15 Great Drawing Apps For the iPad
Packed with digital pens, brushes, all kinds of colors, create digital masterpieces with these illustration apps
Any iPad can be used as an art studio with the right apps and accessories. Its powerful processor and high-resolution screen make for a great virtual canvas—one that almost feels like a piece of paper you can take anywhere.
But with hundreds of sketching and drawing apps in the Apple Store, knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. Here are ten of the most popular apps used by creatives and artists looking to expand their digital toolkit.
Procreate
Many illustrators, designers, and artists use Procreate to draw on iPad or iPad Pro—these days, the popular platform is the baseline against which other sketching apps are judged.
Use a digital pencil, and it's almost like illustrating on real paper while getting the extra bonuses that come from the app: Procreate supports a wide variety of brushes (even customized ones), offers tools for animation, and has the option to export a timelapse video of every drawing you make.
To learn the basics, try illustrator Brad Woodard's online Procreate for beginners course.
Price: $9.99.
Linea Sketch
Linea Sketch is a universal app for the iPad and iPhone—all of your drawings can be synced across your devices via iCloud. A program that was "optimized for Apple Pencil", although Linea Sketch will work without one, using the accessory does improve the user experience and expand creative possibilities.
Like Procreate, you can use the app to export timelapse videos of drawings, and there are multiple tools and shortcuts specially designed for technical drawing to explore.
Price: Free; with a monthly ($0.99) and yearly ($9.99) subscription model to access premium features like watermark-free image exporting.
Flow by Moleskine
A beautiful digital notebook or sketchbook from the brand behind some of the most famous analog ones, Moleskine's Flow is a versatile program. In addition to being a nice application for drawing, it's easy to use in other contexts, like for research or taking class notes.
It's got an endless canvas, as well as custom tools and colors so you don't have to search through different menus to find the ones you use the most.
Price: Requires a monthly or annual subscription (around $12 per year; free trial available).
Adobe Fresco
Adobe Fresco has the quality and attention to detail creatives all over the world have come to expect from Adobe. It offers all kinds of tools, effects, and smart features—like Live brushes that react the same way oils or watercolors would when applied to different surfaces. It also works across iPad, Mac, and Windows so you can swap between working on the tablet and computer, or vice versa.
Want to learn more? In Carina Lindmeier's Adobe Fresco for Beginners course, she teaches how to make the most out of the program.
Price: Free (offers in-app purchases).
Adobe Photoshop
Another hugely popular digital program for both photographers and illustrators, Adobe launched Photoshop for iPad in 2019. While earlier comparisons between the desktop and the iPad app found the latter lacking some key tools, improvements and updates over the past couple of years have seen more features added from the desktop version. With each new addition, the iPad app edges closer to the usability and functionality of the original app.
To discover the possibilities that Photoshop offers for illustrators, sign up for Gemma Gould's online course, Introduction to Photoshop for Illustrators.
Price: $9.99 per month, $79.99 for a year (thirty-day trial available); $14.99 per month as part of the Adobe Design bunde.
Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is a powerful vector graphics editor that's useful for all kinds of projects. In the words of illustrator Puño—who teachesillustration with a tablet—"Affinity Designer is a vector software for a reasonable price that's overshadowing Illustrator." According to him, among the reasons why it deserves to be tested are its Bitmap mode and downloadable photo retouching tools.
Many creatives choose this app because it pushes the limits of what you can do with a tablet. For example, it has a zoom level of 1,000,000% that allows you to work with incredible precision on the smallest area of any given image. It's also compatible with a keyboard, so you can also take advantage of customized shortcuts.
Price: $9.99.
Autodesk SketchBook
A free app for "everyone who loves to draw", Autodesk SketchBook offers an impressive set of digital drawing and painting tools at your fingertips. Among the app's functionality, you can add layers that allow you to control opacity, blend, and multiply sketches. You've also got access to a wide variety of brushes—and can create your own—for different illustration styles.
If this is your program of choice, check out Paulo Villagrán's course, Introduction to SketchBook Pro.
Price: Free.
ArtRage Vitae
A digital canvas on which you can use virtual oils and watercolors, as well as pencils and crayons, to create realistic paintings, ArtRage features a comprehensive set of tools for professional digital artists and hobbyists alike. Its tools look and function realistically, with a variety of textures and colors.
Price: $4.99.
Clip Studio Paint
The main goal of this app—formerly known as Manga Studio—is to take digital drawing and painting tools to new levels of naturalness. The idea is to make the differences between works created on screen and traditional paper or canvas almost imperceptible.
The app is popular with artists from diverse fields and styles, such as illustration, comics, manga, and animation, and has a wide audience that ranges from beginners to industry professionals.
To learn how to use its basic tools, take a look at comic artist Ana Galvañ's course, Creation of Comics with Clip Studio Paint.
Price: Monthly subscription from $4.49; three months free with first plan.
XGimp
An iPad adaptation for GIMP (another program recommended by Spanish illustrator Puño), among many illustrator circles, GIMP is considered one of the best free alternatives to Photoshop. While the iPad version has a way to go to match its computer counterpart, the open-source software is intended for creatives who need to do basic editing and don't want an editor that takes up too much space on their devices.
Price: Free.
Paper by WeTransfer is a digital sketching app developed by WeTransfer, a company known for its file-sharing and creative tools. The app is designed to provide a simple and intuitive platform for users to create sketches, drawings, and notes on their tablets or smartphones.
Paper offers a range of tools and features including various brushes, color palettes, and the ability to organize sketches into notebooks.
Price: Free (offers in-app purchases).
INKredible is a note-taking and sketching app for mobile devices, primarily designed for tablets. It's known for its focus on providing a natural, pen-and-paper-like experience for users who want to take handwritten notes or create sketches digitally. Some of its features include: Pen and paper feel, minimalist interface, handwriting recognition, customization options, export and sharing.
Price: Free (offers in-app purchases).
Adobe Illustrator: Vector Art
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Inc. It's part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of design software. Illustrator is primarily used by graphic designers, illustrators, and artists to create vector-based artwork, which is scalable without losing quality.
Is a powerful tool for creating vector-based artwork, offering a comprehensive set of features and capabilities for professional designers and artists.
You can learn how to use Illustrator in our courses.
Price: Free (offers in-app purchases).
Paper it's a versatile app primarily used for sketching, drawing, and note-taking on iPads and iPhones. It offers a range of tools and features that allow users to create digital illustrations, diagrams, sketches, and handwritten notes with ease. The app is known for its intuitive interface and powerful drawing tools, making it a favorite among artists, designers, and anyone who enjoys digital creativity.
Price: Free (offers in-app purchases).
This app is designed to help users improve their drawing skills through a series of guided lessons and exercises. It offers step-by-step tutorials covering various aspects of drawing, such as perspective, shading, anatomy, and composition.
Price: Free (offers in-app purchases).
If you want to learn more about digital illustration, explore all of Domestika's online digital illustration courses.
You may also like:
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- 9 Free Procreate Tutorials to Quickly Improve Your Skills
- 8 Fun iPad Apps for Lettering and Calligraphy Practice
- Character Design: Develop Your Own Style, a course by Dan Kelby
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