Artrage: Review and Instructions

For almost a decade I've searched the internet for good, free programs ranging from sound generation and music composition, to graphic and web design. There are actually a lot of good programs out there that are very low-cost or even totally free. One of them, Artrage, stands out with its realistic brushes and paint effects, making it a great low-cost or even free alternative to Corel Painter.

I first tried it out a few years ago, before I got a tablet. Back then, the program didn't have an extended mode you had to pay for. I couldn't do very much but still I liked the options and effects it had. The basic tools were oil paints, crayon, pencil, pen, and chalk, and a blending knife(very realistic one) and eraser. The new pay mode has all that plus new features such as brush hardness and new tools, and even a metallic setting and more color options.

Full mode adds the paint tube, paint roll, airbrush, and glitter tools, and extended features, including paint thinners, art pen mode, precision pencil, and the ability to adjust the wetness of the felt pen. These features are worth the $25 you spend, for the download or boxed version. The oil paint looks silky smooth when blended, and the knife has a realistic effect that can be customized with the pressure setting that all of the tools except the color picker have. For soft or oil pastels, the pencil, chalk, or crayon will do, and work great on charcoal or pastel paper textures. For watercolors, use heavily thinned oil paints or a very wet pen.

I love playing with the various tools, and seeing how they blend. The oil paints give a realistic goopy texture as they are blended, which is more pronounced the thicker they are. The paints even get dirty, if you wish to turn off autoclean, to give a more realistic dirtybrush feel. A cup of water icon is shown, and with one click will clean your brush. The marker pen has an art marker mode, which when turned on gives a watercolor-ish effect that can be adjusted with the wetness setting. It's great for soft watercolor paintings, translucent effects like the sea anemone tentacle, or for inking pictures you have sketched. You can even use it for manga or doujinshi drawings if you have a tablet. There are other programs that do much less and will often cost twice to four times as much as this. You don't need to get all those for a simple job such as inking!

Even most other paint programs are often bloated with lots of features most don't even need. Artweaver, for example, is a free paint program with most of the tools you would recognize from Corel Painter. You can even play around with the tools and make up for what Corel lacks, or use another free paint program to compensate. Photoshop is popular with artists, but it's lousy for pictures that require a lot of smudging. The blending knife in Artrage is a bit awkward to use at first but it make some beautiful, realistic blends that don't make the picture look like a dead-giveaway to computer generated art. Even the blending tools in most other programs, such as Corel Painter, look rather fake.

The glitter tool is useful for making mosaic effects on the fly, so there's no need for the filters which are ubiquitous in almost every paint program you can find. The paint roller can also make some nice textures, or be used to fill in the background without too many brushstrokes, as can the tube brush which is especially good for sky backgrounds. With the new stencils, it can also be used for patterns and tones for manga art. The glitter can also be used in conjunction with the stencils for a more organic and random pattern. The airbrush has a nice realistic feeling as well, and has some great options to control the direction, taper, and pressure.

Full mode also gives the user the ability to make custom stencils from artwork, french curves, and rulers. Rulers and french curves allow the user to make precise lines where needed, without worrying about wiggling or shaking and ruining a stroke. These tools are found in programs like Manga Studio and Comicworks, which cost a lot more and offer much less. Comicworks even has some issues with Vista and any tablets besides Wacom and a special proprietary tablet. Now, Comicworks can be a cool program, and the tools are smooth and useful for making manga. It even has a feature that dithers the tool's color, as does Manga Studio. If you need that feature, it might be best to go with Manga Studio since it has recently been updated and has been given a major makeover. It's good for either black and white or simple colored comics, and costs $50. It's not without the flaws, however, and to get the blend, smear, and dodge/burn effects, you would need the bigger version, Manga Studio EX. If you are willing to make your own tones and patterns, and would like a simple program that can give you all the features you need for a great, professional looking comic, painting, or drawing, then get Artrage.

If you are more comfortable with the way Corel Painter works(I LOVE some of its neat watercolor brushes) then I would recommend Corel Painter Essentials for $89 or Sketchpad for $119. Both have realistic tools, but for one third or less of the price of the Professional version. They even have marker and pen settings, which might be all you need. They even have tool settings and capabilities that Artrage doesn't have, so both of these programs are worth looking into. And if you like using Photoshop but balk at the hefty price, then use Photoshop Elements because if all you want to do is draw, then Elements might be what you need.

Artrage does have a few faults, namely a nag feature in the free version that pops up whenever you try to use a tool or feature that is not available. It is a small annoyance that can be dealt with quite easily however, and for only $25. Also, if you use programs like GIMP or Twisted Brush, those might disable the pressure sensitivity for your tablet. To prevent that problem, create a file called no_ink.inf in the ...\Ambient Design\ArtRage 2\Resources\ folder. It may just be a Windows Vista problem since there is a Microsoft Ink Service program that conflicts with the installed tablet driver with some programs, and if the user does not know how to properly correct it, can necessitate a system restart. To make the no_ink.inf file, change the settings of the folder options to display extensions(the part after the dot) for well-known file types. To show all file extensions, follow the instructions on this page. This should take care of most of the problems for Artrage.

Other great programs include Artweaver, Dogwaffle, Pixia, GIMP, Opencanvas, and Sai Paint Tool. There are other free programs but I recommend these and Artrage because they are the most user-friendly and versatile. Of the programs listed, Pixia, GIMP, and Artweaver are free, while Opencanvas, Dogwaffle and Artrage have freeware and paid versions, and Sai Paint Tool sells for a nice price of around $55 tax included(which isn't too shabby considering all of the features it has.) So go to the links below and get Artrage or one of these other nifty programs, and start painting!

Download Artrage here

Other great programs:

Pixia
Project Dogwaffle
GIMP
Artweaver
Opencanvas Free and Commercial - $61 or $81
Sai Paint Tool

michele, DaveRage, "I have no pressure sensitivity in Artrage 2." Ambient Design Forums.
Paul, "How-to Change a File Extension." Maximum PC Guides.