Improving the Paint Ninja Drawing App
I’ve been quietly working on improving the Brush Ninja drawing app over the past few weeks. Nothing flashy on the surface, but lots of small upgrades that make it nicer to use.
There are a few new features, along with some general code tidy up to fix bugs and improve performance.
The biggest change is the addition of layers. You can now draw on separate layers, hide them, and build up your artwork in stages. It opens the door to more complex drawings without making things harder to manage, and it sets things up nicely for future features.
There’s also a brand new smudge tool. This lets you push colours around the canvas, a bit like dragging wet paint with your finger. It’s surprisingly fun. You can soften edges, blend colours, or just make a mess and see what happens.
I’ve also added a pipette tool. This one’s simple but useful. You can grab colours directly from your drawing instead of guessing or tweaking sliders. It makes it much easier to stay consistent, especially when you’re working with shading or gradients.
The paint brush has had some attention too. It feels smoother and more responsive, especially when drawing longer lines. There’s automatic smoothing to reduce jitter, better spacing, and it behaves more like you’d expect.
Overall, this is a solid step forward. The app still aims to stay simple and approachable, but it now has a bit more depth if you want it. Paint Ninja is still in beta, so I’m keen to keep improving it based on feedback and how people actually use it.
As with everything on Brush Ninja, it’s free to use, and there’s no account or sign up required. Just head over to the drawing app and give it a try.
← Building Better Teacher Guides for Brush Ninja
Related Posts
Brush Ninja Version 2
01 April 2020
It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. But I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of Brush Ninja over the last few months. As I mentioned last time, I’ve had to prioritise earning a living. Brush Ninja just about covers costs, but as a project I love it...
Making Brush Ninja Sustainable
29 March 2019
I made Brush Ninja mostly because I thought it was a fun thing to do, but it’s grown a lot bigger than I had imagined. The app is more complex, and has more features than I could have imagined when I started. I always new it had potential but I...
Recent Brush Ninja Updates
29 March 2019
I’ve not posted on the blog much recently, but Brush Ninja has not stood still. In this post I will explain some of the things I have been working on over the last few months. Transform Tools I have added the ability to scale, rotate and move the images you...