A friend, Jon Riva, showed this simple yet incredibly useful software to me just this weekend. It is worth checking out if you in any way design or otherwise create creatures, buildings, matte paintings, vehicles, etc.. It is just as useful if you simply like drawing or making abstract art!

Alchemy is a free, open source program that allows the user to draw basic silhouette shapes with lightning speed. You can then use a variety of shape and painting modifiers that can transform your sketch into.. who knows what. The gold in Alchemy is the speed at which you can start to generate ideas from what can sometime be called homemade Rorschach ink splotches.

You have to sign up for the mailing list to receive the link to download and there is no catch to signing up your email.

For best results, I suggest changing the “Style” (Left most button) to solid fill.

In the posted image here, the artist sketched various ideas in alchemy (Left hand side) and Painted over the sketches (Right hand side) with another software e.g. Photoshop or Painter.

www.al.chemy.org/
Interface Manual for Alchemy

Chad Fox
Visual Effects Artist | Modeler | Lighting TD | Instructor