Nick Harris
The long-time ArtRage fan offers his thoughts on version 4.5
You’ve been a user of ArtRage for some time. Why?
ArtRage has been on my system right from the first free version 1. It always had a nice response time and a user-friendly interface, but transformed into a more serious pro contender when it got to version 2.5. Suddenly there were a lot of the layer options, like blending modes that I used in Painter. By version 3, which introduced a decent watercolour tool and the ability to make custom brushes, alongside speed and other improvements, I was sold. The interface has remained comparatively clutter free through to the current version (4.5.9).
What’s your favourite longstanding feature of ArtRage?
As a converted, real media watercolourist, I like ArtRage’s watercolour tool. It may not offer the bells and whistles that Painter does, but its simplicity is much closer for me to real-world watercolouring. You don’t have to spend an age tweaking settings, nor waiting for the brush lag to catch up.
What are your favourite features in the latest version?
I find the reference image tool that was introduced in version 4 very handy. You can paste images (reference, sketches, whatever) on to the screen like Post-it notes. You can scale, rotate and zoom each image. You can also create custom paint palettes, mixer palettes and such from the same floating tool palette. I also use custom toolboxes all the time. You can group your favourite brushes along with a custom palette, all making them easy to get to. It’s these features that make the whole experience more akin to working in the real world. Yes, there must be all the technical stuff going on under the bonnet of ArtRage, but they deliver it in a very relatable way.