Those snazzy, short videos will not only teach you how to access different tools, but also give you ideas on what to do with them. Here's what it looks like to make a watercolor-vomit monstrosity in Fresco.įor our purposes, though, the most important parts of Fresco are the free coloring books (new ones will be released weekly throughout the spring) and a bunch of in-app tutorial videos. And if you just want to smear a bunch of uncolored water on something, nothing will stop you. You can even adjust the amount of water or paint used in the virtual watercolor brushes. It comes with a ton of cool brushes, including oil- and watercolor-style effects that realistically smear on different canvas types if you so choose. Adobe's coloring books are also compatible with Photoshop (you can just print them out, too, if you want), but the free-to-start Adobe Fresco app is the way to go here.įresco, for those of you not pursuing careers in graphic design, is a free app download on iPad or Windows Surface tablets that uses the familiar layer-based interface of Photoshop for illustration. Artistic training wheelsįull disclosure: Adobe let us borrow an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil for testing purposes.

Sure, it's tough to justify the cost of the hardware if all you want to do is casually color inside some lines, but it's an impressive example of tech making even the worst artists feel competent. Thanks to Adobe's new Fresco-compatible digital coloring books, that classic grade school activity can now become an amusing and time-consuming quarantine hobby. One thing I can do, however, is color in between the lines of things that someone much more talented drew. At least crude paintings by Neanderthals and zoo elephants have historical and scientific value. Hand me a canvas and some paint, and the most I'll be able to give you is a random, deeply unappealing splattering of colors.

I might be the worst artist in the world.Īlright, that's probably a little hyperbolic, but I'm pretty awful.

Adobe fresco ipad pro