Artweaver

Artweaver is a painting program that records how you paint. Every stroke, every brush change and every layer operation is stored as an event. When the picture is finished, the whole process plays back from the first mark, at any speed, like a time-lapse you did not have to set up. Teachers use that to show a class how a painting was built.

Students use it to watch their own habits. Around the recording sits a full painting tool, with brushes that behave like their namesakes, from chalk and charcoal to airbrushes and oils. A brush palette opens every setting, layers come with groups and blend modes, and the common image editing tools and filters are there.

It comes in two editions. The basic one carries the painting engine, the layers, the recording and playback, and files in the main professional format with layers intact. The Plus edition adds the advanced brush types, finer pen tablet support, protected recordings and a mode in which several artists paint the same picture at once over a network.

Artweaver has recently returned its brush palette to the centre of the window after an experiment with an editor. The sections below describe the brushes, the layers, the recording and the collaboration, and where the program shows its age.

Brushes that behave like their names

The Artweaver brush list is organised by medium. Pick a pencil and the stroke thins with light pressure and darkens with heavy. Pick chalk and it breaks up on the texture. The airbrush builds up softly, the oil brush lays colour that mixes with what is already there, and a sponge dabs. Each brush is a set of parameters, and the brush palette opens them all, size, opacity, spacing, jitter, texture, how the stroke smooths and how it fades. Change a few and save the result as a new brush, or build one from an image stamp.

The current release moved the things a painter reaches for most into the brush tool itself. Zoom and rotation, the colour and the last few brushes used sit in a quick access strip. Symmetry painting is a toggle on the tool rather than a separate one, and the clone source is chosen from the tool’s options.

Pen calibration has its own dialog with a scratch pad for testing pressure curves. The advanced brush types, the hairy brush, the pixel brush and the watercolour, belong to the Plus edition, and so do some brush methods such as colourising and warping.

Layers and editing tools

Artweaver layers stack with opacity and blend modes, group into folders, and lock individually. Text sits on its own editable layer until you decide to flatten it. Selections and transforms cover the editing side, along with gradients and fills, plus a filter set for colour and blur and for sharpening and distortion. The program accepts plugins written for the common professional editor, which opens a large library of effects.

Files open and save in the professional format with layers, and in the usual image formats, with WebP added in the current line. The Plus edition extends the professional format support to layer groups, saved selections and the large-document variant.

For an editor built around photographs rather than painting, Paint.NET covers the other half of the ground with a conventional interface.

Recording and replaying a painting

The event recording is the Artweaver signature. It is on by default, it adds no noticeable load while you work, and when you are done the whole session plays back in the window, and it can be paused and scrubbed. A recording can be saved as an event file and replayed later, or embedded in the program’s own document format so the painting and its history travel together. The Plus edition can protect a saved event file so it plays but cannot be edited.

That turns a finished picture into a lesson. A tutor records a demonstration and hands the file to the class, who watch every decision at their own pace. An artist checks where a painting went wrong. A time-lapse for a portfolio comes out with no screen recorder and no editing.

For a painting program with onion skinning and a timeline for animation rather than replay, Krita is the fuller tool, and it has long been the comparison this one is measured against.

Painting together over a network

The Plus edition of Artweaver adds a team mode. Several artists open the same document and paint on it at the same time, over a local network or the internet. A team set up through a hosting service makes a session reachable from anywhere. Each person’s strokes appear on everyone’s canvas as they are made. It is built for a class painting together, a pair of illustrators working one piece, or a demonstration where the tutor and a student share a canvas.

The feature is unusual, and it is the clearest reason to look at the Plus edition. For solo painting it never comes into play, and the basic edition’s painting engine is the same.

Where it shows its age

The Artweaver interface is the recurring note in reviews, and it is fair. The palettes and dialogs look like an earlier generation of design software, and newcomers who have used the modern painting tools find it plain. The advanced brush types and the finer tablet support sit behind the Plus edition, so the basic one paints well but with a shorter brush list and simpler pen handling. Reviewers also place it below the professional painting suites in depth, which is true and beside the point for the audience it serves.

For a sketchbook-style painter with an exceptional brush feel and nothing else, a painting tool built around its brush engine is the minimalist alternative. This one sits in the middle, a painting program with recording and editing tools that a beginner can open and a class can share.

Conclusion

Artweaver suits beginners learning to paint digitally, teachers who want to show a class how a picture is built, and anyone who wants a painting program that keeps a replay of every session without extra software. The brushes behave like their names, the layers and editing tools cover the basics, and the recording is a feature nothing in its class does as simply.

Its interface is dated and its best brushes and its collaboration sit in the Plus edition. Start with the basic edition, keep the recording on, and the replay of your own first paintings will teach more than most tutorials.