4 Favorite Apps I Can’t Live Without

As an artist, I’m always on the lookout for tools that help me stay creative, organized, and efficient—both in the studio and behind the scenes. Over time, I’ve found a handful of apps that have become absolute musts for me. Whether I’m photographing my work, editing a painting digitally, or prepping content for social media, these apps have made a huge difference.

Here are 4 of my favorites that I use regularly
in both my art and business:

🎨 Snapseed – For Beautiful, Polished Photos of Your Work

Presenting your work at its best is so important. Snapseed is a powerful, user-friendly photo editing app that gives me full control over brightness, contrast, color balance, sharpening, and even perspective correction. I always strive to make the photo of the painting look as closely as possible to the real painting. It’s free!

🎬 CapCut – For Simple Yet Stunning Videos

Whether I’m making a time-lapse of a painting or creating a quick Instagram Reel, CapCut makes video editing simple and easy. It has transitions, music, text, and filters that make videos look polished without needing a big learning curve.

You can create short, engaging videos that show your creative process, or tell the story behind a piece. Video is one of the most powerful tools for building a connection with people, isn’t it?

🖌️ Brushes Redux – For Sketching & Digital Edits on the Go

This digital painting app is a bit like my digital sketchbook. I use Brushes Redux all the time to test edits and make composition decisions before committing to real paint. It’s not as robust as Procreate (which I also have but haven’t learned yet!), but for my needs, it’s perfect—and it’s free!

You can quickly sketch out ideas, adjust compositions, or explore color palettes. I even trace over photos sometimes to simplify shapes and values. It’s especially helpful when I’m trying to figure out how to fix something on a painting or when I am not certain what direction I should go into.

🖼️ Wall Picture 2 – For Visualizing Your Art in Real Spaces

I’ve found that many people struggle to visualize what a painting will look like in their space. Wall Picture 2 solves that problem beautifully.

This app lets you insert your artwork into room mockups or even real photos to show what it would look like framed and hung. I always make sure to use the right scale so people get a realistic view of size and placement.

You can showcase your works for portfolio presentations, marketing, online sales or just show on social media . Seeing artwork in context helps people “see” in their space.

I hope these inspire you to try something new or streamline your creative process. Got any favorite apps of your own? I’d love to hear about them!