Why bother with brushes and paint to make a painting, when you have various apps available that allow you to give free rein to your creative excesses? If you make a mistake, it is often reversed with the push of a button. A tablet is the ideal device for making sketches. You just need some interesting drawing apps. We list 15 of them.
Tip 01: Draw Cartoons
Android: Free
How do you draw a Pokemon? Or Bart Simpson? And a puppy or an owl? The Draw Cartoons app from creator Upp bundles a slew of YouTube clips that help you learn how to draw cartoon characters step by step. The films are divided into various categories: Mario, Spongebob Squarepants, Disney, Princess, Simpsons, Cute animals ... The number of fragments is extensive and the instructions are always very well explained. The fact that the videos are in English is not disturbing because you see everything on screen. Take a sheet of paper and you can get started immediately. A plus is that the app is often updated with new fragments. Fun for young and old.
Tip 02: Procreate
iOS: €5.99 (+ in-app purchase)
A history of up to 250 actions, a slew of creative brushes and a user-friendly interface? Working with this drawing app is fun and delivers amazing results. Procreate includes a very handy smudge tool to convert photos into paintings. Also interesting is the recording function to record the progress of a drawing as a video clip. This professional app won several awards for a reason. You can export the result to psd, png, pdf or jpg format. The app is also optimized for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
Thanks to Draw Cartoons you will learn how to draw cute cartoon heroes and TV characters step by step Tip 03: Coloring
Android: Free (+ in-app purchases)
Want to relax for a while? Coloring books for adults have been a great success for several years now. They do not only exist on paper, but also digitally. Thanks to Coloring you get access to about two hundred professional coloring pages. The first sixty copies are free, the rest you pay with in-app purchases. Most of the drawings are very detailed so that you are sweet for a long time. Have fun and color box by box. There are a number of standard colors, but you can create your own color combinations using the eyedropper button. The result can be saved or shared via social networks.
Tip 04: Phoster
iOS: Free (+ in-app purchases)
Do you want to get creative with text? For example to make a nice flyer or poster? Then you need Phoster. You start with one of the many templates. You can then completely adjust it to your personal preferences. You can not only adjust the font size and colors, but also change the font and insert photos. Once you're done with the basic design, Phoster will suggest twenty alternatives. The result can be saved to your camera roll, printed or shared via Facebook, Twitter or Flickr. An ideal app to quickly create an original design.
Tip 05: ArtRage
iOS: €4.99 / Android: €5.49
ArtRage is also a very popular drawing app. Use felt-tip pens, palette knives, pencils, airbrushers, brushes, pens and glitter to create the most beautiful works of art. You even choose the paper structure yourself. A plus of ArtRage is that there are a lot of presets with which you can smooth lines or set a soft point, for example. Another asset is that there are blend modes (as we know from Photoshop) in the app. ArtRage is also compatible with Adobe Creative Cloud, Dropbox and DeviantArt. The only downside is that the app responds more slowly to extensive drawings or paintings.
Tip 06: How to Draw Tattoos
iOS: Free (+ in-app purchases) /Android: Free (+ in-app purchases)
Always wanted to know how to draw a tattoo? A tribal, a detailed rose or a subtle salamander for example? With this app you will learn it step by step. Take a sheet of paper and a pencil and put your tablet next to you with this app. You can read the difficulty and the number of steps for each tattoo. From the same maker (Tien Nguyen/Sweefit Studios), there are also apps to specialize in drawing flowers and graffiti letters. Be sure to try it out! Made a mistake? That is not bad at all here and can be repaired quickly.
Tip 07: Autodesk SketchBook
iOS: Free (+ in-app purchases) /Android: Free (+ in-app purchases)
Beginners and experts alike can unleash their creativity with this Autodesk drawing and painting app. SketchBook has a beautiful, minimalistic interface and a huge toolbox. You can load images to transfer them or incorporate them into your artwork. If you go for the Pro version, you get more than a hundred brushes and you can work with not more than three but with a maximum of eighteen different layers. Autodesk Sketchbook works fine and can be completely adjusted to your liking via the settings. For example, you can create shortcuts and gestures (swipe gestures) yourself. Do you have a pressure sensitive stylus? Autodesk SketchBook offers support for Apple Pencil, Samsung Galaxy Note S Pen and Wacom Creative Stylus 2. Highly recommended!
Autodesk SketchBook supports pressure-sensitive styluses
