Black Ink

Black Ink
N/A
Metacritic
82
Steam
73.963
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$29.99
Release date
8 February 2016
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
82 (431 votes)
Recent
10 (20 votes)

Black Ink is a new, non-realistic GPU based painting application that, instead of imitating traditional tools, brings new inspirations to every artist.Forget about pen and paper or watercolor and discover a new, generative and truly computer based way to create.

Show detailed description

Black Ink system requirements

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows XP (SP3)
  • Processor: Single Core Processor at 1.6 Ghz
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Graphic card with support of pixel shader 3.0 and 512 Mo of VRAM
  • DirectX: Version 9.0
  • Storage: 50 MB available space
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
233680
Platforms
Windows PC
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Reviews
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Caster Of Storms
Caster Of Storms

Pretty darn cool. But even with an MSI laptop, I still encounter lag spikes from nowhere. Plus, it would be nice if you could add some more brushes.

Tal87
Tal87

I like Black Ink, it's fun to mess around with brushes. I'm an amateur artist so I can't give any technical advice or information, but as a hobbyist I quite enjoy it.

rakknruin
rakknruin

I may have already reviewed this product but feel like doing so again after having it for a while.

First of all I really like it. I am amature with this kind of softewar but can pick it up and make some cool things. Mostly for export to other programs as a backgound. It is really easy to make beautiful creations with it.

Pros: Fun, Different and beautiful. It also runs flawlessly for me.

Cons: Developers are a small team and do not update often. I might be doing something wrong but importing PNG to more than one layer?

KiKi
KiKi

edit 01/31/2017: Proved wrong. Really wish they would have included some more basic stuff like: drawing symmetry and export to tif or psd (lossless image formats) in the new update. Would be happy to work with the developers to give feedback, I think this project has a lot of promise.

original review 01/30/2017: Software seems dead, should have researched more before purchasing. Will change review if proved wrong!

Crazy Koala
Crazy Koala

Great painting software ! I use Black Ink for making textures to use as particle systems in UE4 or Blender ! big time saver !

HELLFIRE SCORCHING
HELLFIRE SCORCHING

Had it for a while now. Its an awesome software. A whole new way of digital painting.

Insomniac
Insomniac

So far I really like it. I am working on a new style of artwork incorporating this program in my tool bag of programs. I like the vast options that this program adds to my art. Mixed with Photoshop, Hexels and Corel Draw I really feel that there are limitless possibilities. All of the brushes out of the box are highly customizable. This allows for some serious experimenting with your Wacom tablets. I find this program worth the money. I will experiment with it and then post up some of my work.

Update :

It's been a few years since I purchased this software and I got to say that I am still impressed with this programs ability to push the envelope of what is possible with computer graphics. The Layer node system is impressive. It is hard explain the process of nodes but there are certain techniques created with this node system that is not physically possible to Photoshop. If you have a nack for programming and GLSL this program is for you. There is a tremendous amount of untapped potential here for you. Utilizing it's BSL Shader language you can really create all kinds of wacky stuff.

mr.zros
mr.zros

its not pressure senitive not fluent movement. i

Rob Prim3
Rob Prim3

Haven't touched it for months and now I can't even run it on windows 10 without any reasons why...
Save your time and money and get PaintTool SAI instead.
Shame ... it had so much potential.
RIP 30 bucks.

Fooyeah
Fooyeah

First of all this program runs very smoothly on my machine, although it will crash when trying to do more complex things.

I am a professional Graphic Designer and I usually work with Adobe programs and Autodesk. I also feel this program is a decent digital painting program for small-scale imagery. And that is where the problem with this program is. As a graphic designer when working on a digital imagery that is not vector graphic you utilize very high resolutions. This program cannot handle very high resolutions such as 8K. It works somewhat but will crash when trying to mask shapes at that size. Many of the brushes also do not accommodate such large resolutions, most are just capable of doing 1080. So as a professional this program is not that useful for creating works of art that could be used as assets for the ever increasing demand for higher resolutions. I do however feel that the designers could work to make this program capable of such high resolutions, however I feel this would probably require more powerful computers capable of keeping up with the graphical demand.
In conclusion, if you are an enthusiast who doesn't mind the lower resolution and does not want to pay the price of running Adobe this may be a very useful program to have.
As a professional I could not recommend this program because of its limitations, it shows you really do get what you pay for. However it can be fun and makes work fast for small-scale and concept imagery, so it might be useful to have if you don't mind spending the money.

Eleanoire
Eleanoire

I absolutely adore it, the line correction is very helpful and the variety of tools is astounding!

On the downside though smaller details have to be drawn a bit larger to life, but besides that it's good for comics.

The Pooper
The Pooper

Well its a good program for what it does. I like it.

illovich
illovich

I like Black Ink - it's an interesting alternative to other digital drawing/paining programs. I wish there was a Mac version, but oh well.

SlaterDies
SlaterDies

Stay away, this is pure garbage.

konyolbrutal
konyolbrutal

Great software for digital arts!

Exedore
Exedore

Geate program! Even a beginner like me can create nice and neat stuff! Very interesting brushes, and feels like there is an infinite way of drawing

WookiTalki
WookiTalki

They "officially" released it over half a year ago, and then abandoned it. The devs told me on their facebook page and on the official forums that they'd add more layers. and improve it even further. But nope. Haven't heard anything since. Get Clip Studio Paint instead if you're seeking for a paid program.

EDIT: Almost 4 months in since last developer "update", and we've not yet received an update to make Black Ink better. The software is still in Early Access.

EDIT 2: Another 4 months have passed. Still nothing new :)

Chicken Lord
Chicken Lord

it was hard at first but honestly i cnat immagine myself with out it now im no were near a master but i have to say ive made some pretty decent stuff on here you just have to take time to practice and learn i find eyes are easy to make as well as scenery and you can use a lot of basic and advanced art techniques in this its a very versatile program

Existential Pineapple
Existential Pi…

Crashes, deletes your work. Have fun

Will Wallace
Will Wallace

DO NOT BUY! limited to 8 layers. crashes every 15 minutes. devs have been saying they are working on fixing this for 7 years but no fix in sight. almost 50% of the times you save it crashes and you lose everything. This program would be amazing if it worked properly. DO not buy. buy a software from a reputable company who actually releases bug fixes. in this state this program is 100% unusable.

Cera Ralaz
Cera Ralaz

A really cool tool for drawing, but my friends keep posting comments under my arts like:
-Wow, this is very cool art with a lack of layers

Fisher
Fisher

I really wanted to like this program, but it seems like it A L W A Y S is crashing, and everytime I do, I lose everything. I just wouldn't even bother.

Unknown
Unknown

BlackInk is amazing!

I like to use different kinds of design and paint software. BlackInk is one of my favourites to play around with.

Some features are simply fantastic and make my art flow.

Keep up the great work guys. I love your software!

CMDR
CMDR

I really like that Black Ink is innovative drawing tool. There is many good brushed. UI is fresh and works really fast. Only feature that I've miss (or didn't find) is Mirror. I think mirror feature while you drawing symmetrical shapes is really important. You can flip canvas X or Y, but I do not mean that... Except that I missing mirror, I really recommend this app!

Ravenous Demon
Ravenous Demon

Great program as it stands right now. I recommend the purchase. However, dont count on the program being complete in the eyes of the devs. Progress has seemed to have come to a halt.

Kasper Undead
Kasper Undead

the program is not bad, drawing on it and editing brushes and such is pretty easy in my oppinion
but it doesnt let me save the image for some reason, i though it was cause i had different layers on so i merged them all together but that wasnt it, speaking of layers, if you have a blending mode on a layer then merge it, the blending mode either dissapears or carries on to the layer you're merging it with

so i dont think i'll recomend, you can just get something like artweaver or MyPaint for free

EDIT: so i wanted to try it again see if anything's changed or new
and yes... yes there is, well the only thing i notices that was new was the layer thing, witch i dont really understand why it is the way it is, and i cant seem to get rid of the thing thats under the brushes that just showes you wat brush you're using prettymuch, its such a waste of space honestly, i do like the fact that you can draw outside of the canvas tho
and it seems to take a while for the programm to understand that i'm pressing ctrl+Z
yeah idk, that's all i wanted to add

Z5N0⚡
Z5N0⚡

ː3dm_butlerːːcactuarːːguardianːːhorseshoeː
ːhornsːːFlashFreezeːːvrmadhatterː
ːdos2skullːːt0tonberryːːbgs_sadːːcactuarː

I am by far your superior, but my notorious modesty prevents me from saying so.

Erik Satie

Jules Hiræther
Jules Hiræther

Fastest & most accurate, most stable painting program available. I've tried a lot of expensive programs, even monthly fees, and they just cannot offer what Black Ink does by means of intelligent programming that frees the artist up to create. It has a clean interface & with some practice even the modules and more complex aspects make sense. More importantly, I can use it to Illustrate or do editing work. It helps speed up my art workflow, eliminating the need for a handful of programs. Less lag (virtually none until you start to push the limits of your computer in huge high resolution scenes) means LESS UNDO, as I can paint more accurately with my Wacom than with anything else I can find. This is the *ONLY* software I can find that fully utilizes the capabilities of a professional touch pad, because despite the accuracy of other AAA programs, they simply can't keep up with the style and shape of my technique. Black Ink is programmed better & more artistic.

The Dev team is awesome. Updates are frequent &/or important. I've been on board since the start and never regretted it. It sets your style apart from the crowd as you build your own brushes, yet can still do anything Photoshop can do (that matters) but better. Having an infinite HD canvas is incredible.

If you draw FAST and accurately in real life but have issues transitioning to computer art, it may not be the tablet at fault, but the software. Move past the frustration of other clunky art programs, made for engineers and not artists. I use Black Ink to make characters for RPGs but enjoy it for abstract just as much. I use Black Ink with Krita, Pro Motion NG, & Spriter. Add Corel suite (as little as possible like photoshop) DAZ Bryce, & Curvey 3D. All can port to RPG Maker for my needs doing an indy project.
Free up your art workflow. Give Black Ink a try; a program made for Artists.

1MantisPhoenix
1MantisPhoenix

TL:DR If you want to be creative with a Wacom, with a drawing software that beats literally everything on the market now. GET IT:

I Love it.
I Absolutely love it.
Thank you dear Bleank. I cannot promote this enough.

DirectX 11; GPU Rendering,
Brush Creation,
Brush Pixel Shader Editor,

atomicFunkdog
atomicFunkdog

This is a outstanding and very powerful tool. The Controller Editor allows you to create any procedual brush you could hope to think of, excellent for freehand drawing and allows you to easily immitate many methods and styles. There so many small things this program also does right. I love the ease of flipping to image ('F'), the secondary view, the way all the tools and parameters are closely and relatively placed together in the UI. The favorite brush bar, also hotkeyed to the num keys with is great, the brush history bar, the excellent brush previewer. It already feels like the ultimate free drawing tool for me. It all fits so well together.
The program also acts ok with my 3DConnexion mouse. It does not scroll horizontally but it zoom in and out with it and it is very smooth.

If you primarily photobash, then you will want to stick with Photoshop still as Black Ink does not have as smart masking tools. But as a drawing program this is truly unique, powerful and my go-to program from now on.

♀ BallBustinBABE ♀
♀ BallBustinBABE ♀

Nice painting and drawing app.

runs the smoothest of any i have tried so far.

coolest feature, is it allows for precise zooming.

update edit: still use this app the most out of all my painting apps

Inoto
Inoto

I've normally used Photoshop before for digital art, but now I think I'm going to migrate to primarily Black Ink -- at least for some time. I like how simple the UI is and a lot of the features are easy to pick up and use. Shortcuts take some learning, so I had to view some tutorials, but all in all: I was able to pick up the demo and start making great graphic and realistic art very quickly.

There were some software crashes (even on a high end PC) but a lot of the theme of this program is to work with randomization and happy accidents to see what you can do. It really flexes the creative muscles and is a robust program to boot!

The Steam Community page is a great way to find inspiration for what to do with some of the more odd and abstract features of this software.

I got it on a sale and it's a good alternative to subscription based software like Photoshop. Note: this is for fine art, not photo manipulation so it won't replace certain techniques or products.

Blastsniper
Blastsniper

This software needs some optimizing and further development.
But its an alright package for making specific art styles.
Would use it more often if it would have some more select, masking and cropping tools.

Captain Crazzy
Captain Crazzy

Excellent software
don't leave home without it!

Quizzical Quarks
Quizzical Quarks

As a hobbyist artist, this software is pretty great! The keyboard shortcuts are particularly intuitive for me (q to zoom, r to rotate, s + drag cursor to change brush size, d + drag for brush opacity, f to flip horizontally, space to pan, and so on). These are all easily accessible with one hand, making this quite a smooth, comfortable drawing experience with a tablet. Brushes are easy to modify, and you can test your modifications real-time. Can always just use the basic ones and make something neat either way though. The interface and controls of this program makes going back to other software (looking at you, SAI), feel clunky.

IMO it's better for simpler drawings with not too many layers. From my experience there's no (?) hue/saturation sliders, and there used to be a layer limit; not sure if there still is one, so watch out for that. I think its great for scribblies, though.
I bought this back when it was in beta and half the price, but I'd say that if you want a change of pace, it's worth the price now. Can always try the demo if you're unsure.

Puffbutt
Puffbutt

Would recommend to the animals.

NOVAmonkey
NOVAmonkey

LAYERS, and it's only getting better.

Toaster
Toaster

A mindblowing drawing tool that allows you to do things no other software does. Mathematically generated brushes and effects let you create complex scenes within seconds, and the brush creation itself is a joy you can lose yourself in for hours, just to see what is possible. If you want to you can also download and share brushes in the forums, where you´ll find crazier stuff every time you look. The new update has introduced new functionalities for the layers, which were one of my biggest gripes and limitations for a long time, and has now added an entirely new element of mindfuckery and usability. Just try it out yourself with the demo and if you enjoy it, it´s only 60€, which is next to nothing in comparison to most software available today.

Dan Juno
Dan Juno

Great art program for conceptual art or abstract art. Loads of brush customization. Great digital painting application.

BeholderVee
BeholderVee

Unique, beautiful, and a pleasure to use, when it doesn't crash. Incredible brush editing and layer management. However, some important features are still under development.

~Zy~
~Zy~

Hella worth it with the latest update!

ThotamusPrime
ThotamusPrime

I would definitely recommend this product. I have used this product some in the past, and now that the layer update has come out, which was one of the biggest set backs for this product, I will probably be using this product alongside Corel and Clip Studio more often. I would also say for what it offers, the price point is fairly reasonable, especially now since the layers have been reworked.

HalfMoonOwl
HalfMoonOwl

This program is still a work and progress and there is a lot of stuff that needs to be done but it is a fantastic program! I have used it for a long time and have been through a lot with it but it has still helped me out. The fact that it is still in development means that there will be continual updates so there is always more things to try. Highly recommend this software.

miltaire
miltaire

crashes way too often for my liking

overfit
overfit

OK... It's not bad, but please implement 'undo' as a layer-wise function. It is a quite basic requirement for programs like this.

PastorSavage
PastorSavage

I love this program but i just cannot for the life of me get this program to work without crashing. Im using a Surface Pro 7, I7 and 16gigs of RAM and it crashes almost immediately and the pen hardly works on black ink only.

pikupupu
pikupupu

I tried to draw with Black Ink. It felt like Macromedia Flash, which I been looking for

JohnnyTarrr
JohnnyTarrr

Either fix the crash happening on start up or give me my money back please :)

cringle bimt, son of timble
cringle bimt, …

this is a very unique piece of digital art software. first and foremost, it does take some getting-used-to, but once you are familiar with at least the brush and layer systems, you can start to get into your own creative flow. my favorite aspect of the program is how beautiful all of the brushes are, and the fact that you can create and edit brushes of your own, in a truly infinite way. there is still much about the program that i am not yet familiar with, such as saturation and hue editing (which may or may not be included... i just cant find the settings), but overall, i personally find this program to be a great digital painter for photos of sketches that i have done in real life

Alscenic
Alscenic

TL;DR
Great piece of still-updated software with a genius layer editor and unmatched performance, but updates are way too slow and there are a few missing basic tools (wand select, bucket fill, shapes)

Why it's cool
The layer editor is node-based, so you can route layers to your liking and even re-use them (i.e. for masks) without copy-pasting anything.
The brush editor is similarly node-based. You can precisely craft every aspect of your brushes procedurally, rather than with the standard few options you have in every other art program.
The performance is insane - I run a 1080 Ti and have never experienced any kind of lag even with complex 5000px brushes on a nearly 10k by 10k pixel canvas.

Why it could be cooler
Updates are few and far between - bug fixes come out for the beta overnight after they're reported, but feature updates are exceedingly rare. After teasing a WIP wand tool over two months ago, there hasn't been a single word on how that's going, let alone its update. If I were to give one major criticism of Black Ink, it's that the devs need to communicate their progress more to patrons and non-patrons alike, in their Discord server and on Steam.

Who would like it?
Overall recommended for those with a good GPU as well as those with more technical experience (in either node-based workflows or shader code), but keep in mind the limitations. Try the demo for a good idea of what it's like (it's on Steam btw)

Disclaimer: Patreon supporter and fairly active in their Discord server

Lilibet
Lilibet

It took me some time to understand the program but after a few days It was a delight!

Mr. Consume
Mr. Consume

Seemingly useless for smaller drawings like pixel art, layers constantly flickering into visibility. Hugely dissatisfying and buggy.

Scully
Scully

I have used this product for 285 hours so far. That is by far the most hours of any other steam game or product that I own (and I have lots). I love it. This is a must have if you are a serious artist or just someone that wants to dabble. Check out the artwork in steam community - there are some incredibly talented people out there!

unknown
unknown

BEST CREATIVITY DRAWING SOFTWARE PERIOD

Just Selel
Just Selel

I am a novice/amature,so i can not speak to professional use...but there are some rad tools in this!

chluaid
chluaid

I'm a huge fan of any non-destructive, node-based workflow and for that reason, Black Ink is one of my favourite software discoveries of the year so far. Nesting masks within masks, layer stacks within layer stacks, and clicking math modules together to generate brushes is a ton of fun.

How it feels as a digital painting app

I've seen other reviews saying that you shouldn't expect to create traditional-looking digital art, but really I found that it's all about the brushes. Once I got the right brush, I was hooked.

At first some of the default brushes felt a bit uh... mathematical (?) to me but the beauty of the Controller Editor is that you can look through a brush's nodes to learn how it was built. That bit of insight helped me to create my first few brushes using my own imported textures, for a more painterly feel. Now I can do pretty much anything in Black Ink that I could have done in Photoshop or Affinity Photo. Well, almost --

I'd assume more blend modes are in the pipeline and I hope that future development includes such filters and adjustment layers as blur, glow, levels and gradient maps. If/when that starts to happen I can easily see Black Ink becoming my main digital paint app.

Zudah Head
Zudah Head

Im no artist by any means, but having an art software still comes in handy when i want to draw out something for reference to a friend, design something im working on, or really just indulge my artistic whims. I was formally trained with Photoshop, but i find that this program does basically the same work. it takes getting used to a little, but its not overly complicated. its been quite a useful program to me. for those of you who are willing to give it a shot, may it serve you just as well.

SilentBugler
SilentBugler

Check out that demo!

Drawing, experimenting or just plain messing around with a cool toy -- it's simply criminal not to try Black Ink out just for kicks.

Free space won't be an issue, I assure you. ;)

saiied boats
saiied boats

absolutely love this. easy to use n really fun to work with

Anahata
Anahata

thanks..... its working now i wont do this mistake ever again XD

Kossilar
Kossilar

Doesn't work properly with WACOM Intuos tablets. Application doesn't register pen strokes at low pressure and there's no way to adjust sensitivity.

Frankly, this application should be listed as Early Access. It has glaring window rendering problems and doesn't work with industry standard hardware. Its unfinished and full of bugs.

I bought this app a few years ago and its still almost useless. I'm done struggling with this and I'm moving on to something else.

Tuff Snizzo
Tuff Snizzo

i use this weekly for all my art it is awesome

Mr_KzA
Mr_KzA

This is my favourite digital painting software by far.
Not like any other painting software I have ever used, best used with a graphics pen tablet.
The node based brush editor give you control to make new brushes, edit existing ones and how your pen works.
Being GPU accelerated, Black Ink enables you to make massive pieces of art with hardly any lag.
It has no trouble on my rig working on A1 paper size 300 dpi full colour file.
Brilliant piece of creative software, 11/10

iceflare177
iceflare177

Great non-traditional digital painting software. Very GPU-intensive. This isn't for you if your computer can't handle high resolutions,

Maquina
Maquina

God I wanted to enjoy this program so badly. It was the first modern paint software I started using after SAI. But besides the confusing and unintuitive AI, the poor stabilizers, the confusing controls...this program just doesn't WORK, at least not on my rig. It's too much for low-tech professional or casual drawing, especially if your computer cannot handle all the bells and whistles of this program. 6/10. Would not recommend to casual artists or professionals with low-grade computers/pen pads.

leFouRiz
leFouRiz

Was fantastic before, with the new update it's now so slow and crash very often. Too hard to handle for my laptop whereas before it was perfect. Such a shame.
Edit : I upgraded my pc with an SSD and more rams and it seems to work much better so I switched back my review to a positive one.

D8ing8BallOutlookBleak
D8ing8BallOutl…

BUYER BEWEARE.
Devlopers never really did anything with it after they made enough money and have made it abandonware, I assume who ever did anything on this software got jobs somewhere else and all got theres while us customers got none,
All the good reviews are from before the updates and now it's even worse with out reasoning,
At this point just buy an old photoshop or rent adobes entire suite.

Wonju
Wonju

Discontinued support for the computer that I bought last week. Crashes constantly.

Chimpinalls
Chimpinalls

I'm just getting started with this but so far it seems really powerful.

123kittens
123kittens

Hello everyone. Wanted to tell that the program is great, i have really smooth experience . Customization is great, amazing layer map. Such a big job done by devs for a really modest price. Highly recommend to try. I'm waiting for supporting psd files and other formats so i can use that program as my main editing tool. It has a really huge potential. Big love from Russia

VRChat Fullbody Catgirl
VRChat Fullbod…

Not as great as PS or SAI, but the brushes are totally fun

Dargost
Dargost

Very cool art program and affordable compared to Corel Painter

Kulabaluka
Kulabaluka

Fantastic program, very unique and easy to use and pick up. It quickly motivated me to learn more about how the brushes and different canvas settings worked. I quickly fell in love with the unique style of painting, If your on a computer you should use the advantage you have from the technology to create something new, if you need to paint there are hundreds of painting programs.

At the same time however this program has produced some great realistic looking paintings so its not like you can't use it for painting.

Rollin88z
Rollin88z

Note: Product has only ever crashed once when i typed "order66.exe" in the console

THIS PRODUCT IS LIKE PHIL SWIFT CUTTING A CHILD IN HALF WITH A CHAINSAW BECAUSE THERE'S LITERALLY NO COMING BACK FROM THIS.

As a fake tattoo artist, i use this product all the time to review my clients poorly drawn skulls and/or broken hearts usually surrounded by barbed wire that they want permanently tattoo'd on their lazily misshapen bodies, tormented from years of pathological gluttony.

I can actually draw the tattoo and through the use of layers to shade the impending infection due to improper hygiene from my convicted felon customers who are most likely to kill me for my poor tattoomanship if it weren't for the fact that %99 of my clients have gangrenous limb loss. The %1 that didn't was an orange that i tested my needle on.

So in summary,
Pretty decent product for retards.

mkchrc14
mkchrc14

This isn't your Win 10 paint app so if you are a beginner just starting to get interested in digital art as a medium this app isn't for you. The features in this program took a bit of effort to understand and apply but the results are worth it. I got interested in the digital art world beginning with art apps for tablets in Amazon's app store years ago so was excited to find Black Ink and eager to see where my experience in gaming and sketching/painting would take me. Happily I have yet to be disappointed.

H - TOOL
H - TOOL

Black Ink is pretentious software.
Bit of a joke for something that's been in development for an extremely long time.
"Unlike most other digital painting solutions Black Ink doesn't try to mimic traditional tools"
Replace "traditional" tools with *basic* tools. Very regressive approach to design overall.

All the *basic* tools you could expect with any digital art software are not well developed, clunky, or just missing.
For everything it likes to boast about how amazing it is, Microsoft Paint felt like it had more to work with.
Stuff like a proper fill/bucket/mirror/wand. These aren't "traditional". These are basic.
For all the "tech" it boast, you think the developers would know how to write a basic floodfill/bucket function but no.

You can look on the forums and steam forums. People have been asking for this stuff for years now. The response is always the same: "This is our most requested feature" or "+1". It feels like a troll to read this comment in 8 year gaps.
I'm convinced this software is made by purist who don't want to go buy a canvas or buckets of paint.

The Cosmic Muffet
The Cosmic Muffet

This is the kind of program when you use it you wonder what in god's name Adobe is even doing with all its money and effort. It runs like a dream, it has tools so powerful for brush creation and layer building that I'm definitely never going to learn what its limits are, and it's easy enough to sit down and play with that there's no friction in your way to trying it out. Worst case scenario is you screw around with it, rasterize the result, and paste it in whatever other program you do all your for-realsies-art in. If you're drinking lattes, and haven't bought this already, you have seriously misallocated your resources for the week.

biscuitmammal
biscuitmammal

The capabilities are endless and i continue to come back to this SW. Re-Naming the SW could benefit the brand since searching for forums, videos, etc is problematic with google's algorithms.
Just wish it also included standard type brushes. I think a great addition would be a "normal" vs "advanced" brush control editor. Normal could have simplified non-mathmatical names for the controllers, and advanced could have the current naming convention. That way non-math savvy people can still understand what the modifiers will actually do and decrease the learning curve.

NSGuy
NSGuy

I was stuck trying to find solutions to not having photoshop. After going through steam looking for some drawing software I stumbled over this gem. Not only does it support transparency, but it allows decent drawing capabilities for a cheap price.
No subscription plan unlike photoshop.
Great default brushes, unlike photoshop.

There are only a few draw backs from using this vs photoshop. This does NOT have a smart selection tool. This has a few bugs like selections to draw on are different sizes from selections to delete. Some crashes or refusal to draw after holding down the drawing button for a while. Autosave though saves your progress and if you save it regularly you wont have to worry about the crashes. Hope they fix the different size for selections(if you select a complicated poly with the lasso tool if you fill it in then delete it it leaves a small outline the shape of the poly).

For the money though this is worth it.

Angxtious
Angxtious

I had fun getting into art with this in my teens. I wouldn't seriously consider it for a workflow though.
I'm not a professional though. So I might just be bad.

sasa
sasa

Tried it several years ago, when it was in development. It has to many issues to be considered seriously. installed today to check the progress - looks like devs were procrastinating all the time.
Horrible user interface, chronic unability to work with several displays.
Useless.

Faizyr
Faizyr

this is the best painting application I've purchased, it beats 99% of the tolls out there & it's only single purchase, works extremely fast & can edit quickly

Cthulionic
Cthulionic

Every artist should at least try it out. Many features and options, and an intuitive interface. Everything else is already said in other reviews.

UFO
UFO

im a noob artist and a tablet with programmed short cuts this is a beast

tgudge
tgudge

Probably one of the least intuitive pieces of software I've ever used...

warriorofthewind
warriorofthewind

This program is CRIMINALLY under-used. You try looking for it on Youtube and you get black ink (medium) painting or weirdo tattoo channels. For anyone bloviating jUsT uSe pH0t0$h0p!!! well you know what plebs like me who work retail don’t exactly have $3000 for a yearly subscription or whatever shit they charge these days.

I bought this years and years ago when it came out in early access for a steal at 29.99 but hadn’t really fully broken it in until recently. Even though I don’t have much hours in it, it lets me blob out and whip out pieces in a short amount of time fairly easily. I’m not trying to make ultra-realistic shit, I just want something simple to convey my idea, and it works for what it does.

I’ve tried Krita and Krita is nice but the last time I tried making something in it the brushes looked super pixelated. Here, strokes look gorgeous and crisp, the brushes feel weighty and gooey, and there’s all sorts of sliders and options to monkey around with. The resolution is ridiculous I’m old enough to remember when 800x600 images looked like complete ass, here even when I scale images down for compression for use online, you can still see all the little details.

The UI isn’t cluttered and cumbersome and I was able to jump back into it without requiring 20+ hours of tutorials like OTHER PROGRAMS (looking at you Blender). It has crashed on me on occasion but usually I take that as a sign from God to take a fucking break and thankfully auto-recover is a thing otherwise I’d punch something. I have to give props to the developer too for making such a wonderful program I had two programs on steam wishlist and both got pulled by their devs I think one just dropped out completely and the other got hoovered up by Sata-I mean Adobe. If there is a BI2 coming out any time soon, I’ll keep my eye open for it.

I don’t use a wacom tablet or anything so most of my strokes I do with a trackball, and brushes can be tweaked to produce the effects a scene calls for. My most recent piece was for a friend and really more a personal exercise in tinkering with brushes and a challenge to myself, but he geeked out about it so much he wanted to show it off to others. I’m by no means an expert and digital painting is still fairly new to me all things considered but it does what I want in the way I want it and it looks awesome.

10n02
10n02

easy to use. I have some nice abstract art pictures in just a few minutes

One Punch Twig
One Punch Twig

Practice makes perfect.
It is not user friendly but it gives you all the extras.
Very different from Photoshop & Procreate.

Would give this software a 7/10

Trainasaurus Wrecks [DBB]
Trainasaurus W…

Alright, I feel like I have finally put in enough hours to make a decent review. I had the desktop version but have been using the steam version recently so I could test the beta features. This is what I use now. Because of this program I have switched to a digital format with my art and I make unnecessarily large digital paintings that take me months to complete.
There is nothing about the program that you can't learn from looking at their videos so I will refrain from talking about all the cool features it has. I'll just say it's perfect for what I do.
Also the devs are awesome. They are always in the discord chat and if I manage to find a bug and crash the program, it's typically patched within 24hours.
It's good, it's getting better, I highly recommend it.

Dank Matter
Dank Matter

Below average drawing program. Got a Veikk VK2200 tablet with display -> Not compatible, tried a different tablet, not compatible. I was genuinely interested, because I love sketching, but I am going to resort back to Adobe Photoshop. A real shame, could've been a good contender, if they just managed their goddamn tabletcompatibility.