Illustration
Bring ideas to life for published materials, fashion design and fantasy art using the most diverse digital art studio.
Make Your Own Illustration
Create your signature style with Painter®. Sketch, paint, illustrate and make unparalleled photo-art with hundreds of realistic brushes, exclusive media, and an array of artistic tools. Painter 2021 is as diverse as your imagination.
Paint from a blank canvas or create amazing photo art.
Create your own brushes, textures, patterns, palettes and so much more.
Enhance your paintings with outrageously creative brush packs.
Check out our user guides to see everything that’s included
Quick Start Guide User GuideFrom traditional paint brushes to those found only in the digital world of Painter, we’ve got your canvas covered with every brush and media type possible.
Add depth, texture, or movement to your art that is virtually indistinguishable from traditional media
Experiment with paint that will flow, mix, absorb and evaporate just like the real thing
Choose from hard variants that reveal texture to soft media that glides on to cover just when you need it
Physics-inspired brushes spring, flow and glow as they dynamically embellish your canvas
Some of the most beloved brushes in Painter result in luscious strokes in the spirit of John Singer Sargent
Artfully apply patterns of your choice using varying brushes to create layers of interest in your art
Paint with brushes that respond to angle, bearing, and flow data from a stylus, allowing for a truly realistic brushstroke
Looking for even more brushes for particular workflows? Check out our additional brush packs.
Take a closer look at what other artists are creating with Painter.
“For me, it is about enjoying the freedom of painting digitally while producing traditional fine art results. I can express my vision through a wide variety of mediums and textures. Painting with digital light allows me to bring the landscape to life.”
- Karen Bonaker
"Painter has revolutionized digital painting by allowing us traditional/non-traditional artists to create without worrying if the digital art will feel or look like traditional mediums. Painter allows every artist to create without boundaries or limitations. As Painter continues to evolve, the artist’s artwork progresses forward as well. Growth and change are something very important to an artist of any level."
- Collin Chan
"Painter offers me a way to bring what I love about Traditional mediums into a digital workflow. It allows me the freedom to make endless choices and mix mediums without worry. Watercolor in Painter mimics the natural blending and merging of colors on a textured paper the way one would traditionally paint wet into wet."
- Douglas Sirois
Preserve colors and layers with ease when transferring files between Photoshop and Painter
Support for stylus tilt, rotation, bearing & pressure control creates the most natural painting experience
Whether you’re a Mac or PC person we support both platforms with licensing and subscription options to suit you
Painter is built by artists for artists to create and develop their signature style.
Bring ideas to life for published materials, fashion design and fantasy art using the most diverse digital art studio.
Make Your Own IllustrationThe mixture of realistic natural media and unique Painter artistic tools offer the freedom to create amazing end results no matter what the subject matter.
Master Your SkillsTake advantage of Painter's versatility to quickly develop concepts for films, games and manufacturing and create environments, creatures and vehicles that inspire.
Create Better Concepts to Get PaidUse artificial intelligence to jump start the painting process. Next, use Auto-Painting and cloning tools to masterfully paint images and produce stunning keepsakes or sellable works of art.
Bring Your Photos to LifeImprove your overall Mac workflow in big ways!
On MacBook Pro and iPad, increase efficiency with new support for the Touch Bar that offers context-sensitive controls that change depending on the selected tool.
Responsive multi-touch Trackpad support allows you to perform useful actions by swiping and pinching, or spreading your thumb and forefinger on your trackpad.
Use Sidecar on macOS Catalina to use your iPad as a secondary display that mirrors your Mac desktop. The Painter UI will auto-adjust based on the resolution of your iPad.
With new tilt support for Apple Pencil, you can now tilt the selected brush while you paint to precisely control the shape of the brushstroke while using Sidecar.
Painter uses the latest and greatest machine learning (Core ML) technology from Apple to optimize your AI style experience.
Run the intuitive Brush Accelerator™, which makes the most of your computer’s hardware and graphics card, to deliver the best possible painting experience. Work faster with double the number of GPU accelerated brush technologies, optimized drip and liquid brush technologies, and quicker brush and tool switching.
Quick start your art by taking advantage of the 12 AI Styles that create a stylized painting from an image. Fine tune the settings for custom results and save your own presets. Experiment by adding a style, or more than one, to any type of imagery. Try stylizing a sketch, painting, illustration or just brushstrokes and see where styles can take you. Watch video
Enable the Clone Tinting feature while painting, then choose any color you like, use any clone brush, and render your clone source with custom color. This versatile tool also works with multi-point cloning allowing you to create entirely new compositions from existing artwork. Bonus! Create with a new Clone Tinting brush category.Watch video
Enhance your workflow by choosing to paint on any layer type and hide the canvas right from the New Image dialog. Visually identify what brushes are compatible with various layer types including Liquid Ink, Thick Paint and Watercolor. Plus take advantage of many other user-requested layer improvements.Watch video
Improve your overall Mac workflow in big ways!
On MacBook Pro and iPad, increase efficiency with new support for the Touch Bar that offers context-sensitive controls that change depending on the selected tool.
Responsive multi-touch Trackpad support allows you to perform useful actions by swiping and pinching, or spreading your thumb and forefinger on your trackpad.
Use Sidecar on macOS Catalina to use your iPad as a secondary display that mirrors your Mac desktop. The Painter UI will auto-adjust based on the resolution of your iPad.
With new tilt support for Apple Pencil, you can now tilt the selected brush while you paint to precisely control the shape of the brushstroke while using Sidecar.
Painter uses the latest and greatest machine learning (Core ML) technology from Apple to optimize your AI style experience.
Feature |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
User Interface & Tools |
||||
| NEW Artificial Intelligence Style panel | ||||
| NEW Photo art quick palette | ||||
| NEW Thick Paint layer controls | ||||
| NEW Watercolor layer controls | ||||
| ENHANCED Layer controls | ||||
| Color Harmonies | ||||
| Color ramps in sliders | ||||
| Mirror & perspective tools in brush property bar | ||||
| Narrow Brush Selector | ||||
| Single access point brush editing | ||||
| UI shape and media distinction | ||||
| Universal color picker | ||||
| Consolidated library panels | ||||
| Easy access to tool controls | ||||
| Inline dab and stroke previews | ||||
| UI for color controls | ||||
| Dark User Interface | ||||
| Drag to Zoom | ||||
| 650+ redesigned application icons | ||||
| Brush Hints | ||||
| Selection Brush Tool | ||||
| Texture Synthesis | ||||
| Customizable User Interface | ||||
| Customized Artist Layouts | ||||
| Interactive Gradient tool & Express Painting | ||||
| Palette Drawers | ||||
| Portable Brush Selector | ||||
| Quick Access Property Bars | ||||
| Visual Tooltips | ||||
| Brush Search Engine | ||||
| Color Wheel, Mixer, Color Sets | ||||
| Command Bar | ||||
| Composition Panels | ||||
| Document lighting control | ||||
| Fill Tool | ||||
| Image Navigator | ||||
| Paper and Flow Map Rotation | ||||
| Perspective Guides | ||||
| Reference Image Panel | ||||
| Symmetry Tools | ||||
| Transformation Tool | ||||
Photo Art Specific Tools |
||||
| NEW Artificial Intelligence Styles | 12 styles |
|||
| NEW AI Presets | 9 presets |
|||
| NEW Clone Tinting | ||||
| Clone color mode from all color UI | ||||
| Cloning with Texture | ||||
| Multiple Clone Sources | ||||
| Resize Clone Sources | ||||
| Transparency Cloning Support | ||||
| Auto-Painting Panels | ||||
| Clone Source Palette | ||||
Performance/Support |
||||
| NEW Apple Sidecar support | ||||
| NEW Apple Pencil support | ||||
| NEW Apple Touchbar support | ||||
| NEW Apple Trackpad two-finger gesture support | ||||
| ENHANCED Brush Accelerator™ | (introduced) |
|||
| EXTENDED GPU acceleration for stamp brushes | (2x more brushes supported) |
(introduced) |
||
| ENHANCED Drip & Liquid (Sargent) brush technologies | (up to 4x faster) |
|||
| ENHANCED Faster brush and tool switching | ||||
| ENHANCED Texture brush technologies | (up to 2x faster) |
|||
| Document manipulation | (up to 5x faster) |
|||
| Brush lag reduced | ||||
| Eraser tool lag reduced | ||||
| Pan, zoom and rotate speed | ||||
| Startup and shutdown speed | ||||
| Multi-Core support | ||||
| Wacom Multi-touch support | ||||
| Windows Touch support | ||||
| Adobe Photoshop support (PSD) | ||||
| Color Management support | ||||
| PNG support | ||||
| RTS support | ||||
| Wacom Tablet support | ||||
| 2-in-1 or dual personality | ||||
| 64-Bit Mac and Windows | ||||
Brushes |
||||
| NEW Thick Paint compatible brushes | 16 brushes |
|||
| NEW Clone Tinting brush category | 14 brushes |
|||
| NEW Layer compatibility icons | ||||
| ENHANCED Thick Paint brushes | (introduced) |
|||
| Fast and Simple performance brush category | ||||
| Fast and Ornate performance brush category | ||||
| Stamps | ||||
| Digital Watercolor | ||||
| Real Watercolor | ||||
| Impasto | ||||
| Natural Media Brush Library | ||||
| Sargent | ||||
| Selection brushes | ||||
| Dab Stencils | ||||
| Glazing | ||||
| Texture Cover | ||||
| Texture Source Blending | ||||
| Acrylics & Gouache | ||||
| Airbrushes | ||||
| Artists' Favorites | ||||
| Artists' Oils | ||||
| Audio Expression | ||||
| Blenders | ||||
| Chalk, Pastel & Crayons | ||||
| Cloners | ||||
| Dynamic Speckles | ||||
| Erasers | ||||
| F-X | ||||
| Image Hose | ||||
| Liquid Ink | ||||
| Markers | ||||
| Oils | ||||
| Palette Knives & Sponges | ||||
| Particles | ||||
| Pattern Pens | ||||
| Pens & Pencils | ||||
| Real Wet Oil | ||||
| Simple | ||||
| Smart Strokes | ||||
Content |
||||
| Patterns | ||||
| Flow Maps | ||||
| Gradients | ||||
| Images | ||||
| Looks | ||||
| Nozzles | ||||
| Papers | ||||
| Selections | ||||
| Textures | ||||
| Weaves | ||||
* Versions 1909 and later of Windows 10 are supported as well as versions that will be released during the life cycle of Painter 2021.
** Additional space may be required for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7
Find inspiration in our online gallery, featuring a diverse collection of artwork from Painter artists of different disciplines from around the world.
