2Paint a Picture is one of the most popular tools on Purple Mash, and for good reason! It contains a wide range of painting effects to make striking, digital art. 2Paint a Picture can be used for painting in a certain style (such as pointillism or impressionism), or with different mediums (such as acrylic or ink).

2Paint A Picture is a drawing tool that helps you to create various painting effects and combine these effect to make pictures. When you open the tool, a template choice screen opens, displaying all of the possible paint effects. Each paint effect has a short video explanation to go along side it.

• Simple - In the simple version, you can draw using the coloured painting tools.
• Spinner - Paint onto the rotating spinner and see the paint spread out. Use the slider at the top to change the speed of the spinner, which changes the way the paint spreads.
• Pattern - Draw your pattern in the small box on the top left of the pattern, your pattern will then repeat multiple times onto the main page.
• Slice - Draw into the triangular 'slice' section and see your pattern repeated around the circle. Adjust the size of the 'slice' by clicking and dragging the blue square.
• Abc - Create a pattern within the letters you type, with a choice of different fonts. A great activity for creating name labels.
• Belt - The page moves like a conveyer belt for you to paint on. You can increase or decrease the speed of the conveyor belt.
• Wet Paint - The paint will appear to drip down the page. You can adjust how much it drips.
• Ink - The paint appears like splodges of ink. When colours are places on top of each other, they merge together just like real ink.
• Lines - Use this effect to paint only in straight lines. This effect works well to create Mondrian-inspired artwork.
• Pointillism - Use small, distinct dots of colour to paint in the pointillist style.
• Poly-mosaic - Your picture will appear with a mosaic effect. Use the slider to alter the size of the mosaic pieces.
• Splash - A click is all that's needed to create a splash effect! Use the slider to alter the size of the splash. This effect works well when combined with others to create a firework display.
• Swirly - Create swirl effects on the page. Use the width slider to alter the size of the swirl.
• Impressionism - Paint in the impressionist style with this effect.
• Acrylic - Mimic acrylic paint with this effect. You can even water down the paint and mix colours.
• Poster Paint - Use this to create a textured paint effect.
• eCollage - With this effect, you can draw or upload images to create a collage

Other features of 2Paint a Picture include outlines, giving you the option of adding outlines of a face, body or 3D boxes to use in your artwork. The 3D boxes allow you to create perspective drawings and paintings, and the outlines do not appear when the image is printed. Another feature is the ability to add a background or other image to the canvas. You are also able to combine paint effects to create even more effective paintings.

2Paint a Picture is included within a Purple Mash subscription. If you're not currently a Purple Mash subscriber, you can get a free trial here.

However you use 2Paint a Picture, you can share examples via our Twitter or Facebook pages.