MetaCreations has developed this application with the total novice in mind......so that a total no-artistic-talent, like myself, could begin to draw shapes, and, in time, develop what they have drawn into something that at least resembles what one had in mind.

It has an intuitive interface which makes creating art easy and fun. ArtDabbler uses words that are familiar, like sketch pad, tracing paper, etc. so that you don’t have to first find out what they are describing. All the tools that you could possibly want are in "drawers" which are understandable even to the most uninitiated.

Probably the best part of Art Dabbler, and possibly the reason that it is as good as it is, is the type of tutors that they have built into the CD. For instance, if you want to learn how to make cartoon characters, they put in an actual step by step description of what to do. You can stop the description which appears on the left hand of the screen, and do what it is describing on the right side of the screen. Therefore, if you are trying to draw a head, looking to the right, it will tell you how, and you can “freeze” the screen until you have had a chance to draw it, and then go on to the next portion, i.e. putting in a nose, eyes, mouth, etc. It is a boon to all that want to draw, but just don’t know where to begin.

Another tutor explains everything one would want to know about how to animate cartoon characters showing how to make your drawing indicate motion just by drawing the heads and bodies in certain ways. By shaping the bodies differently, you can tell whether that character is a bully, or perhaps angry, or very calm and happy. This tutor explains the hows and whys of drawing characters and letting them tell you the story.

One of the other good parts of Art Dabbler is that you can do all of the above in any medium you wish, be it chalk, pencil, paint, etc.

However, I must admit that I was very disappointed in two areas. One was the Index where you would go to find help when you typed in a word. I found that this was something less than I expected. The other was that the Art Dabbler box shows tools from MetaCreations that "transforms your own ideas into art" via Kai’s Photo Soap and Kai’s Power Goo. From the way it is shown, it would appear that both Kai’s products are included with Art Dabbler, and I spent the better part of two days looking for those products when I wanted to use them. To my dismay they are not included and it was, after all, just advertising.  Misleading, to say the least.