New Painting App Sketchable: All in the Family

There is a new Win-based painting app on the block, Sketchable by Silicon Benders, now available at the Windows Store. Description from the download page:

Sketchable provides the best creative digital journaling experience on the market. Whether you import an image, snap a photo, or start from a blank canvas, Sketchable puts the creative options in your hands. No matter the context, Sketchable is the perfect app to breathe life into your ideas. The elegant interface is designed to get the most out of each device and fast fluid brushes allow for an uninterrupted workflow.

Sketchable is tablet-friendy and pairs nicely with the Wacom-enabled Surface Pro. The app is a free download with and comes with brush and eraser tools. In-app purchases offer 7 additional painting tools. I'm happy to say that I had a bit of involvement with this new app; I created its textures and brush presets.

Silicon Benders is the brother team of Miles & Ryan Harris. Painting apps appear to run in the brothers' genes: their dad is Jerry Harris, co-author (with Keith McGregor) of early Mac paint app PixelPaint Pro, the first full-color paint application for the Macintosh. Jerry is now a Principal Computer Scientist on the Adobe Photoshop team.

Sketchable is designed to be easy to pick up and start using with a minimal learning curve. It is a particularly pressure-sensitive savvy app offering a wide range of expressibility in concert with its tools. Sketchable has a simple interface with plenty of room for expansion. I have a feeling we'll be seeing this app grow over time. Highly Recommended!

John's Dry Media User: Thomas Brissot

Paris-based concept artist Thomas Brissot has been using my Dry Media tool presets for Photoshop CS5 & 6.

Thomas writes:

I purchased your dry media brushes for photoshop, and I wanted to thank you. It is very helpful to me, I always looked for something that could do a bridge between Photoshop and Painter. I now can do extremely playful and fun stuff with Phosothop (and of course, if I have fun doing my work, the result is much better).

John's Artists' Brushes and Dry Media for Photoshop CS5 & CS6 are each available for $19.95. If you have Photoshop CS5 or CS6 and are into painting, this will be the best investment you can make!

John's Artists' Brushes for Adobe Photoshop CS5

John's Dry Media for Adobe Photoshop CS5

If you have an image created with my brushes, send me a JPEG and I'll feature it here on the PixlBlog!

Karen Bonaker: Artists' Brushes Paintings

Karen Bonaker sent me a couple of nice examples of her work done using John's Artists' Brushes. Both paintings show off the Artists' Brushes textural and blending capabilities.

Karen is the proprietor of the Paintertalk digital art forum (registration required).

John's Artists' Brushes for Photoshop CS5 and John's Dry Media are each available for just $19.95. If you have Photoshop CS5 and are into painting, this will be the best investment you can make!

John's Artists' Brushes for Adobe Photoshop CS5

John's Dry Media for Adobe Photoshop CS5

If you have an image created using my brushes, send me a JPEG and I'll feature it here on the PixlBlog!

John's Dry Media User: Karen Bonaker

Artist Karen Bonaker writes,

Well I must say that I am enjoying CS5. I would like to take some time and learn Photoshop better in the coming year. With that said, here is my attempt with your Dry Media brushes. I used all the brushes and worked free hand from a sketch that I created from some scenes in Sedona recently. This is the culmination of those sketches.

Great fun and will try the clone brushes next.

Karen is the proprietor of the Paintertalk digital art forum (registration required).

If you have an image created using John's Dry Media, send me a JPEG and I'll feature it here on the PixlBlog!

John's Dry Media User: Susan Bloom

Artist, educator, and author Susan Bloom was a beta tester for my Dry Media brushes. Susan writes, "After help from John, to get my tools installed correctly, here is an attempt. There is a pattern overlay, that can be removed or modified. I took the painted layer and laid it over a grey background. A varied assortment of John’s brushes were used."

Susan's book, Digital Collage and Painting, Second Edition: Using Photoshop and Painter to Create Fine Art will be published next month. I highly recommend it!

If you have an image created using John'sDry Media, send me a JPEG and I'll feature it here on the PixlBlog!

John's Artists' Brush User: J. H. Gaspar

Click to view larger

J. H. Gaspar is an Internist working in the United Arab Emirates. Gaspar wrote, "I have done pencil drawings and watercolor paintings during my school years. After school, I did not get the luxury of time to continue painting due to studies and later working as a physician. I have always followed your work in the internet and I am a regular reader of your blog.

Your brushes have revived in me an interest in painting and here is the first painting I did after installing your brushes. It is not a professional painting work, it is just a simple expression to let you know that I love you and I admire your work from the depth of my heart. It is also to express my sincere thanks for making the Artists' brushes available to everyone with a passion for painting."

Thank you for your thoughts, Gaspar!

John's Artists' Brushes for Photoshop CS5 are now available at an introductory price of $19.95. If you have Photoshop CS5 and are into painting, this will be the best investment you can make!

John's Artists' Brushes for Adobe Photoshop CS5

If you have an image created using John's Artists' Brushes, send me a JPEG and I'll feature it here on the PixlBlog!