Fresh Paint for Windows 8

Pros

• Fun and easy to use with or without skills or training
• Choices of adjustable media – watercolor, oils, pencils, charcoals, pastels
• Variety of adjustable brush types
• Choices of blank canvases, papers and backgrounds
• Ability to blend and mix paint colors
• Activity packs for subjects to paint and keep, share or frame
• Easily make corrections with “undo” or the eraser
• Fan button to dry the paint before applying another layer of color
• Paint any photo image – including your own drawings formatted as a digital file
• A never-ending source of artist media without the expense or the mess

Cons

• Works better with Windows 8.1 update
• Does not have a color fill feature
• May be subject to crashing upon launching

Fresh Paint for Windows 8 is an exciting, free-wheeling painting application suited for any skill level and every imagination. Enhance existing images or completely indulge your inner painter creating works of art from the many choices on blank canvas. Fresh Paint models the actual behavior of fresh, wet paint and the wonderful blending properties and textures, complete with brush strokes in a virtual visceral experience. Roll up your sleeves and dive right in without any of the cleanup headaches or expense.

Fresh Paint Evolved from Project Gustav

Microsoft Research originally explored producing the nature of oils in a digital application in Project Gustav. In a unique collaborative approach, the test to accurately reproduce the nature of oil on canvas with the use of tools engaged the public’s input as a part of the new educational activity lab within the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The value of experiential input is invaluable. In this form of a beta-test in which more than 60,000 participants played with Digital Art, their feedback was instrumental in developing Fresh Paint as it operates today.

Wet-in-Wet and Layering of Colors

Fresh Paint makes both underpainting and overpainting possible in wet-in-wet painting for the purpose of layering colors to create still life as real as any hanging in a museum or above the couch. Even with this sophistication, the appeal it holds for children who want to get their hands on the touch screen and start finger painting is compelling. This is an engaging application that is only limited by the extent of one’s own imagination.

Variety of Media and Tools

There is a simple elegance to Fresh Paint with application tools and a full color palette as well as an alternative custom color palette similar to other Microsoft custom color features used to create graphics. There are a series of adjustable brushes for coverage from broad strokes to fine detail work. In addition, there are options to use pastels, charcoals or color pencils, and they also behave in the fashion that is characteristic of the medium. By playing with either the mouse or the touch screen feature, the media will respond to the movements of the user.

Pros

• Fun and easy to use with or without skills or training
• Choices of adjustable media – watercolor, oils, pencils, charcoals, pastels
• Variety of adjustable brush types
• Choices of blank canvases, papers and backgrounds
• Ability to blend and mix paint colors
• Activity packs for subjects to paint and keep, share or frame
• Easily make corrections with “undo” or the eraser
• Fan button to dry the paint before applying another layer of color
• Paint any photo image – including your own drawings formatted as a digital file
• A never-ending source of artist media without the expense or the mess

Cons

• Works better with Windows 8.1 update
• Does not have a color fill feature
• May be subject to crashing upon launching