Skip to main content

6 Drawing Apps to Make Art on the iPad

art-ipad

Someone either much wiser or just much snottier than me once said, “Painting is easy. Art is hard.” These apps can get you painting on your iPad. Is it art? It depends who you ask – just don’t ask that guy.
brushes ipad appBrushes – iPad edition ($7.99. Steve Sprang) I know, I know, “stop right there.” For years, Brushes has been the gold standard of painting apps for the iPhone, and the iPad edition was re-engineered to take advantage of the new platform. Work in up to 6 layers, and blend them in various modes. Select from a full desktop-worthy , save your favorites as swatches, and undo and redo to your heart’s content. The kicker: a replay of every brushstroke, in-app. That means you can work on a smallish file on your iPad, and replay the work you did on a higher-resolution file on your desktop computer. No wonder national magazine covers have been painted with this app. (Also, read our Brushes for iPhone review.)
layers app for ipad artLayers – Pro Edition for iPad ($5.99, J. Benjamin Gotow) Like Brushes, Layers allows playback of your painting, but only to “watch it come to life.” Its canvas is limited to two sizes, neither larger than one megapixel (1028 x 1028.) But within these limitations, Layers packs a wallop. Up to five layers with adjustable, fifteen customizable brushes, intuitive pinch-and-spread pan/zoom, and minimal lag time make Layers perfect for the that isn’t wedded to the print medium at the end of the line. Compare paintings with a Layers community, comment, and receive feedback. 
sketchbook pro create art on ipadSketchbook Pro ($7.99, AutoDesk) AutoDesk’s been making  for desktop computers for as long as there have been desktop computers, and Sketchbook is the App they ported first to the iPhone and then to the iPad. It’s just what it sounds like: a single sub-megapixel resolution of 768 x 1024, with a lot of artistic freedom and tools. AutoDesk thought through their multi-touch interface and brought a whole new meaning to “fingerpainting” – you use swipes, pinches, and spreads to get around, pan, and zoom, and Sketchbook brings pressure sensitivity to its brushes.
art studio ipad appArtstudio for iPad ($2.99, Sylwester Los) Artstudio offers the standard painting tools, like brushes, buckets, and airbrushes, and borrows tools like dodge/burn from the  world. Artstudio takes pains to bring the beginner along, offering tutorials in styles of art, and within a 1-megapixel or smaller world, delivers fast performance for its impressive level of complexity. Multi-touch navigation, nearly unlimited undo/redo. If you never need to move to print reproduction, this is a full-fledged professional painting app.
artists touch painting ipad artArtist’s Touch for iPad ($5.99, Artamata, Inc.) If you’re a photographer but wish you were a fine artist, Artist’s Touch is for you. Artist’s Touch will turn your source picture into a “digital blueprint,” then let you fill in the textures and colors, or you can work from a blank canvas. Artist’s Touch doesn’t think in terms of painting effects; it more accurately gives you digital art tools modeled on real world equivalents, like charcoal, pen, oil paint, or watercolor, and includes the texture of your canvas in your options.
sketches 2 drawing app for ipad artSketches 2 ($4.99, LateNightSoft X.L.) Easy and intuitive, Sketches 2 is not an that makes you feel you got maximum bang for your art school buck. In fact, it’s more an app for making flyers for your non-art-school party. It’s a sketching program “for the rest of us,” and it does things the rest of us do, like integrating maps and type so you can make a map to the non-art-school party, and clip-art, so you can illustrate it. If you never painted a bowl of fruit or a reclining nude, but you want to draw a mustache on a photo or devil horns on a downloaded painting, Sketches is your app.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ipad apps: AppStart Review

AppStart For iPad Review Free for a limited time only , AppStart for iPad is a terrific app by the folks over at  AppAdvice.com  that’s meant to serve as a starter guide for new iPad users and owners. The promotion is only available for a limited time as customers flock to pick up their iPad 2s this week. Whether you’ve had your iPad since launch day or you just picked one up, AppStart For iPad is a detailed and comprehensive guide for the most popular and useful ways to utilize your iPad in addition to recommending a few apps to get your feet wet. When you first open the app, the home screen is displayed in a clean grid of buttons for you to tap-in and find out everything there is to do with the iPad. Each grid-box allows you to open up a mini-guide for how you can use your iPad as an eReader, home theater, radio, nightstand, magazine, or social media hub. Within each mini-guide, the folks over at App-Advice also throw in their suggestions for both free and paid apps that re...

Ipad 2 Accesories

Zagg have done it again and released what we are excited to say is the seasons MUST HAVE iPad accessory: The  ZAGGmate iPad case with keyboard . It’s not often that we get entirely blown away by an accessory for the iPad, but this one has left us shell shocked and in awe. The perfect compliment to your iPad, this is the first iPad keyboard case combo that we have seen yet that has done it right. In fact, it’s the best bluetooth keyboard we’ve seen to date as well! It’s so right and so perfect that we already wonder how we ever used our iPad without it! Check out the review below… ZAGGmate with Keyboard The iPad’s New Best Friend Our first impression of the ZAGGmate was: “Where’s the rest of it?” This iPad case is unlike anything else we’ve seen on the market to date and the designers at Zagg worked hard to literally rethink what an iPad case could be. This is an iPad case that doesn’t cover the whole iPad, but rather just covers the iPad’s screen, and leaves the back of the tablet...

Ipad 2 Apps: Skyfire Web browser Review

Ipad 2 Apps: Skyfire Web browser Review Skyfire for the iPad made headlines when it was first released, due to its ability to play Flash videos on a device previously void of this popular technology. Users flocked to the App Store, eager to drop five bucks for the chance to view their favorite clips, shows, and movies on their iPad. Not only did the browser play these videos, but the integrated video compression saved a significant amount of bandwidth for people on a restricted data plan. The initial excitement wore off quickly, though, as complaints were rampant about many sites not playing videos as expected. Since its inception Skyfire has certainly improved in this area, now claiming support for over 200,000 websites containing Flash. The dissenters will always be there as not every Flash video on the Web will be playable, even if the developers at Skype Labs remain diligent. Some of the backlash is warranted to a certain extent. If I paid $4.99 with the intent of viewi...