Painting

Bleu builds worlds through painting things that come alive. Every brush has its own look and behaviour, and your stroke becomes the thing itself rather than an effect laid on top.

The palette

The palette runs along the bottom of the window. It holds World, then the brush categories Ground, Water, Wind, Fire, Wood, Metal, Plants and Animals, then Texture, Material and Mood, each group set apart by a divider.

• Tapping a category opens its tray of choices. Opening a tray never selects anything; choosing an item does. That activates it, closes the tray and shows its icon on the category.
• Afterwards, tapping the category brings back the choice you made there and opens its tray. The active category stays highlighted.
• Press Esc, tap the category again, or tap outside to close a tray.
• Every tray has a search box that filters its choices as you type. Press Enter to pick the first match.
• The three dots at the left of the palette choose which categories show. Hiding a category only hides its button, and a brush already in hand stays in hand. Nothing is hidden at first.

The brushes

There are sixteen brushes, two in each category.

What each one does

• Vine grows fuller leaves when you move slowly and finer growth when you sweep. A tap makes a small sprout.
• River fills your stroke with moving water. Slow strokes make wider banks, fast sweeps make narrow streams and a little spray, and a tap makes a pool.
• Flowers grow stems along your stroke, then unfold petals and sway. Slower strokes make denser flowers. A dab grows a single bloom.
• Embers ignite along your stroke with flickering tongues and rising sparks. Fast strokes make more sparks.
• Breeze reveals airy ribbons that keep flowing along your stroke. A dab makes a small curl of air.
• Crystals grow in clusters of faceted shards that twinkle. Slow, heavy strokes grow longer shards.
• Sand settles into a soft ridge with wind ripples and loose grains.
• Rain falls onto the line you drew and ripples where it lands. Slow strokes rain more densely.
• Clouds swell into soft drifting puffs.
• Candle flame lights along your stroke at different heights, leaning and flickering with a glow.
• Branch grows a bare limb that tapers and forks into swaying twigs.
• Roots spread a main root with rootlets that wander downward into fine hairs.
• Silver chain casts links along the line, alternately flat and edge-on, with a glint running down the chain.
• Copper spiral winds a coil that bounces slightly.
• Butterfly releases butterflies along your stroke, and they flutter near where they came from.
• Fish swim along your stroke as a lane, turning back at its ends.

Each brush also responds to a tap, and every brush makes its own quiet sounds. You can switch sound off in Edit → Settings….

Creations answer each other

Creations in the same painting respond to one another. The first example is water: Vine leaves and Flowers grow larger and fuller near a River or Rain, and ease back if the water is undone, whichever you painted first.

Undo, redo and reopening a saved painting always agree, because this is worked out from your strokes every time rather than stored.

Undo, redo and clear

Undo and Redo are in the toolbar and the Edit menu. Ctrl/⌘ Z undoes and Ctrl/⌘ Shift Z redoes. Clear removes the painting and can itself be undone.