10 Relaxing VR Painting Apps

10 Relaxing VR Painting Apps (2023)

VR Painting is a breathtaking experience that’s surprisingly calm and realistic. There’s been people who have been able to create masterpieces inside of VR!

If you’re wondering:

Can you learn to paint in VR?
What’s the difference between VR painting and real life painting?
What are some drawings which people have done in VR?

I cover everything you need to know about VR Painting here.

1. Vermillion ($19.99)

Vermillion is the most realistic oil painting app in VR and the one I recommend most!

You can mix/combine colors, adjust how hard you’re pressing the brush to the canvas and even use a projector to overlay an image to the canvas so you can follow along!

It’s suitable for both beginners and pros. If you know nothing about art, Vermillion has an in-built browser where you can watch online lessons on how to paint (Bob Ross and Stuart Davies are two my favorites).

Painting Resources:

If you’re already a pro, you can just play some relaxing music on the browser :)

There’s options to export your painting in 8K quality too! See the art that others have created here.

Overall this is my number one recommended app if you have a VR ready PC. The only downside is that it’s not available on Quest Store, only Steam Store and Rift Store for now.

2. Open Brush (FREE)

Google’s Tilt Brush has been made open source, and Open Brush is a fork of Tilt Brush. They’re basically the same app, but Open Brush is free with more features, and is still being actively developed.

For this reason, if you see Tilt Brush on the store, don’t bother buying it.

Open Brush allows you to paint in the 3D VR space as opposed to Vermillion’s brush to canvas 2D art. You can create 3D objects and even add some animation effects to them. There’s a wide variety of brushes to choose from ranging from normal paint brushes to glitter effects and flame effects.

Note: It doesn’t include an in-app browser.

You can get Open Brush on Oculus Store (App Lab) or Steam Store.

3. MultiBrush (FREE)

Multibrush is also another branch of Google’s Tilt Brush that allows you to play in online multiplayer.

I use this tool when I want to have fun with friends. It’s a great social experience to get your friends into and I highly recommend it!

Compared to Open Brush, it has less features and is less actively developed, but the multiplayer makes this more than worth it.

Note: It doesn’t include an in-app browser.

You can get Multibrush from Quest Store (App Lab) or SideQuest

4. Art Studio VR ($14.99)

Art Studio VR shines in its 3D texture modelling i.e. you can paint on 3D objects such as vases.

Here’s a short video demonstrating texture modelling by Daniel Santalla, the creator.

There’s also an option for brush to canvas painting. There’s no in-app browser, but that’s a feature that’s being developed.

You can get Art Studio on the Quest Store (app lab).

5. Painting VR ($12.99)

Painting VR is like Vermillion, but available for Quest users.

It includes an in-app browser.

If you have PCVR, I’d still recommend Vermillion over this because it’s more realistic and allows you to export the art in a higher resolution.

However, if you only have the standalone Quest without powerful computer, you’ll still have loads of fun with this app. It’s got an in-built browser too.

Painting VR is available in the Quest Store.

6. Quill by SmoothStep (FREE)

Whilst other apps are for 2D and 3D painting, Quill by SmoothStep is for animating.

You can find some masterpieces that were created with Quill in VR Animation Player (check out the series ‘Tales from Soda Island”).

You need a VR-Ready PC in order to use Quill.

Quill is available on the Rift Store or on the official Quill website.

VR Painting Games

These are more focused on the ‘fun’ and ‘relaxing’ aspect rather than the ‘creating artistic masterpieces’ aspect, although they may fall into both categories.

1. SculptrVR ($19.99)

This is my favorite art game in VR! It’s so cool because it has multiplayer and you get to work with your friends to create a beautiful world where you can walk and hang around!

You also design your own characters!

Once you finish designing your world, you also get to experience the world in a hang glider which is awesome!

There’s also an option to export your worlds to .obj for sharing to other people or for 3D printing.

Sculptr is available on Oculus Quest and Steam Store.