Simile - Paint Like a Master 4+

Painting Game with Grid Method

Save The Machine

Designed for iPad

    • 3.9 • 90 Ratings
    • Free
    • Offers In-App Purchases

Screenshots

Description

With Simile's patent-pending process you can paint like a master. By applying the best painting techniques like the “Grid Method” and “Right Brain Drawing” with the benefits of gamification, a killer toolset, and advanced image processing, Simile turns painting a masterpiece into child’s play. Choose from the many built-in paintings covering still lifes, portraits, landscapes and more. Even better, you can paint your own photos and make them as simple or as complex as you want. Simile also makes painting a social activity. You, your family and your friends can collaborate on paintings. When you’re done you can share these masterpieces online, order high-quality prints and canvases right from within the app, or if a t-shirt is more your style, you can wear your art on your sleeve.

Grid Method:
Borrowing a technique first used in ancient Egypt and mastered by Leonardo Da Vinci, M. C. Escher, and Vincent van Gogh, Simile uses the Grid Method. It divides the painting into a grid and, as a result, changes a challenging painting into a series of smaller, easier paintings. The technique ensures that results are accurate and have proper proportions.

Right Brain Drawing:
A challenge for anyone learning to draw is to turn off the symbolic part of their brain, that part that tries to interpret the world around it. This makes it difficult to draw what is seen and not draw the “meaning” of what is seen. For example, when trying to draw a person, most beginners will draw something that resembles a stick figure. Simile only presents one small part of the entire image at a time, hiding the rest. The intent here is to make it unclear what part of the image you are drawing, which in turn, switches off the brain’s symbolic processing so that it won’t get in the way.

Gamification:
People often do better at a task when it’s made into a game. So why not apply that to painting. Simile scores your painting in real time as you work. By trying to maximize your score, you’ll be improving your painting. Simile’s arcade mode also adds timing to the mix; not only do you have to paint well, but you also have to do it fast. This challenge is surprisingly fun, and the results are far better than you might think. I’ve gotten much better the more I’ve played. I bet you will too.

Killer Tools:
Simile has the standard tools, like paintbrushes, a paint bucket, undo, and supports the Apple Pencil (types 1 and 2) on the iPad. It also has a False Color tool which makes it much easier to distinguish between two shades of the same color (with extra options for color blind people). Simile's Grid tool further extends the Grid Method to each tile, and if you’re really stuck, you can turn on outlines which shows you the boundaries of each color. Simile rounds out the toolset with a pipette to help pick the right color.

Advanced Image Processing:
Another challenge for beginning artists is to represent the real-world (which has an infinite variety of colors) with a finite set of paint colors. Simile’s advanced image processing simplifies images to keep things looking real, without being too hard.

Multiplayer:
Simile’s masterpiece mode supports up to 100 people collaborating on one painting. This feature is great for making a grandmother’s day present from her grandkids or for a group of friends that want to complete a painting together. No In-app purchases are required to use this feature, so the sky’s the limit on who you invite to join you. Also, because Simile uses iCloud for collaboration, there is no sign-in needed.

High-Quality Prints:
Simile has partnered with Kite.ly to help turn your virtual art into real-world art. You can order canvas prints, framed prints, posters, t-shirts, mugs, magnets, and phone cases of your artwork.

Music:
We’ve included background music made exclusively for Simile by Leonty Music. It's designed to subtly change as you touch the screen when painting. We also recommend painting to your favorite songs, books or podcasts.

What’s New

Version 1.0.11

User names, initials and player numbers fit better into the available space when displaying painting signatures.
Includes various other minor improvements.

Ratings and Reviews

3.9 out of 5
90 Ratings

90 Ratings

oxo666 ,

Lovely, but can be difficult

Honestly leaving a review only because reviewers that insist on an app being free and complaining about the price is a huge pet peeve considering the amount of time and effort an independent developer has put into it.

The app itself is pretty fun, though I usually play in short snippets rather than large areas at a time because I find myself getting a little frustrated because I can’t see under my finger (hah). It’s probably much easier and much more fun with the iPad Pro and the Apple pencil (which I have neither, unfortunately).

If it’s possible, I think having a list of the IAPs in the settings section (in addition to where they normally are) would be convenient, because I got a bit lost trying to find out how to buy the extra tools.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your feedback! I'm glad you are enjoying my game. In regards to seeing under your finger, that is tricky, but I have a few suggestions. 1. Your results will often look great, even if they aren't perfect. Make something that reasonably resembles the original, and then look at your score, if it's at 3/4 or higher (750) your results will likely be beautiful. 2. There are a number of capacitive touch screen stylus options available which will work well with your iPhone. I've found their prices to be extremely reasonable. You may want to give those a try. Note: It is not necessary to use a stylus to get great results. Most of the painting for the app marketing screenshots (see above), I did with my finger.

In regards to IAP in the settings, I'll give that some thought. Thanks.

itrenç ,

5 star to 2 star

Wow, I loved this app the moment I downloaded it. As I worked in arcade mode I was going through all the various ways this could actually help me in my own arts. Everything about this was perfect. The Apple rate box popped up and I immediately gave it the 5 stars I thought it deserved. Then I moved on to my next painting. Oh wait, that one costs money. Makes sense, they’ve gotta make their money somehow. I move to the next painting. It costs money as well. So then I just start looking for any that do not. There are literally only two (that I found). Wow. This is *not* a professional art app, devs. I love the work you’ve put into this but the prices you are asking are totally not justified. Again, it’s a great app... it’s just the business model that’s killing it. You either need much more free content and features to counter offset these prices or just lower the prices to something much more reasonable—possibly a bit of both. Otherwise I feel a lot of people are going to do what I’m about to do and just begrudgingly uninstall it 30 minutes after discovering it. What a shame. Wishing all the best for the future of the app here. Really.

hunterjen ,

Relaxing and creative!

A really cool little app. I opened it thinking I'd spend just a couple of minutes checking it out, and found myself enjoying it so much, I worked on three tiles. Love the little rating scale, so there's a sense of whether I'm doing OK as I go, and also the sense of satisfaction as I complete each tile. The collaboration feature is one I haven't tried yet but is such a cool idea! One thing I would suggest is that I got a little frustrated after a couple of tools because I would have liked to see a wider range of brushes. My husband (who also downloaded it!) tells me that's available as an upgrade--I didn't even realize there are upgrades in the app, so a little pop up after a level or two might be a good idea?
Thanks for a fun, creative little app that's not a video game!

Developer Response ,

There are 3 Brush sizes that you can activate for free (Small, Medium and Large). To activate these, press the '+' button and tap the paintbrush. Now turn on "S, M & L Brushes". The default behavior (this option off) is to vary the brush size based on how much of your finger is touching the screen.

In-App Purchases

Baby Painting
Baby Painting
Paint a baby (Level 1)
$0.99
Kitten Painting
Kitten Painting
Paint a black & white striped kitten (Level2)
$1.99
Custom Painting
Custom Painting
1 Painting From Your Photos
$2.99
Unlock Your Personal Photos
Unlock Your Personal Photos
Unlock All of Your Photos for Use in Simile
$14.99
Launch Collection
Launch Collection
12 built-in paintings, custom photos, 3 tools
$24.99
Surf's Up
Surf's Up
Paint a surfer in a barrel wave (Level 3)
$1.99

App Privacy

The developer, Save The Machine, has not provided details about its privacy practices and handling of data to Apple. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

No Details Provided

The developer will be required to provide privacy details when they submit their next app update.

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