The iPad’s touchscreen is a great canvas for digital art, and the experience is particularly good with the Apple Pencil 2. There are lots of great drawing apps for iPad to help you get the most out of the device, but below we’ve picked out our own selection of the best based on our hands-on experience testing them. We’ve looked for apps that offer versatility, handy features and a smooth overall experience with either Apple Pencil 1 or 2. We’ve aimed to include the best drawing apps for iPad for people of different levels, from beginners to pros, so you should find an option for you.
Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. The app has taken the digital art world by storm with its many different functions, versatile interface and 3D painting abilities (it’s actually compatible with Zbrush, Blendr and others). While the app is free, it does require some in-app purchases, but with features like radial, grid and mirror repeat, its worth the money. We’ve found that when you combine the Illustrator app with the new iPad Pro (M1, 2021) and the Apple Pencil 2, then you get a sleek, controlled and enhanced digital art experience (make sure you check out the iPad Pro deals and the Apple Pencil deals if you haven’t got the devices already).
When we tested it, we found there are some important missing tools, but the functionality is being improved all the time and it’s becoming a useful add-on that allows you to seamlessly transfer files between the app and the desktop – and it can take a heavy load.
Inspire Pro has one of the speediest and most realistic rendering engines on the App store (yep, high praise indeed). From oil to spray paint, the app boasts a large library of brushes and high-quality tools that are customisable to suit your exact needs. A leader among drawing apps for iPad, the new Adobe Fresco offers a buttery smooth user experience (Image credit: Phil Galloway)
Affinity Designer is a powerful app for creating a range of art (Image credit: Future) Built from the same back end as its award-winning desktop version, Affinity Designer for iPad is a vector drawing program that’s fully optimised for iOS, including Touch controls and Apple Pencil support.
Our testing appreciated the fact it can support huge multi-artboard canvases with as many layers as you could possibly want, and you can zoom to over one million per cent. Affinity Designer supports both CMYK and RGB, and has a full Pantone library in the colour swatch panel, meaning it’s ideal for creating both digital and printed art.
There’s a variety of canvas presets and paper options, plus a wide array of brushes, pencils, crayons, rollers, and pastels. One downside is that you have to stop drawing when you want to adjust the size and pressure of your tool, but there are plus sides – including the ability to correct mistakes quickly and simply.
For that reason and more, iPastels is a great app to use if you want to try out compositions before beginning a real painting – or just for a bit of fun. It covers different forms of drawing, from doodles to sketching, and you can choose your skill level, making it suitable for complete beginners and up.
MediBang Paint for iPad is jam-packed full of handy drawing tools (Image credit: Future) When we reviewed it, we found Medibang to be an easy-to-use program with similar features to Photoshop, including layers, with the ability to add styles and a handy brush editor.
Compatible with iOS 11 and above, if you want to create professional-looking artwork but you are on a budget, this is the iPad drawing app for you. Our testing found it has a smooth and fluent drawing engine, and although our Zen Brush review describes its limited features, we also know it is par for the course with such a narrow usage and that’s okay.
Zen Brush 2 has a gallery feature that enables you to save your work in progress, as well as a lovely ink dispersion effect to give your drawings an added feeling of depth. You’ll also find a digital sketchpad for experimenting with your concepts, and an inking and colouring interface to help you finish your design with various brushes.
Rather than painstakingly drawing everything out yourself, you can choose from an enormous selection of ready-made shapes and stick them together to create your vector masterpiece. This app comes packed with drawing tools such as pencils, markers, calligraphy pens and air brushes. And because the drawing engine works so well with the Apple Pencil, you’ll have a full range of pressure-sensitive dynamics to get your linework perfect. Offering a desktop-class standard of vector drawing, Graphic boasts variable-width brush strokes and pressure-sensitive support for the Apple Pencil.
This easy-to-use addition to our drawing apps for iPad guide is compatible with both the Mac and iPhone versions via iCloud and Dropbox, enabling you to save your masterpieces on the go for straightforward editing across devices later down the line. There’s a wide range of digital pencils, pens, markers, and airbrushes to choose from, all accessed via a simple but intuitive UI that enables you to pin your favourite toolbars to the screen.
It’s flexible and fast, too, enabling you to work with layers, transparency options, annotations and advanced blend modes.
With Dropbox integration plus the ability to import and export Photoshop-friendly files, it’s an ideal iPad art app for working on the move.
Legendary artist David Hockney has been spotted using the Brushes app when creating art on the iPad. Sketch Club has a great set of tools for creating beautiful digital art, which is why it’s a valuable addition to our drawing apps for iPad list.
Sketch Club has an uncluttered user interface, with lots of settings to customise the app to your own unique preferences. Here you can upload your sketches to let others rate and comment on your work, as well as enter daily challenges and fun weekly competitions.
This lets you use your iPad as a graphics tablet, drawing on the touchscreen with your Apple Pencil while you look at the results on your Mac.
You can connect via WiFi or USB, and the app allows you to customise gesture shortcuts and pressure curves.
The sidebar shortcuts automatically adapt to match whatever Mac app you’re working in, and there’s also keyboard support. There are plenty of dedicated drawing tablets on the market, but the experience on the iPad is now so good that many artists use this as their digital art tool of choice.
The Apple Pencil 2 has palm rejection and tilt pressure sensitivity, which make it ideal of drawing.
Procreate
I love Procreate so much, having a iPad Pro with a Apple Pencil works so well with this app, the price is worth buying it. Tbh I stop using my laptop for drawing since the drawing and painting feels so natural and smooth though sometimes when I try to use the short cuts it won’t work other than that it’s works like a charm.
The best iPad for drawing in January 2024
But it’s worth making the effort, because modern iPads are a great choice for creating digital art. Its compatibility with the Apple Pencil 2 means you get one of the best styluses available right now, while the display’s refresh rate of 120Hz ensures excellent responsiveness. One small thing to consider is the size – the 12.9-inch offering is the largest in the iPad range and can feel pretty bulky if you’re not used to it.
Unless you’re going to be doing a lot of professional drawing, it is probably more computing and display power than you need, and so a cheaper tablet on this list will likely be a better choice.
While the Pro models still reign supreme in terms of performance and display quality, the iPad Air has closed the gap by incorporating the same M1 chip found in the Pros, making it a powerful and more affordable option for digital artists. He noted that the screen resolution is comparable to the Pro models, and the backlighting is even and colour-accurate, making it a great choice for visual creative work, including drawing.
And some artists swear by a completely different drawing experience away from the bigger (and more expensive) iPad Pros. This model boasts a small but perfectly formed 8.3-inch Liquid Retina screen, which offers an impressive resolution of 1488 x 2266 pixels. In short, if you’re looking for a good-quality compact tablet for digital drawing, you won’t find a better option. Matthew also reviewed this one, writing: “It’s powerful enough to handle pretty advanced creative work, yet fits in a coat pocket,” which is just what some on-the-go artists need. Apple gave the basic iPad a refresh in 2022, upgrading the chipset for better hardware for better performance and adding an improved rear camera. Much like the more expensive iPad models, this tablet includes True Tone support, which is Apple’s technology that adjusts colour balance depending on the quality of light in the room.
Battery life is generally pretty good, and the new A14 chip provides a small but noticeable speed boost in operation. Whilst this slightly older model doesn’t sport the shiny new M2 chip, the M1 still packs a punch and can easily handle intense creative programmes. In our iPad Pro 12.9-inch (M1, 2021) review our writer goes into more detail, and summarises by explaining how this tablet, “offers one of the best screens ever made, and as much power as a desktop PC.
In personally prefer the larger screen for artwork, but accessories like the Astropad Slate can be used to expand the drawing area.
Our expert review: Average Amazon review: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Specifications Stylus support: Apple Pencil 2, Apple Pencil 3 Screen size: 12.9-inch Resolution: 2732×2048 pixels Weight: 641 g Dimensions: 280.6 x 214.9 mm OS: up to iPadOS 17 CPU: A12Z Bionic chip Storage: 128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB Rear cameras: 12MP, 10MP, TOF 3D LiDAR Front camera: 7MP, 1080p video Today’s Best Deals View at Amazon Reasons to buy + Still powerful and fast for most art apps + Can use Apple Pencil 2 + Display remains excellent Reasons to avoid – You may need to buy refurbished – Cameras feel dated At the time it felt underwhelming but in hindsight it’s a solid release that remains a powerful and fast tablet. Its lack of ambition on release actually ensures it’s a competent device in 2023, because Apple needed to get as much out of its A12Z Bionic chip as possible. It runs the latest operating system, iPadOS 17, and can support all of the leading iPad art apps.
If so, I’d recommend buying from Apple directly as they offer the same one-year warranty as a brand-new iPad, along with a new battery and outer shell and all the manuals.
Ultimately, the best iPad for drawing is going to depend on the individual needs of the artist, and there’s no objectively right or wrong answer.
Processing power: Newer iPads have faster processors, and are capable of handling more complex tasks without stutter or slowdown. Drawing is not the most intensive task that an iPad can perform, so this may well not be a factor – however, if you are working with super-high resolution files, then it’s going to be very important that your tablet can load and display them correctly.
If price is an issue, I’d recommend the older iPad Pro 12.9 inch (2020), which lacks the new M-chips but regardless is a solid tablet with a large display, runs the new iPadOS and supports Apple Pencil 2. This may mean using an iPad to sketch and create ideas before finishing in Photoshop or one of the best digital art softwares. My personal favourites are the Astropad Slate, a large drawing stand that the iPad sits into to give it a larger work area, and secondly is Rock, Paper, Pencil (also from Astropad), this textured display cover offers a paper-like feel, protects your iPad screen and comes with hard-wearing Apple Pencil 2 nibs.
I’d suggest at least 128GB of storage, which means you can create large high-res files and ensures all apps can be used, from Procreate to Illustrator and ArtRage. The best pen displays, like the Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13, are close to iPads in that they can run software natively.
Pro create with ipad
I checked the app store and it said that procreate is compatible with this device so I wanted to know if were to buy procreate would i get the full version seeing as the ipad was upgraded to the newest iOS 15 or would I be purchasing an older version?
Best iPad Drawing Apps to Try in 2024
CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. Drawing tablets have been around for some time, but it could be argued that the iPad has significantly improved the way artists create.
With the iPad, it’s never been easier to sketch out a quick design or lose yourself in the details of a complicated work in progress. If you’ve got an Apple iPad, there’s a whole world of drawing apps out there that are packed full of creative tools and premium features to help you along on your artistic journey.
I also liked that, even when extensively zoomed in, the app didn’t lose its “drawing” feel by letting you see the pixels in your stroke. This app would be best if you’re brand-new to digital illustration — it feels similar to having physical tools and paper in front of you. If you’re overwhelmed by the idea of going into a more complex app like Procreate or Autodesk, the Art Set 4 drawing tool is a good one to get started with. It’s also nice that you can swap between multicolored paper styles like canvas and the rough surface of heavyweight, cold press sheets for watercolor.
Premium gives you full access to over 150 brushes, 3D paint, fluid watercolor, the ability to layer and use masks, enable a “wet canvas,” drawing guides like symmetry, shapes, filling and dozens of other ways to customize your workspace. Lake is a free ASMR art app packed with coloring book sheets — in all different styles — from artists all over the world. Lake sorts the coloring pages into artist collections, kids, abstract, animal, cities, feminist, portraits, mandalas for relaxation and satisfying symmetrical images.
The best iPad Pro apps for Apple Pencil
Installing the best iPad Pro apps for the Apple Pencil will optimise your tablet and stylus, be it for creating digital art, editing images, note-taking or pure relaxation. I’ve experimented with a number of apps, perfectly suited to creative outlets from sketching to 3D design, to find out how well they work with Apple’s stylus. You can follow the links at the side of this page to jump straight to the section you want, or scroll down to browse our full pick of the best iPad Pro apps for Apple Pencil.
Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Notability can basically do it all, from simple note-taking to calculating sums, it even offers sketching tools and audio notes. You can import a mix of file formats, including PDFs, DOCs, PPTs, images and GIFs to create detailed note pages.
It has the ability to understand a whopping 66 languages and can even translate your handwritten notes into a format that can be sent as an email – pretty nifty. Then once you’ve finished your work, you can save/export your notes as HTML, PDF and text formats that are compatible with Microsoft or Powerpoint and iCloud. Bear is an elegant and minimalist note-taking app – perfect for the iPad Pro (Image credit: Evernote) The pro version also gives you extra export options, encryption and password-protection or unlock using Face or Touch ID.
Good Notes is one of the most complete note-taking apps for iPad Pro (Image credit: Time Base Technology) Now on its fifth iteration, GoodNotes is one of the most popular iPad Pro apps for Apple Pencil for note taking.
It turns your iPad into digital paper, offering a lot of freedom to create searchable handwritten notes. This is a note-taking app that goes well beyond a basic pad to scrawl on – it can handle everything from equations to mind maps, and its handwriting-to-text conversion is one of the best we’ve seen.
We found it to be a useful app for collecting sketches, notes, to-do lists and websites, but some users find it difficult to navigate. And like Notability above, the Evernote app offers automatic palm rejection and pressure sensitivity for a more pleasant and precise note-taking experience. Finally, the last in our pick of the best note-taking apps for Apple Pencil is LiquidText, which is a handy tool for annotating while reading. Moreover, with pressure and tilt sensitivity, the Pencil can make LiquidText feel rather like taking notes on paper – and with more versatility than that.
Procreate is the king of iPad Pro natural media apps, and the addition of the Apple Pencil offers a wonderfully fluid analogue-like experience. The Apple Pencil’s fine tip, low latency, double-speed sampling rate and almost flawless palm rejection makes it the perfect tool for this wonderful creative app.
In fact, we found we forget all that technical stuff when we experienced the joy of sketching with a 6B pencil, turning it flat to block in areas of shade, or playing about with paints, really connecting with the work itself. Adobe’s vector drawing app for the iPad shoots straight to the top of the class (Image credit: Ben Brady) We found that the Apple Pencil 2 worked seamlessly with the software, and the app itself is more accessible and simple to navigate than the desktop version. Illustrator for iPad lets you create lines, shapes, type, gradients, and effects, and you can use your Apple Pencil to merge and cut graphics with quick gestures, removing unwanted areas.
You can add effects such as point gradients, radial repeats, patterns, and symmetry, and invite others to edit your projects, too. There’s also community support accessible via live streams on the app, including tutorials and inspiration from professionals. I particularly love Art Set 4’s palette knife that replicates the challenge of mixing and angling wet paint on a canvas. The app judges where a canvas is wet and dry for realistic blending as well as time lapse recording to enable you to create short videos.
A neat feature is ‘Slow Draw’ to adjust the input lag, which comes in handy for creating smooth curves and lines. Astropad was built by former Apple engineers with the objective of turning the iPad Pro into a graphics tablet for the Mac. Downloading Astropad and its free Mac companion app allows you to treat your iPad just like a graphics tablet. You can use the Apple Pencil to draw directly in any Mac app, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Affinity Designer and so on.
It has a lot of strong features, including brilliant brush capability, an intuitive interface and super-smooth running, although when we tested it we found it does fall short in other areas and needs some depth to be added to make it truly great. Its full integration with the Apple Pencil combined with its powerful brush features plus the ability to invite others to edit make it one of the best iPad Pro apps around, though. While we’re including it in our list of the best iPad Pro Apps for Apple Pencil, note that it’s designed as a complementary companion for the desktop version of the photo-editing software, and it can’t replace it. We haven’t been exactly blown away by Photoshop for iPad, but it’s getting better – Curves and Subject Select tools have been added since the initial release, and it seems pretty clear that Adobe will be improving on the app.
This vector art app offers complete support for the Apple Pencil’s drawing capabilities in terms of precision, pressure sensitivity and tilt functionality. Another one from Serif, Affinity Photo is a fantastic Photoshop alternative thanks to its solid toolset and one-off cost rather than a subscription. The stalwart iOS bitmap editor Pixelmator is another of the best iPad Pro apps for Apple Pencil for when it comes to creating digital art.
It’s a mature, well-developed app that offers natural media drawing tools that work well with the Apple Pencil.
The touch-up controls – repair, dodge, burn, sharpen, saturate and more – are easy to apply with the Pencil especially given its precision. Instantly familiar to anyone who has used the desktop version of the app, it allows you to create full-colour comics and cartoons with ease.
The desktop-style UI means an Apple Pencil is virtually essential here unless you have particularly slim and pointed fingertips. Paper doesn’t demand the kind of precision offered by the Apple Pencil, but the stylus is a very welcome addition, and the slightly cartoonish media work great with its sensors.
Although Adobe’s Illustrator is now available for the iPad (see above), some creatives still swear that Graphic is the best vector drawing app available on iOS.
This app offers a host of brushes and tools, but it also packs in some other useful features including geometry settings pane with -/+ nudge buttons, three and four-finger tap gestures to undo/redo. If you’re looking to create professional desktop-like vector illustration on your iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil, Graphic is an alternative that’s well worth trying. Sketch Club is a feature-packed drawing app with a community aspect that aims to please both amateurs and pros.
The app holds daily challenges, annual awards and group events as a means to motivate both amateur and professional designers to advance in their art. This could be terrible, but in practice Drawing Desk is an excellent app that doesn’t just teach how to lay down lines, but how to build up figures from primitives and gauge perspective and posing in character art. You can also draw and sketch freely without any lessons or guides, which also now features some handy AI tools for creating line art from paintings or removing backgrounds.
It offers 170 customisable brushes, full PSD layer and blending support, and switchable predictive stroke which transforms your hand-drawn lines and shapes into crisp, precise forms. Linea Sketch is one of the best for creatives that want something more powerful than a basic pen-and-paper app but more streamlined than fully featured painting and drawing engines like Affinity Designer or Procreate. You can share work via the usual applications and export in Photoshop’s PSD as well as JPG and PNG file formats.
Some of the premium features have a cost but they’re reasonably priced, making this is a pleasingly pared-back app that won’t weigh heavily on your pocket or on your iPad’s processor. With infinite canvas and organic brushes, fluid and responsive vector drawing engine, and intuitive precision tools, it offers a wonderfully natural design experience.
You get a range of brushes and a distraction free area to draw in thanks to a UI that hides tools away leaving only minimal buttons as you create to present a clean canvas. The free version is ideal for quick ideas and illustration, but the paid-for pro version offers a more powerful professional tool with surface pressure, layers, different paper types and more brushes and brush sizes (you can demo the professional features for an hour before deciding whether to pay for it). Shapr3D is a professional-grade CAD modelling app based on the Siemens Parasolid geometric engine and HOOPS Exchange translation software. CAD has been difficult to translate to a tablet format because of the level of precision needed, but that limitation is overcome here thanks to the Apple Pencil’s 9ms latency and the power of the latest iPad Pros.
Shapr3D competes with the much pricier Onshape, a CAD platform that relies heavily on cloud processing, with interaction either via the web or tablet apps. Forger brings most of the features of Autodesk Mudbox from the desktop to a tablet format, setting the standard for tablet-based sculpting software and showcasing how the addition of touch-sensitive hardware can make a real difference to 3D creativity. The brainchild of the artist Javier Edo, it offers a huge volume of brush, stroke and transform operations, which compare well to any desktop sculpting application. You can move, pull, flatten, bend, twist, translate, rotate your model or even import an image to use as a brush.
You can make intricate edits, moulding the geometry of 3D shapes using either your finger or a stylus, which provides a tactile connection to the 3D design that you don’t tend to get with a mouse. Forger imports and exports OBJ and STL files and has a very intuitive interface tailored specifically for the iPad. You can light your models with Forger’s PBR shader then paint your mesh directly on the iPad (although this feature requires an in-app purchase). After export, final lighting and rendering can be completed on a desktop PC, creating a workflow in which the iPad is the creative tool while the workstation does the number crunching.
The idea is that you can sketch in 2D, optionally using smart symmetry controls, and then extrude your designs or even draw entirely in 3D space, connecting points on different planes. Even if you’re a bit clumsy, your lines get smoothed into flowing curves, and with practice, it’s possible to create some elegant, organic forms at speed. It might be frustrating for highly technical engineering work, but you could use this as a tool to get down an initial concept down before exporting to IGES or OBJ files to develop it further in other apps. : free for limited colouring sheets or premium access from $2.99 Download Pigment Adult Coloring Book
Another very popular iPad Pro colouring app for Apple Pencil is Pixite’s Pigment, which has gained some very loyal followers over the years. Pigment now boasts more than 6,000 colouring pages, ranging from scenes to human faces, stained glass and mandalas of varying levels of complexity. Use Apple Pencil to solve puzzles in the iPad edition of Professor Layton and the Curious Village.
Layton: Curious Village in HD is the iPad edition of the famous Nintendo DS title that created the puzzle-adventure genre and features enhance visuals alongside never-before-seen animation footage that fans and newcomers will adore.
There’s a story to tell – the titular Professor and his sidekick must hunt for clues and solve puzzles to find the whereabouts of a treasure hidden in a quaint English village. The original game made use of the Nintendo DS stylus to engage with its puzzles, and here the Apple Pencil does even better. Well now’s your chance in Donut County, a game where you control a hole that must suck up everything in sight in the vein of classic tidy-‘em-ups like Katamari Damacy. Here the hole is controlled by you using an Apple Pencil, dragging the big black about the screen in a satisfying manner. Part of the joy of Donut County is its simple art direction and pastel colour palette, but there’s also a left-field sense of humour at play. Deceptively simple in art and design, Donut County is a rewarding game about holes that need filling.
Tint was a finalist at the Apple Design Awards this year (Image credit: Lykke Studios) Blek is a simple but beautiful iPad game for Apple Pencil (Image credit: Kunabi Brother GmbH)
In this minimalist game, you need to hit coloured circles while avoiding obstacles by drawing a shape that travels across the screen in a loop following your gestures. You have to be very precise – while there are plenty of solutions, draw the wrong angle and you’ll miss your target, hit an obstacle or spin off into nothing.
Best drawing apps for iPad and Apple Pencil in 2024 so far
Whether you’re looking to edit existing projects in the best way possible or you’re just starting out, a drawing app can help. The stylus effectively turns your iPad into a digital sketchbook, with the bonus of there being an endless supply of paper and ink. Most of them in this list allow you to sketch, take notes, paint, and use all kinds of other virtual art tools from your iPad screen. Our team of Apple experts have years of experience testing all kinds of tech and gadgets, so you can be sure our recommendations and criticisms are accurate and helpful. Working seamlessly through iCloud, you can easily access, edit, and collaborate across multiple different devices including iPhone and Mac. The app provides many brush styles and color options so you can sketch out ideas or basic artwork.
Bring your ideas to life and collaborate with Freeform, upload any kind of file and seamlessly access your work across multiple devices. All of your work is available in PSD, native .procreate, TIFF, transparent PNG, multi-page PDF, or even web-ready JPEG file formats.
Procreate also supports time-lapse replays, so you can share the creation process to your favorite streaming service or social media app. Designers can create vector lines and shapes, type, make gradients, add effects, and merge and cut graphics with their Apple Pencil. Adobe Fresco combines favorite Photoshop brushes with vectoring tools and is flexible enough for all artists and illustrators. Adobe Fresco On Ipad Pro Painting (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / iMore)
Adobe Fresco combines favorite Photoshop brushes with vectoring tools and is flexible enough for all artists and illustrators. If you’re overwhelmed by Procreate, Linea Sketch is a more welcoming and approachable option, especially if you don’t usually draw.
It features a simple and intuitive interface that provides you with many powerful tools that all work great with Apple Pencil.
Linea Sketch exports your projects as PSD, JPG, or PNG files so that they can be easily accessed from other devices, like your Mac.
If you opt for the optional Pro subscription, which is $8 for six months or $12 for a year, you’ll get access to more tools like diagrams, collages, and cut-and-fill. Creativity is rife as well with the option to add multiple photos to a journal, along with cutting, sticking, or fixing without the need for complicated layers. It also works flawlessly with the Apple Pencil, taking advantage of pressure, tilt, and angle sensitivity. Affinity Designer works great for vector graphics and is one of the best apps to get the job done on the iPad.
A lot of the premium drawing apps we’ve mentioned so far can be a bit pricey, but Sketch Club is a little more affordable.
The community has daily challenges, weekly competitions, monthly group events, annual awards, and more. The app itself can be a little pricey, but compared to buying a Wacom tablet for your Mac, it works out as a much cheaper alternative. Pixelmator is a good option for anyone seeking a full-featured, layer-based image editor that works just as well for photo editing as it does for sketching and painting.
Pixelmator also supports layers, has an eyedropper color picker, and is fully optimized for Apple Pencil.
15 Best Digital Drawing Apps for iPad
These apps provide artists with limitless possibilities and loads of useful tools to scratch that creative itch. #alt#An image of the Procreate logo with three iPads with different digital drawings below it. Over a decade later, Procreate remains one of the best drawing apps for the iPad because it continually innovates its features, capabilities, and tools. Overall, Procreate is a great mobile workflow for the iPad Pro that lets you draw, animate, and even use 3D models.
You can paint 3D models in Procreate with special texture brushes and preview them in physical space using augmented reality. You can paint 3D models in Procreate with special texture brushes and preview them in physical space using augmented reality. As a raster-based app, Procreate isn’t a program that can read or use vector brushes. As a raster-based app, Procreate isn’t a program that can read or use vector brushes.
#caption#Adobe Fresco has quickly become one of the most advanced digital apps for Creative Cloud users. You’ll find that the app offers a host of fun features that will make you feel like a pro right away, especially if you’re already familiar with the Adobe program suite from the desktop.
#caption#Drawing with Fresco’s live brushes gives you realistic watercolor and oil paint textures and effects. In Fresco, Adobe also offers a unique feature called live brushes, which utilizes AI to realistically mimic the flow and texture of wet oil and watercolor paint in real time.
One of the major differences between Fresco and its competitors is its natural ability to integrate with other Adobe products. That kind of seamless functionality makes Fresco a major contender for Adobe fans who want to work inside a dedicated workspace while on the go.
Open your Adobe Fresco files in Illustrator and Photoshop for iPad or desktop. Open your Adobe Fresco files in Illustrator and Photoshop for iPad or desktop. Third-party brush formats and files from other apps aren’t compatible, so be mindful of this if you’re not already using Adobe programs. Third-party brush formats and files from other apps aren’t compatible, so be mindful of this if you’re not already using Adobe programs.
While you can use vector brushes, you won’t be able to fine-tune points on your stroke paths within the Fresco app. #caption#Linearity Curve is a graphic design program that lets you use a variety of vector-based drawing tools, all for free.
It’s a comprehensive graphic design program that lets you create vector art and assets. Simple in its presentation, you’ll find tools at the top left and right and a single toolbar on the left-hand side.
If you ever get stuck, you can press and hold any tool to learn more about it or even take a quick in-app tutorial. #alt#An image of a Mac and a social media post designed using Linearity Curve.
It also comes loaded with thousands of design templates, icons, and a free photo library. Creating a Linearity account will help you keep all of your work synced and available across your iOS devices. Great for beginners who want to learn more about vectorizing their work and the tools and features in the app. Great for beginners who want to learn more about vectorizing their work and the tools and features in the app.
As a vector-based app, Linearity Curve isn’t a program that can read or use raster brushes. As a vector-based app, Linearity Curve isn’t a program that can read or use raster brushes. You can’t expand your brush set, which can leave you feeling limited in how you can create. Autodesk Sketchbook is a great all-around creative app that offers a lot of functionality for a low price.
With the premium version of the app, you’ll also have access to additional downloadable assets, from color palettes and textures to brush packs.
Brush tools can be customized with precision for size when applying heavy or light pressure.
Brush tools can be customized with precision for size when applying heavy or light pressure. You can’t expand your brush set unless you upgrade, which can leave you feeling limited in how you can create.
You can’t expand your brush set unless you upgrade, which can leave you feeling limited in how you can create. #caption#You won’t have to choose between pixels and vectors with Affinity Designer for the iPad.
Affinity Designer for iPad (review here) is an impressive app with a number of capabilities, including vector and raster brushes.
To achieve this, you’ll need to switch modes or Personas to give yourself access to the correct toolset. Using its type tool is a lot of fun because you can access advanced typographic settings for OpenType or OTF files that other iPad apps don’t typically support. Because Affinity Designer for iPad is so robust in its capabilities, it does have a steeper learning curve than other apps on this list. However, if you’re a user coming from a similar program like Adobe Illustrator, you’ll probably find the UI easier to navigate. (Image: Affinity Designer for the iPad / Screenshot by Alanna Flowers / Paperlike)
#alt#An image of a stylized drawing of a lion created in Affinity Designer for the iPad.
With its robust capabilities and huge brush selection, learning Affinity Designer for iPad can be challenging for a beginner to digital art. With its robust capabilities and huge brush selection, learning Affinity Designer for iPad can be challenging for a beginner to digital art. Affinity Designer is a powerful app, but depending on your device specs and the effects in your piece, your stroke speed can sometimes slow down.
The brushes available for free users don’t feel too limiting, as they feature a great range of textures and tool types. However, upgrading through an in-app purchase to enable the text tool feature and remove the watermarks when you export your artwork is worth it. #alt#An image of an octopus drawn in Linea Sketch with the Color Set menu open.
iCloud syncing is automatic from Linea Sketch, making it simple and convenient to keep on top of your creations. #caption#Medibang Paint is an approachable app for beginners to digital art. Medibang Paint comes loaded with helpful comic templates, making creating panels fast and easy.
This app offers a straightforward drawing experience for its users to enjoy no matter what kind of art they like creating. #caption#Medibang Paint comes with several downloadable resources to enhance your experience and creativity. Medibang also allows artists to enjoy the benefits of drawing on the go without needing to worry about having an internet connection.
You’ll have extra peace of mind that your work will be safe thanks to their Automatic Backup feature.
While the app is available for free, a benefit of upgrading includes a library of downloadable materials, fonts, and more to enhance your drawing experience. And if you’re truly resistant to an upgrade, you can enjoy free drawing with premium tools in exchange for watching short ad breaks.
Plus, Medibang’s broad platform compatibility makes the app a great option for use on iOS devices and various other operating systems. Choose from a variety of rulers and grids to create the perfect setup for your artwork.
Choose from a variety of rulers and grids to create the perfect setup for your artwork. This will explain all active tools and their functions, which is perfect for beginner and advanced users alike. This will explain all active tools and their functions, which is perfect for beginner and advanced users alike. And part of what makes Clip Studio Paint instantly unique is its desktop UI interface.
While you’re in the iPad app, you’ll feel comfortable navigating the toolbar along the top of the screen. This is great for artists who are familiar with working in desktop art programs like Adobe Photoshop.
#caption#You can create a variety of project types in Clip Studio Paint, from animation to comics and illustrations. #alt#An image of a New Document menu panel open in Clip Studio Paint for the iPad. To avoid feeling overwhelmed by its extensive capabilities, I’d suggest starting with basic functions and exploring its tutorial and tips archive. Clip Studio Paint is a solid option for artists looking for an app that can do it all, with an impressive brush set and unique iPad features.
You’ll have to memorize and get comfortable navigating the app to find the brushes that you can use for vectors or raster layers. You’ll have to memorize and get comfortable navigating the app to find the brushes that you can use for vectors or raster layers. #caption#Tayasui Sketches is a fun and easy-to-use drawing app on the iPad. Tayasui Sketches is a great app to get you started with creating digital art on the iPad without an overwhelming amount of tools or features.
The minimal and sophisticated design of the interface makes the drawing experience feel premium (even if you’re a free user). #caption#Tayasui Sketches’ brushes and paper textures give an authentic feel to your work.
Using the cutter tool you can add patterns in large areas of your canvas instantly. Using the cutter tool you can add patterns in large areas of your canvas instantly.
#caption#Artstudio Pro is an app where you can draw and edit your photos all in one place.
#alt#An image of a drawing in Artstudio Pro with the Layer and Filters menus open. Artstudio Pro gives you this with drawing, animation, and photo editing capabilities. You can customize the app around your preferences, from brush favoriting to choosing the tools in your toolbar.
You can also restrict the app from making accidental strokes or functions through the convenient Pencil Only mode. If you choose to upgrade, you’ll have a large library of hundreds of assets available to expand your creativity.
And, for a one-time purchase, you can say goodbye to any limitations to layer count, canvas size, and more. #caption#You can create drawings with stunning detail in Inspire Pro for iPad. Inspire Pro for iPad is a fast rendering and advanced paint program with a smart, intuitive interface. It comes loaded with precise, customizable brushes and plenty of workflow enhancers.
This gives you the ability to render two textures dynamically and simultaneously thanks to their proprietary Sorcery brush engine. Their painting engine is what takes their speed and brush performance over the top for iPad users at 120 fps (aka pretty fast).
#alt#An image of the Quick Change menu feature open in Inspire Pro. The Quick Change feature is how you can make brush adjustments to opacity and size with a simple gesture. At the end of the day, this app will give you everything you need to create digital art how you want to. Your canvas preset options are limited to eight settings that are calibrated for older devices.
Your canvas preset options are limited to eight settings that are calibrated for older devices. However, Brushes Redux only supports a limited number of the gestures that have become standard for iPad drawing apps. Grab colors from images or parts of your canvas with the eyedropper tool to bring them into your active brush.
The tools onscreen are minimal but when selected are displayed at a large size for easy adjustments. You won’t find two-finger undo or three-finger redo gestures in this app. You won’t find two-finger undo or three-finger redo gestures in this app. Not only do you have access to premium and realistic paper textures, but you also have an impressive brush set. The presentation of your toolset is a fun visual layout that doesn’t rely on interpreting icons to know exactly what tool you’re about to use.
This gives you quick and easy access to your favorite brushes, features, and effects. You’ll find that it reserves functions like saving, duplicating, and deleting files to the Gallery area instead of within the working document, something entirely unique to this app. You get a large canvas with your tools in an easy-to-access area along the bottom and top corners of your screen. You get a large canvas with your tools in an easy-to-access area along the bottom and top corners of your screen.
#caption#Ibis Paint is a powerful drawing app with a simple user interface. Ibis Paint is an app that’s easy to use and features a great brush library. It has all the essential tools to give users a good drawing experience on the iPad while also offering a few extras. The app will also provide occasional hints and tips as pop-ups to help you navigate the interface more effectively.
#alt#An image of color strokes drawn in Ibis Paint with the Brush menu open. Users also have access to a library of thousands of models and templates to assist with character drawing, landscape creation, and more.
There’s even a Brush/Eraser toggle that lets you switch between your eraser and brush in a single tap at the bottom of your screen. You won’t have access to all of the premium filters and layer effects unless you upgrade.
Pricing: Free; $9.99/one-time purchase for ad removal; optional Prime Membership from $2.99/month for premium tools and 20GB of storage. Free; $9.99/one-time purchase for ad removal; optional Prime Membership from $2.99/month for premium tools and 20GB of storage. #caption#ArtRage has support for unlimited layers so you can create without worrying about running out of memory. Whether it’s watercolor, oil, or acrylic, your blends and stroke interactions will feel like the real thing.
As you paint, any overlapping menus or screens disappear, keeping your view of your artwork clear. #caption#Painting in ArtRage has a high level of realism that’s great for traditional and digital artists. #alt#An image of a painting of a woman picking flowers created in ArtRage for iPad.
The toolbar shows a 3D representation of each type of art supply, from a palette knife to a paint roller. You won’t have to ever worry about making a mess or mistake, either, with unlimited undo and redo functions. Simulate dry and wet paper to change the effects of your paint strokes on your canvas. While you have limited settings for free users, like size presets for brushes and markers, it’s a good value overall. Plus, as a free app, it’s a fun way to get creative on your iPad if you’re a casual or hobbyist creator. This app is the iPad version of the popular desktop vector illustration program. It has a lot of the same features that users know and enjoy, optimized for the iPad and Apple Pencil. Illustrator for iPad is also compatible with other programs like Adobe Fresco, taking advantage of its vector capabilities. If you’re looking to do even more with your art, incorporating the iPad and a powerful drawing app into your workflow is a no-brainer.
I hope that this list helps you as you navigate the App Store to dive into drawing on your iPad. And, the Nanodot® technology reduces glare, making it perfect for working on your iPad outdoors.
Procreate
I love Procreate so much, having a iPad Pro with a Apple Pencil works so well with this app, the price is worth buying it. Tbh I stop using my laptop for drawing since the drawing and painting feels so natural and smooth though sometimes when I try to use the short cuts it won’t work other than that it’s works like a charm.
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