digital painting software specialising in custom brushes, which has had an update this month and is soon available for Mac.

“Black Ink doesn’t want to show you something you’ve already seen,” says Bleank co-founder David Toyou. “It wants to help you create something you haven’t. The brush system is an untapped engine for creativity. Art has always been personal, and now artists have a better way to personalise it.”

Black Ink is independent developer Bleank’s flagship product: selling points including not just customisable brushes, but the ability to work on super high-resolution paintings with no lag, and sharing and collaborative options. An updated version, out this month, comes with a host of new productivity features and fixes, with Lasso, Polygonal & by Brush selection planned next.

“Black Ink is really clean, straightforward art software,” says artist and regular Black Ink user Magnus Miller. “The inclusion of an extensive brush modification – for constructing and assembling brushes – is enjoyable. It’s very solid and I don’t think I’ll exchange it for any other software in the years to come.”

The Black Ink beta is available for Windows for a discount price of £36, with a Mac OS version in the pipeline. You can also download a full, free demo of the software, which expires after two hours.

For more details on Black Ink, and to purchase a copy or download the demo, visit www.bleank.com. To see more from Magnus, go to www.mrootz.deviantart.com.

Magnus Miller likes the “extensive brush modification” options that Black Ink provides.

Bleank’s David Toyou says Black Ink enables artists to personalise not just their work, but the way they work. It’s easy to adjust and develop brushes within Black Ink’s real-time preview window.