Impress

Overview
Impress is an app that's easy to use. After installing it on my iPod Touch I quickly grabbed a picture (iPhone users have the option to shoot a picture too) and started painting. I was impressed with how easy it is to change the brushes, and the variety that these adjustments give the user.

When you're painting you can zoom in and move around the picture with the pinch control. There are about 6 brushes or so which can be adjusted by moving the crosshairs around the screen. The settings are such that you can get almost any kind of effect you want out of a brush. If you make a mistake there's an erase mode available too.

Pros
It was really easy to start painting with this app. I grabbed a picture of my night stand from my iPod and started working on it. Don't ask me why I grabbed this one, I've just always liked this picture for some strange reason. The way the app chooses the colors automatically is nice. I like not having to worry about that. I also worked on a picture of the old Transformer Jetfire (not the new one) that I found. This was cool too, but I didn't post it here because wasn't patient enough for all of the details.

Cons
There are a couple of things I would like to see added as Impress develops. It would be nice to add layers, and the ability to add text. I think these things can be done without ruining the simplicity of the app. Maybe revising the way zoom and painting are handled would be recommended too. Oftentimes I accidentally painted when zooming or moving the picture around, which then required me to move to Erase mode.

Conclusion
Impress, for what it's designed to do, is quite impressive. It's no Brushes, but it's not trying to be. It's made so that anyone can make a nice looking painting with just a little bit of time and patience. Impress's aim is simplicity and it hits the mark. It's a great app and you can't go wrong for only $0.99.

Impress Gallery: http://marioguimaraes.com/impress/Gallery.html