Whether you’re a professional artist or just enjoy drawing as a hobby, having a good set of drawing tools is important for working on any project you may have going on. Not everyone prefers to draw digitally, but there are plenty of programs to help your digital art feel the same way it does with pen and paper. And nowadays, there are dozens of programs you can use directly from your phone to do this. These can improve any project you plan to work on as an artist.
5 best apps for drawing
Autodesk Sketchbook
Autodesk Sketchbook is a free mobile option for drawing, editing, and organizing your work. You can use it whenever you’re away from your tablet or other devices you use to draw. This is perfect for when you need a little touch up on your work here and there, or when you’re doodling on a train. It also lets you save directly to iCloud and Dropbox, so you don’t have to send your revisions to yourself.
Procreate
Procreate is a really cheap option for a professional app. The array of brushes this program has rivals that of some of the most high-end drawing programs, while being completely accessible from your mobile device. It has a powerful, fast painting engine, with incredibly high-resolution capabilities. If you want something professional to work with on your mobile device, then there is no better choice than Procreate.
If you’re interested in using Procreate, we have an easy guide for helping you get started .
Artrage
Artrage prides itself on creating realistic paintings, and it clearly does a fantastic job at doing so. Art created on Artrage rarely looks like it came from a digital artist. It not only has many different choices for art tools, but it also lets you interact with your canvas as if you were actually using these tools. This means you can “throw” paint on your canvas or smudge your work in a way that you rarely get to do in a digital format. Artrage is a great tool for not only creating realistic art, but also experiencing digital art as if you were creating it traditionally.
Daydream Doodler
As the name implies, this app is mostly for doodling. It focuses heavily on a cartoonish color palette. It definitely isn’t meant to be used for professional work (though we’re sure there are artists out there that could use it for that), but it’s really easy and simple to use compared to most drawing programs. The program is highly intuitive and it’ll feel just like doodling on paper. As a free app, it’s a great choice to look into if you want to do some fast drawings every now and again.
Adobe Illustrator Draw
As the creators of the PC programs, Photoshop and Illustrator, Adobe is already a popular name among artists. Adobe Draw retains many of Illustrator’s capabilities, making it a great tool for creating both 2D and 3D images. It also lets you connect directly to Photoshop and Illustrator, so you won’t have to use Dropbox or Google Drive to transfer your work over to your PC. This app is another fantastic professional drawing tool that every artist should have.
As an artist, you may enjoy other people’s art just as much as you enjoy creating your own. If so, you’ll definitely want to check out our article on the best apps for art and culture . These can also give you some extra inspiration when working on your own art.
Top 5 apps for art and culture
