Sometimes I just can’t think of a punchy title…

Today’s program is Twisted Brush. There are several versions of this – the free one is Twisted Brush Open Studio.

A friendly ‘Quick Start Guide’ pops up when you open the program, but some of the controls use slightly confusing terminology – for example you need to click on ‘Load from file as new [Import image]’ to upload your photo.

Once you’ve sussed that, there are lots of Filters to play with, and most can be tuned. Indeed some of them, mostly the ‘Generate’ group, make you think your image has vanished into cyberspace when you first click on them. Playing with the sliders and the ‘Mix Mode’ section  will bring it back in a wonderful variety of formats.  [If nothing seems to happen, check that the ‘Preview’ box is ticked!]

Each of these was made from one of the 17 options under ‘Generate’.

As you can see, Twisted Brush has unusual filters as well as more common ones.

 

 

And these all resulted from playing in the ‘Stylize’ section. I wasn’t feeling particularly girlie, they just turned out pink – apart from bottom right, which is ‘Fingerprint’.

 

 

Back to the passion flower – these are all ‘Artistic’ effects. The abstract is ‘Crayon’ with the ‘Size’ slider moved well to the left.

 

There is a lot to play with in Twisted Brush  - I think complete newbies might find it a bit overwhelming. Possibly it is also a good one to look at if you are into paint programs.

The Quick Start Guide looks helpful, but can be a bit confusing because it also refers to the paid-for version.  One to come back to when I feel in the mood to play, I think  …

The portfolio is packed and isn’t too full, the required passport sized photo [who is that woman with the grey hair?] is in my bag, and the nails are being chewed. Fortunately I have a busy day tomorrow so not much time to worry, but I may not post – either because I haven’t had time or I’ve hit the gin. [Actually we’re going out with Mr and Mrs Cheddar which is a very  good thing…]