Calling all digital artists: An updated version of Microsoft’s Fresh Paint(Opens in a new window) app is emerging from preview and slated for release alongside Windows 8.1 on Oct. 18.

Some of the features will also be released for Windows Phone on Oct. 14.

In a blog post(Opens in a new window), Ira Snyder, the general manager of Microsoft’s Startup Business Group, ran down all the new features shipping with the free, touch-optimized Metro app. Artists can now paint watercolors with more realistic rendering and search for creatively stimulating paintings using “Inspire Me.” Other upgrades include “improvements to stylus pressure,” “a new graphite pencil set,” “unique oil textures,” and “the ability to make high quality canvas prints.”

Canvas printing, a highly requested feature, comes courtesy of printing company CanvasPop. If users feel their art is worth hanging up, they can simply send their masterpiece to CanvasPop for printing all from within the app. To celebrate the collaboration, CanvasPop is offering special deals(Opens in a new window) to Fresh Paint users during launch week. For anyone worried that their scribbles might not look so good blown up on a physical painting, Microsoft insisted that “we developed a way to scale the paintings after they were completed. This allows us to render very large prints even from small devices in a way that keeps the user experience simple, magical, and fun.”

Those small devices include Windows Phones, which can already download a mobile version(Opens in a new window) of Fresh Paint for free. Next week, however, the app will receive a “large refresh,” with many of the same new features coming to Windows 8.1. That includes access to new pencils sets and the ability to sync unfinished paintings across devices via SkyDrive.

For more advice on art, check out PCMag’s illustration software reviews.

Also see PCMag’s Hands On With Windows 8.1 Preview.