The best iPad drawing apps can let you express your creativity anytime and anywhere. The touchscreen on this device is a great canvas for digital art, and the experience is particularly good with the Apple Pencil, the ideal combo.
There are many great drawing apps for the iPad that can help you get the most out of the device.
Below I've selected the ones I think are the best based on their versatility, handy features, and overall smooth experience with the game. Apple Pencileither 1 or 2.
Also there are differences, depending on the level of the user, from beginners to professionals, so you should find a good option for you, in this list of the best applications to draw on the iPad.
Remember that a few weeks ago, I did another article, about applications to do lettering on the iPad. Go for it!
Is the iPad good for drawing apps?
There are many specialized drawing tablets on the market, but the experience iPad gives you is so great that many artists use it as their preferred digital art tool.
The Apple Pencil is sensitive to pressure and tilt, which makes it ideal for drawing. And the iPad has the advantage that it's a conventional tablet, for browsing, performing other tasks, and also drawing in a very precise way, which allows you not to have to buy a separate device for drawing.
Which iPad should I use for drawing apps?
All newer generations of iPads support one of the Apple Pencils, so you can use the drawing apps I will mention below on any iPad. However, the standard iPad, the so-called student iPad, including the new iPad 2022, only supports the Apple Pencil 1.
iPads Pro, Air models, and the latest mini are compatible with the Apple Pencil 2, which has some advantages over the previous model for drawing.
Do you need an Apple Pencil to draw on the iPad?
You don't need a pencil Apple to use drawing applications. However, I think el Apple Pencil It's the best accessory you can buy for the iPad., and greatly improves the user experience. It's more expensive than other options, but I think it's really worth it.
It is true that you can also draw by hand, but it is not entirely satisfactory. Let's go with the list of the best drawing applications for the iPad!
Procreate
The list of the best applications to draw on the iPad begins with Procreate. Chances are, you've already heard of Procreate. The app has taken the digital art world by storm with its many different features, versatile interface, and 3D painting capabilities.
The app has a flexible and customizable interface. From the color picker to the brush size, there are plenty of options to help improve your workflow.
Plus, Procreate's color library is like no other with its ability to create your own color palettes, color options, and even color recommendations. It also has 3D painting, which means that now you can create almost anything you want in the app. The downside is that it's only available for iPad.
The app costs a one-time fee of 14,99 Euros, in a complete and elegant package, with no need to make any subsequent purchases to have the best experience with the app. The app is no longer available on the App Store
Adobe Illustrator
Like Procreate, Adobe Illustrator is incredibly popular in the digital art community. Yes ok the app is free, requires some in-app purchases, but with features like radial, grid, and mirror repeat, it's really worth it.
The app takes the best features of the desktop app and packs it into this handy portable version of the iPad app.
When you combine the Illustrator app with the new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil 2, you get a sleek, controlled, and enhanced digital art experience.
Unfortunately, the app is only available in one subscription model. But you can seamlessly transfer your work to and from your desktop app to your iPad app, which is a great thing for your daily work. The app is no longer available on the App Store
Photoshop for iPad
Obviously you have also gone to talk about Photoshop. And now you can equip your iPad with a reduced version of the desktop software. When you try it, you will discover that some important tools are missing, but the functionality is being improved all the time and it is becoming a useful plugin that allows us to seamlessly transfer files between the application and the desktop, and it can handle heavy workload.
Adobe has added some additional tools to its iPad app, including the Curves and Subject Select tools. The app is no longer available on the App Store.
InspirePro
In the middle of the list of the best applications to draw on the iPad we find InspirePro. This app has one of the engines faster and more realistic rendering from the App Store. This means artists will get an incredibly fluid and natural drawing experience on their iPad.
The app features a huge library of high-quality brushes and tools that can be customized to meet your exact needs. If you have an Apple Pencil and an iPad Pro, then you'll find that the Inspire Pro's ability to react to pressure, tilt and orientation It is an incredibly useful tool when working on a project and gives you a lot of creative control over your work. The app is no longer available on the App Store
Adobe Cool
Application Adobe Cool is another iPad app from Adobe's list. This app is supposed to be the digital equivalent of traditional analog drawing materials. It's like Adobe's answer to Procreate, but it's part of the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.
With the highly anticipated Live Brushes that adapt to a variety of drawing styles, Adobe Fresco offers users a sleek and smooth drawing experience. Adobe Fresco may not have text or animation options, and we missed the option to use paper or canvas textures, but it's still one of the best digital art apps available. It has a fantastic selection of pixel brushes, smooth operation, and top-notch brush blending capabilities. The app is no longer available on the App Store
Affinity Designer 2
Built from the same back-end as its award-winning desktop version, Affinity Designer for iPad is a vector drawing program that is fully optimized for iPadOS, including thes touch controls and compatibility with the Apple Pencil.
It can support huge multi-panel multi-board art canvases with as many layers as you want, and you can zoom to over a million percent. A beautiful and complete user interface.
Affinity Designer supports both CMYK and RGB, and has a full Pantone library in the color swatches panel, meaning it's ideal for creating print and digital art. You can export to a wide range of formats, including JPG, PNG, PDF and SVG, and there are over 100 brushes available, in styles including paints, pencils, inks, pastels, and gouaches. In short, this is one of the few iPad drawing apps that is squarely aimed at the professional market. The app is no longer available on the App Store
ArtRage Vitae
ArtRage Vitae is the latest version of the first and oldest digital painting apps for the iPad. This application replicates the feel, flow, and texture of real oils and watercolors. You can load your brush with paint and spread it with joy, you can mix colors on the canvas, and in general ArtRage Vitae does a great job of simulating realistic paintings..
A variety of canvas styles add texture beneath your paintings, with options to easily adjust paper settings and customize brushes using a set of sliders. There are a variety of canvas presets and paper options, plus a wide range of brushes, pencils, colored pencils and rollers.
A good user interface, easy to navigate Concealing many of the deeper features behind easy sliders and selections, the unique layout ensures the screen is never cluttered and the canvas remains visible. This is a great app for those who want to get a realistic painting experience. The app is no longer available on the App Store
iPastels
The list of the best applications for drawing on the iPad ends with iPastels. No digital app, not even the Apple Pencil, It will give us the feeling of working with paper, pencils, charcoal, or canvas., but some of them are designed to mimic the effect, and that's what iPastels does so well.
It's impressive how well the app replicates some aspects of drawing, the pencils, the blending of colors is very realistic, using your finger on the screen as you would on paper. One disadvantage is that you have to stop drawing when you want to adjust the size and pressure of your tool, but there are some advantages, including the ability to correct errors quickly and easily.
For that reason and more, iPastels is a great app to use if you want to try out compositions before starting an actual painting, or just for a bit of fun. It has Apple Pencil support, and you can use it for free, though there are in-app purchases. The app is no longer available on the App Store.