As an artist or designer, I’m a pretty good shortstop; good range, strong arm, double play ready. But not much of an artist. Whatever gene that makes the eye see and the hand move to create artistic renderings was missing when I tried out for the team. Still, I have a growing collection of Mac apps which I hope will one day transform my inability to roam the infield into an ability to create– if not artistic masterpieces– art to be proud to show anyone other than a psychiatrist.
Besides, I like pastels. They’re soft and playful. Like ALF. That brings me to iPastels, a Mac app which draws and paints just like real pastels but without all the mess. Think MacPaint meets 21st century Mac app, with a pastel fetish.
iPastels looks much like a pastel drawing or painting set with options to blend colors in the sidebar palette, adjust chalk size, zoom in and out, go full screen, pan left and right, switch between layers.
Each color can be adjusted as needed. Click to pick the color, click again to adjust. Each color also has a button to switch between color sets. Most of the tricks of the pastel trade are available in iPastels. For example, paint with different colors, then use the Smudge tool as a finger to blend and smooth colors. The Cotton Swab tool works the same way only with more precision.
iPastels has plenty of options including customizable color sets and palettes, fullscreen mode, undo and redo, multiple layers (but only three; though they can be merged, flipped or blended). The free version gets you started, the Pro version adds many of the features above but has a price tag.