The grove toolkit

Grovetracks is built around a few powerful ideas: symmetry tools that multiply your creativity, a browser that connects every drawing, and a lineage system that tracks how art evolves.

Canvas tools

Kaleidoscope symmetry

Activate the kaleidoscope and every stroke you draw is mirrored across 2 to 12 radial sectors. Draw a single curve and watch it bloom into a mandala. Adjust the sector count in real time to shift between subtle bilateral symmetry and dense, intricate patterns.

How it works

  1. Tap the kaleidoscope icon in the toolbar
  2. Choose your sector count (2–12)
  3. Draw — every stroke mirrors instantly

Pattern on path

Draw a small motif, then trace a path across the canvas. Your motif repeats along the curve, automatically scaled and rotated to follow the path. Great for borders, vines, chains, and decorative edges.

  1. Draw your motif
  2. Switch to path mode and trace a curve
  3. Your motif plants itself along the path

Shapes & stamps

Quick-access geometric shapes and stamp tools for building structure. Circles, rectangles, lines, and polygons snap to the grid or flow freehand.

Tree mode & universe mode

Every doodle starts in one of two modes, and the mode shapes how your creation connects to the rest of the grove.

Tree mode

Others can branch and remix your work, and every stroke traces back to a single root. Collaborators welcome — but no outside integrations. The whole tree grows from one shared canvas.

Universe mode

Open the Grove Browser, weave in other compositions, and build something from many sources. Universe mode tracks every connection — the full web of what you drew and what you wove in.

ExploreFollowingSavedWovenStudies

The Grove Browser

Open the Grove Browser from inside the canvas to search, browse, and integrate other compositions into your work. Five tabs organize everything you need:

Explore — Search and browse all published compositions in the grove.
Following — See recent work from artists you follow.
Saved — Your bookmarked compositions, ready to weave in.
Woven — Compositions already integrated into your current drawing.
Studies — Reference images and studies pinned alongside your canvas.

Integrations

When you weave a composition into your work, you get a full set of tools to make it fit. Every integration is non-destructive — the original stays untouched while you shape how it appears in your piece.

Move & resize

Position and scale any integrated composition on your canvas. Drag to place, handle to resize.

Rotate

Spin an integration to any angle. Align it with your composition or set it at an unexpected tilt.

Color styles

Apply color transformations — remap the palette, shift hues, or match the integration to your drawing's color scheme.

Include & exclude

Select which parts of an integration to show or hide. Clip sections to reveal only what fits your composition.

Flip

Mirror an integration horizontally or vertically for the perfect orientation.

Studies are your private sketchbook inside the canvas. Pin reference images, experiment with compositions, and develop ideas without publishing. When you're ready, weave your studies into finished work.

Only you can see your studies. Experiment freely without committing to the grove.

Promote a study into a published composition, or integrate it into new work through the Grove Browser.

HandTracedProc.

The doodle dag

Every composition in Grovetracks knows where it came from. When you remix, branch, or integrate another drawing, the system records the connection. The result is a directed acyclic graph — a living web of creative lineage.

Three source types

Every composition in the grove has one of three origins, and all three feed into the same creative web.

Hand-grown

Created on the canvas by a human artist, stroke by stroke. The most personal source type — every line is intentional.

Procedural

Algorithmic art generated by Understory, our procedural art engine. Mathematical patterns, fractals, and organic forms — building blocks designed to be remixed.

Traced

Photographs converted into stroke-based compositions through edge detection and tracing. The camera becomes a drawing tool.

Blooms & trellises

Seeds power two systems: trellises frame your work with decorative borders, and blooms let you send real warmth to compositions you love.

Learn how blooms work →
Spruce

Spruce your compositions

The Spruce button appears on any composition you own. Tap it to open a picker where you can apply a trellis border from your collection and set a bloom color — all in one place.

How it works

  1. Open any composition you've published
  2. Tap the Spruce button beneath the artwork
  3. Choose a border from your trellis collection
  4. If your composition has been bloomed by another grover, you can choose the bloom color

Don't have any trellises yet? Visit the Trellis Shop to start your collection. Trellis Shop →

Ready to start growing?

Pick up a pen, trace a photo, or explore what others have grown. The grove is waiting.

Start creating