Photoshop Sketch is perfect for Photoshop or Illustrator artists to take down ideas for later.
And Photoshop Sketch supports the same setup as Procreate where you can paint directly on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil. It works much the same way but runs on a touchscreen and it can save all your artwork right to your Adobe Cloud account. This mobile app is a scaled-down version of Adobe Photoshop made to fit your smartphone screen. But it’s great for quick sketches and working out concepts from anywhere in the world. Just note: Sketchbook isn’t meant for fancy finished pieces so it’s not a true painter’s app. Or if you’re primarily a traditional artist and just want to quickly play with sketches before you commit to a course of action this app will definitely help you get started fast. If you’re just dipping your toes into digital art then this app is great. Autodesk’s predictive stroke feature is really cool and can speed up your drawing process quite a bit.
You can also get free brush sets for this app or upgrade for even more tools and premium brushes.
One nice feature: you can access your sketchbook from all of your devices whether they’re Android or iOS.ĭraw right in the app with a wide variety brushes, or use the app like a scanner and photograph your line drawings which you can adjust in the app.īy adjusting your existing drawings you can add a transparent background, new colors, and funky textures. You can use this for practice and to work out ideas, but not really to draw your finished pieces in. You can even adjust the stabilization settings to make your lines look sketchy and artsy, or you can turn it way up to get a little tighter.Īutodesk SketchBook basically works like a sketchbook for your mobile device. This app is great at line stabilization so it’s definitely a drawing app.
If you use a lot of solid colors this will probably work well for you. While it does have color mixing and blending capabilities, Concepts seems to work best for cartooning and technical illustrators, not so much for really painterly stuff. Mix colors and add them to your palette, or use the color vector picker to grab colors from existing images. The app comes with a variety of brushes and you can use layers to track your changes. Like Procreate, Concepts is designed to work best on an iPad with an Apple Pencil.
Start with the basic free app to try it out, and upgrade to pro later for more functionality.Ĭoncepts is designed for professional artists and boasts many users from Apple, Disney, PlayStation, Unity, and more.
If you’ve got time to learn the GUI you can create some seriously impressive stuff with this app. Biggest downside is that it’s currently iOS-only but hopefully that will change in the near future. Ultimately Procreate is a great drawing/painting app for artists of all levels, styles, and subjects. Of course, this is also a favorite choice of seasoned digital artists too. If so I highly recommend this list of free Procreate tutorials for beginners. This makes the app extremely intuitive to pick up, and a great option if you’re new to digital art and maybe nervous about jumping in.
The Apple Pencil may be the real star here because you can actually use it like a real pencil.Īs long as you use the pencil with a compatible Procreate brush you can actually manipulate your line quality with tilt and pressure, just like you would with a real pencil. The app works best when used with an iPad and an Apple Pencil.
But you can also make or purchase custom brushes that mimic traditional art mediums, or download other brushes online. Procreate comes equipped with tons of different tools and brushes by default so out of the gate it’s easy to use. You can create just about any kind of art with Procreate, from oil and acrylic style paintings to pixel art, lifelike graphite drawings, digital illustrations, and so much more. Procreate has been getting lots of attention lately, and for good reason: its capabilities are stunning. This list features something for everyone and we’re gonna cover plenty of variety to help you find a mobile drawing(or painting!) app to suit your needs. To help you get started we’ve curated the absolute best art apps for smartphones and tablets. Whether you’re an experienced digital artist or brand new to making art on a screen, you can easily find a user-friendly app that’s intuitive and makes it fun to draw(or paint!) for hours. No matter what kind of art you like to make or what kind of budget you have, there’s an app out there for you. That means if you buy something we get a small commission at no extra cost to you( learn more)Ĭreating art is easier than ever thanks to all kinds of incredible apps. Resources Digital Painting Written by McKella Sawyer Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.