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Wet & material strokes

One of the joys of painting physically is seeing materials react with each other. Colors can smudge and mix, while texture and bumps reflect the light and surrounding environment. The strokes on this page emulate these phenomena by sampling the background and virtual environment based on the pixels they cover. Some look more realistic; others are more exaggerated.

Wet strokes

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Strokes that sample and move the background beneath them. From top to bottom: a watercolor wash, a brush dragging color along its path, and a combination of the two using less water.

Oil strokes

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Thick paint: the drag of a wet stroke beneath a dominant paint color, illuminated with a height field to emphasize the bumpy texture.

Material strokes

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From top to bottom: metal reflecting a virtual environment, metal reflecting the actual background, and glass. A height field determines how each stroke reflects colors from a virtual environment or refracts colors from the canvas, conveying the qualities of each material.

Try drawing

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Try drawing freely with the tools on this page.