Beta Brushes

I've written about the iPhone application "Brushes" before -- it's a natural media simulator on the iPhone which allows me to "paint" pictures with nothing but my finger and my phone. I love it, because I enjoy painting, but often inspiration strikes me when I'm not anywhere near real paint and brushes, or even my laptop. But I always have my phone with me.

So, I was really pleased when Steve, the guy who wrote Brushes, contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in beta testing a new version of the software. I enthusiastically agreed, and have been playing with a couple pre-release versions for a month or so. Up until the most recent version, the interface has been virtually identical, and the feeling of painting is very much the same. (The most recent version added two enhancements I'm really happy to see -- the ability to zoom out from the canvas, allowing for painting edge to edge, and the ability to zoom in as far as 800%, which allows me to paint tiny little details.)

Under the hood, though, Brushes has undergone some significant changes. The software remembers every stroke you make (which is very handy if you need to undo a lot of mistakes). It also allows you to export the image file to your computer, where the companion "Brushes Viewer" allows you to see the image you created, and to export a movie of yourself painting the image -- playing every stroke in order as you painted them -- or exporting a larger image than the tiny little 320x480 pixel image that the iPhone screen supports. Brushes Viewer allows you to export images up to 6 times that resolution -- up to 1920x2880 -- which is amply large to print even up to 8x10 or larger.

The downside to this is that I see exactly how primitive my pianting is! It's encouraging me to spend more energy increasing the detail I paint with. To the right is the same painting in the upper corner, at the 6x resolution. (You may have to click on it to get the large version.) You can really see the brush strokes and the smudgy stars and stuff.

(In my defense, I scribbled this painting out in about 24 minutes just to send Steve something and to let him know my impressions of this newest Beta version.)

I believe that this version of the software will be what Steve submits to Apple for the next upgrade to Brushes. It's an awesome update, and adds some real-world usefulness to this really powerful application. If you're interested in painting with your iPhone or iPod touch, Brushes is the app!