Adobe announced today on its blog, its upcoming iPad drawing and painting app will be dubbed by the name of Adobe Fresco. Previously called as Project Gemini, the app will be arriving sometime later this year. Adobe first announced Fresco back in October 2018, giving everyone a sneak peek of the software at Adobe Max 2018. The software seems to be inspired by the classic technique of applying pigment to wet plaster, the app is intended “to inspire spontaneous creativity”, quoted Adobe.
“Adobe scientists have studied the chemistry of common real-world pigments like cobalt and ochre. They’ve looked at the physics of how watercolors are absorbed into thick, cotton-based paper. And they’ve examined the ways that a thick slash of oil paint dries to add dimension to a painting,” wrote Scott Belsky, Creative Cloud executive vice president in a blog post.
What sets Fresco apart from its competitors like Procreate, ArtRage, Paper, Zen Brush and even Adobe’s own Sketch, are the availability of “live brushes” that simulate the interaction of ink or paint with paper. It’s a feature of the artificial intelligence work that Adobe brands as Sensei.
This means that watercolor paints flow and blend and with it you can even paint with just water and smeary blobs of oil paint can intermix. Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky boasted Sunday that the live brushes are “something that no other drawing and painting app can match.”
Adobe explains how ‘live brushes’ offer a more “organic” painting style:
Fresco (“fresh”in Italian) is a painting technique that has been used for centuries all over the world. The artist spreads a layer of plaster on a wall or ceiling, then — while the plaster is still wet — paints the image using a simple mixture of pigment and water. A chemical reaction binds the pigment to the still-wet plaster and the image becomes a part of the wall. Once the plaster is dry, the painter has to stop – the chemical magic is gone.
However, Adobe hasn’t provided an exact timeline about its release, but the company does say to expect it “soon.”