Diving into the world of digital artistry on the iPad opens up a universe where the sleek glass surface becomes your canvas and your fingertips or stylus, the brush. With a plethora of drawing apps for iPad at your disposal, there’s something available for every type of artist, whether you’re making your first mark or you’re a seasoned professional.
Barring Procreate, all the drawing apps featured here are free to install. In fact, the free version is enough for us in education, however, you can always get access to more advanced features through in-app purchases.
From the spontaneous burst of creativity to the meticulously planned piece, these free-to-start applications ensure that the only barrier to creation is the edge of your imagination. Whether you’re sketching, painting, or drafting, the right app is just a tap away on your iPad.
Related: Best AI Drawing Generators
Drawing Apps for iPad
Here are our top picks for drawing apps for iPad:
1. Adobe Fresco
Adobe Fresco is an excellent drawing app for iPad. The app is optimized for the Apple Pencil and opens up a world where brushes come to life. The app’s headlining feature is its Live Brushes, which stunningly replicate the behavior of watercolors and oils, making the screen feel like a wet canvas.
Fresco’s user interface is a clutter-free environment that allows artists to focus solely on their craft. It supports both the novice and the seasoned pro with tools such as multi-layered systems and advanced selection features. For anyone keen on taking their digital art to the next level Adobe Fresco’s free version is a treasure trove, offering a generous brush selection and professional tools.
2. Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is another good drawing app for iPad. Adobe Illustrator harnesses the tactile precision of the Apple Pencil, delivering a versatile design suite at your fingertips. It’s your go-to for creating sharp vector graphics, with a plethora of brushes, advanced type tools boasting over 18,000 fonts, and intricate pattern-making features. The app promotes a fluid creative workflow, allowing for easy syncing with the Adobe Creative Cloud, ensuring that your projects stay current across all devices. With intuitive drawing capabilities, extensive color and gradient options, and a direct line to the latest creative trends via live streams, Illustrator on iPad is definitely a great drawing app for iPad to consider.
3. ArtRage Vitae
ArtRage Vitae stands out as a premium digital painting app that mimics the authentic experience of painting with natural media. It’s designed for artists who yearn for the texture and blend of traditional paint but prefer the clean, cost-effective realm of digital art. The app boasts an array of tools like oils, watercolors, and pencils that not only apply color but also give a realistic texture to the canvas. With advanced features like layer support, script recording, and high-resolution canvases, it also fully leverages the Apple Pencil’s capabilities, making it a powerful tool for mobile artists. The app connects users with a community of fellow artists and is ideal for those who seek the tactile joy of painting without the mess.
4. Art Workout
Art Workout serves as an interactive drawing coach, tailored to cater to a diverse audience ranging from children to adults and novices to seasoned artists, the app offers a comprehensive suite of over 500 lessons spanning various artistic areas including doodling, sketching, and more. Art Workout stands out by actively measuring and evaluating the user’s drawing precision, providing immediate feedback to hone one’s skills. It’s especially potent for those looking to systematically build their abilities or for professionals seeking a structured warm-up to keep their skills sharp. With Apple Pencil support, this app delivers a unique, rigorous approach to improving one’s artistry, making the learning process both challenging and enjoyable.
5. Doodle Buddy
Doodle Buddy is a playful and accessible drawing app that encourages creativity for artists and non-artists alike. With the option to doodle over your own images or choose from a variety of provided backgrounds, it caters to anyone looking to express themselves or just doodle away some time. It boasts a vast collection of over 1400 stamps for embellishing your work, making it a vibrant platform for decoration and design.
Whether you’re self-conscious about your artistic abilities or you’re an experienced artist, Doodle Buddy provides a unique, constraint-based space to explore creativity. It’s the simplicity and the playful nature of the app that might just surprise you with what you can create within its digital canvas.
6. Bamboo Paper
Bamboo Paper transforms your iPad into a versatile digital notebook. The app offers a wide variety of features including the ability to customize color palettes and annotate with photos, a zoom feature that allows for detailed work, syncing capabilities that let you access your notes and sketches from any device, and many more. Ideal for use with a Bamboo Stylus, Bamboo Paper also supports tilt recognition for a more authentic drawing experience.
7. Lux Draw
Lux Draw offers an innovative twist to digital art by enabling users to draw with light-inspired tools, offering a unique artistic style. This app allows artists to create vibrant, glowing drawings from scratch or apply luminous effects to photos, opening up a realm of creative possibilities. The live-calculated HDR brushes, like the Glow Pen and Light Spheres, simulate drawing with beams of light, while the Smear tool can transform images into flame-like art. Textures add a gritty, tangible feel to digital pieces, enhancing the tactile illusion.
8. iPastels
iPastels is another good drawing app for iPad ideal for those spontaneous moments of inspiration or for planning and refining a traditional artwork. The app simulates the experience of working with actual pastels, featuring tools like soft and oil pastels, pastel pencils, and a smudge tool, all designed to interact authentically with lifelike paper or canvas textures. Users can blend colors precisely, mimicking real-world art techniques.
9. Procreate
Procreate stands out as an artist’s digital sanctuary with its vast selection of handmade brushes and advanced tools tailored for the iPad. But the app is not free though. Procreate’s user-friendly interface seamlessly integrates with the Apple Pencil, making digital artistry an accessible and portable experience. With features like QuickShape for flawless forms and a layering system that offers granular control over your artwork, Procreate is much more than a drawing app; it’s a full-scale art studio in your backpack.
10. Sketchbook
Sketchbook transforms your device into a digital studio, offering a variety of brushes, including pencils and airbrushes, each with customizable settings to match your style. The app boasts precision tools like rulers and adjustable stroke settings, along with advanced layer blending for complex compositions. It’s designed with an intuitive, distraction-free interface, prioritizing a natural and fluid drawing experience. Opt for the Premium Bundle, and you’ll unlock a treasure trove of extra capabilities—think custom brushes, advanced color options, and sophisticated layer controls, among others, all to refine your artistic workflow and bring your visions to life with even more detail and depth.
Final thoughts
The list I shared above features a diverse collection of drawing apps for iPad. While Procreate remains a benchmark for serious digital artists, the presence of other excellent alternatives ensures that everyone, from hobbyists to professionals, can find tools tailored to their needs and skill levels. These apps, brimming with unique features, bring the joy and creativity of drawing, sketching, and painting to a global audience, transcending the traditional constraints of art-making.
