Brushes Redux
Versatile, simple art app for many skill levels
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Brushes Redux
Pros: Simple user interface enables new art students as well as seasoned artists to use this toolkit according to their abilities.
Cons: Some very complex words in the options lists may confuse some students, and there's no tutorial to explain.
Bottom Line: Brushes Redux looks deceptively simple, but it's actually a sophisticated tool that can help students express their creativity.
Teachers can use Brushes Redux as a digital complement to their students' work with real-life brushes. One of the benefits of creating digitally is that you can easily achieve effects that are difficult to achieve when creating freehand with brushes. One exercise would be for students to compare and contrast techniques as they appear on canvas versus how they appear using the Brushes Redux app. Can they duplicate the experience? For beginners, teachers may want to talk about all the different brushes. What mood can different brushes evoke in your art? Don't expect your students' drawings to be magazine-cover worthy when they first start using Brushes Redux. Its numerous features can create masterpieces or messes.
Brushes Redux is a digital drawing and painting app with many features that offer students an outlet for creative expression. To use it, kids begin by simply tapping the "+" tab to open a new blank palette. Then, by swiping in a circular motion around the color wheel, tapping a color, and choosing one of 12 basic brushes (which can all be tweaked with numerous options), students can create whatever they envision. In addition to creating from a blank palette, students can paint on a photo or photos from their device's library. Pinch to zoom or change the palette size. The interface makes it easy to undo mistakes. Paintings are automatically saved in the in-app gallery or via Dropbox (if connected), and students can share creations via email (JPEG or PNG files), Facebook, or Twitter. Standouts: A cool feature that can help kids reflect on their artistic process is the playback feature -- tap the Play tab on saved art in the in-app gallery and it replays, step by step, how it was created.
Kids can learn about artistic composition, the color wheel, characteristics of the lines and shapes different brushes can create, vocabulary such as density and intensity, and more. Students can practice drawing and painting digitally using different forms (photos or a blank palette) as a starting point. They can also assess how changing brushes, the size of the canvas, and colors using a digital art format affects their creative process. If kids share their creations and watch the playback feature, they can also learn how other classmates' paintings were made, step by step, and they may learn a new technique or two from one another. A tutorial covering function and vocabulary would offer a boost to learning potential, although students who particularly enjoy learning through exploration and trial-and-error may not find the lack of a tutorial frustrating. One of the many benefits of using Brushes Redux is that there's no exposure to potentially iffy content, unlike some art apps that include access to online galleries. What's on Brushes Redux includes only what the students using the device create.
Learning Rating
Community Rating
A very basic photo editing tool that gives users a more artistic feel.
Overall: there are a ton of photo editing apps on the market. For a free tool this is a good tool and I would use it again. The lack of menu along the top threw me off at first, but once I spent some time with the program I really found it easy to use and manipulate.