Best Drawing Apps for iPad in 2023 (Sketch, Graphics & More…)

🗓️ July 14, 2023 By ✍️ Jaysukh patel

In the creative world of digital art, the iPad has emerged as a powerful canvas for artists and designers. With its intuitive touch interface and advanced capabilities, the iPad has become a go-to device for drawing and sketching. To fully harness the artistic potential of the iPad, the availability of top-quality drawing apps is essential. There are a plethora of Best drawing apps for iPad that cater to both beginners and professionals. We have researched and made a list of the top best iPad drawing apps for you. Whether you’re an aspiring artist or an experienced illustrator, these iPad drawing apps will elevate your artistic journey to new heights With Apple Pencil & Apple Pencil Alternatives, iPad Stands & iPad Accessories.

1. Sketchbook® 

Sketchbook is the Best iPad sketch app loved by artists and anyone passionate about drawing. With a professional-grade feature set and customizable tools, artists and illustrators appreciate its capabilities. The app’s elegant interface offers a natural drawing experience devoid of distractions, allowing you to express your ideas. It provides a wide range of brush types, including pencils, markers, airbrushes, and smudge tools, all designed to closely resemble physical brushes. You can customize brushes to achieve their desired look. The app also supports precision supported by guides, rulers, and stroke tools, with blend modes to offer flexibility.

Pros of using Sketchbook:

• Allows to create custom brushes
• Supports stroke tools
• Easy import and export

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($1.99)

2. Procreate 

Procreate is the Best drawing app for iPad with Apple Pencil designed specifically for iPad and Apple Pencil. It offers an ultra High Definition canvas, supporting resolutions up to 16k by 8k on compatible iPad Pros, ensuring incredible detail and clarity. It includes revolutionary features like QuickShape for perfect shapes, smooth and responsive smudge sampling, and 3D painting with Lighting Studio and Animated Export capabilities. Powered by Valkyrie, It has the fastest 64-bit painting engine for iPad to offer unmatched speed and performance. The app supports many great features, such as keyboard shortcuts, autosave,100 customizable settings, 25-layer blend modes for professional-grade compositing, and much more. Moreover, it also has a vector text feature that enables you to add text to your illustrations and easily import your favorite fonts. 

Pros of using Procreate:

• 100 customizable settings
• Effective layering systems
• Ultra-high definition canvases

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($12.99)

3. Adobe Fresco 

Adobe Fresco is a versatile drawing art app that provides a wide range of brushes and tools to bring your creativity to life. With Live Brushes, you can paint with watercolors and oils that behave and blend just like their real-life counterparts. It offers pixel brushes, including world-class Photoshop brushes that mimic mediums like charcoal and pastel. Whether you prefer a canvas or sketch pad, it allows you to import reference images and trace or practice your form easily. This app provides professional-level tools for drawing and painting, such as selections, masking, unlimited layers, and layer groups, allowing you to create intricate compositions. It has a time-lapse feature that allows you to export videos that showcase the entire creation process of your artwork. You can also integrate with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator without the need for importing or exporting. 

Pros of using Adobe Fresco:

• Professional-level tools
• Seamless integration with other creative apps
• Sketch and Draw migration 

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($9.99- $149.99)

4. ibis Paint X 

Ibis Paint X is a highly functional and professional drawing app that offers a comprehensive set of features surpassing those of desktop drawing apps. Its smooth and comfortable drawing experience is made possible by OpenGL technology. The app allows you to record your drawing process as a video, making it easy to share and learn drawing techniques from other users’ videos. With over 15,000 kinds of brushes, including dip pens, felt tip pens, airbrushes, and more, you can choose from various options to explore your sketch. Various brush parameters and quick sliders enable you to adjust brush thickness and opacity in real-time. Layer functionality is robust, allowing you to add unlimited layers with individual parameters such as opacity, alpha blending, and more. The clipping feature makes it convenient to clip images, and there are various layer commands for duplication, rotation, moving, and zooming. Setting layer names helps you distinguish between different layers. For manga artists, the advanced text tool function offers vertical and horizontal text, stroke options, font selection, and multiple text functions. 

Pros of using ibis Paint X :

• OpenGL technology
• Various types of brush parameters
• Quick sliders and real-time brushes

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($2.99- $27.99)

5. Drawing Desk 

Drawing Desk is a trusted drawing app with lots of features and tools that cater to various artistic needs. With over 50 million users worldwide and a multitude of 5-star reviews, it’s a popular choice. It offers 240+ step-by-step drawing lessons to enhance your skills. It has Magic cutter tools that allow you to remove backgrounds from photos and drawings, while repair tools help remove unwanted objects. It provides 25+ realistic sketching tools, including pens, pencils, highlighters, and more. You can easily scale and manipulate layers with the Layer Transform tool and achieve symmetrical art with the Symmetric tool. With the help of the Quick Shapes feature, you can create precise forms easily and switch between Apple Pencil and finger input. The app includes rich features like a cutter tool, Fill Bucket tool, AR Face Paint, Doodle Desk, and much more to explore the best creativity. The app also offers amazing features for kids, such as 500+ educational coloring pages and a collection of fun educational games. 

Pros of using Drawing Desk:

• AI Powered Tools
• Effective sketch and doodle desk
• Supports kids and educational drawing tools

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($4.99- $59.99)

6. Paper by WeTransfer

Paper by WeTransfer is the best drawing apps for iPad free that provides a seamless creative experience for sketching, collaging, painting, and drawing. With its intuitive interface and natural gestures, Paper’s tools are perfectly tuned to keep you in your creative flow, eliminating distracting menus. The Paper Store offers a helping hand with a collection of creative prompts, including guides, how-tos, and daily activities, providing inspiration and tips from top artists. Add multiple photos to a single page, easily cut, stick, move, and fix without the complexity of layers. Organize your ideas into beautiful journals that sync across devices for seamless continuity. For even more tools and features, you can subscribe to Paper Pro, with the flexibility to cancel anytime. 

Pros of using Paper by WeTransfer:

• Offers free trials 
• Informative guides and how-tos for sketching
• exclusive tools and features

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($1.99- $12.99)

7. Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop on the iPad brings the power of Photoshop’s core tools to the touch interface, optimized for Apple Pencil. You can explore the inspiration gallery for creative ideas and learn valuable tips and tricks. The app has guided tours and coach marks to assist you in navigating the touch-based UI designed to leverage the capabilities of the Apple Pencil. Collaborate easily by sharing your work with others for commenting. Retouch and composite images, and apply painterly effects to bring your vision to life. The familiar layer stack and toolbar tools provide a seamless transition from the desktop version. Access and edit full PSD files anywhere, ensuring compatibility across devices running iPadOS 14 and above. 

Pros of using Adobe Photoshop:

• Retouching and composting
• Amazing painterly effects
• Touch and pencil controls

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($6.99- $149.99)

8. Lake: Coloring Books & Journal

Lake: Coloring Books & Journal is a delightful app that offers a collection of over 85 coloring books created by indie illustrators from around the world. With new artists and coloring books added regularly, there is always something fresh to explore. The app provides a 5-piece toolset, including an acrylic brush, watercolor brush, spray, fill, and eraser, offering a versatile coloring experience. It has a tap-to-fill coloring option and color picker, making it easy to create beautiful artwork. Save your favorite coloring books to My List for quick access to your preferred artists. You can enjoy Lake even without an internet connection, as it works offline. iCloud Sync enables seamless synchronization of your artwork across devices. The app supports Apple Pencil and 3D Touch, providing enhanced control and precision. 

Pros of using Lake: Coloring Books & Journal:

• 85+ coloring books 
• Quick sharing and print
• Multiple coloring options

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($2.99- $59.99)

9. Tayasui Sketches

Tayasui Sketches is a remarkable app with impressive features and an immersive drawing experience. Import photos to incorporate them into your artwork seamlessly. You can achieve stunning artistic effects with over 20 ultra-realistic tools, including incredibly lifelike watercolor wet brushes. The Brush Editor allows you to customize your brushes, while the Color Eyedropper ensures precise color selection. Simplify your workflow with layers, exporting them as separate PNG files with transparency or importing/exporting PSD layered files. You can store your sketch in folders and organize your drawings for personalization. It offers full support for pressure styluses, including Apple Pencil, allowing for even more realistic brush strokes. 

Pros of using Tayasui Sketches:

• 20 ultra-realistic tools
• Easy export as PNG
• Effective layering and color eyedropper

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($1.99- $5.99)

10. Adobe Illustrator 

Adobe Illustrator app offers a range of powerful features for creating stunning artwork and designs. With natural drawing tools like Pen, Pencil, and Brush, you can easily make lines and curves with precision. Art and Calligraphic Brushes allow you to add artistic elements to your artwork. Pinpoint editing tools like Smart Delete and Simplify Path ensure high-quality graphics without losing detail. It also provides vectorization capabilities to convert raster images or paper sketches into vector graphics. You can create intricate patterns using radial, grid, and mirror repeat functions, and shape creation tools make it easy to generate objects from circles, triangles, squares, and stars. It offers the most comprehensive type toolkit for iPad, with access to over 18,000 high-quality fonts from the Adobe Fonts library. Import Photoshop images directly into your Illustrator design and export files in standard formats like AI, SVG, PDF, PNG, and PSD without losing quality. 

Pros of using Adobe Illustrator:

• Art and Calligraphic Brushes
• 18,000+ fonts
• Standard file format export

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($9.99- $149.99)

11. Concepts

Concepts is one of the Ipad’s best free drawing apps that offers a wide range of features for creative expression and sketching. With an infinite canvas, you have the freedom to explore your ideas without limitations. Choose from optional paper types and grids to suit your preferences. The app provides realistic pens, pencils, and brushes that respond to pressure, tilt, and velocity. It has a vector-based sketching feature that enables you to edit and transform your sketches easily. Move, organize, and adjust the tool, color, size, scale, smoothing, opacity, and more. The app supports unlimited layers, giving you complete flexibility in organizing your artwork. You can quickly drag and drop PDF files or specific images into your canvas, expanding your creative possibilities. Create, store, and share vector object libraries for easy access to reusable elements. You can also export your creations as images, vector SVG, or PDFs, scaling them for printing or seamless integration with other apps.

Pros of using Concepts:

•  Realistic pens, pencils, and brushes 
• offers a selection of Paper, grid types & tools
•  Unlimited drawings

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($3.99- $29.99)

12. MediBang Paint

If you are looking for the Best free art apps for iPad, MediBang Paint can be the best choice to create stunning illustrations and manga on your tablets and smartphones, anytime and anywhere. The app is simple and user-friendly, which makes it accessible even on smaller devices. With easy steps to customize colors and brush sizes, you have full control over your artwork. The app is lightweight and efficient, ensuring smooth performance. It also provides the “MediBang Library” with a wide range of materials for tracing, allowing you to create stickers and draw icons effortlessly. Moreover, it also offers a time-lapse function that enables you to capture your drawing process as a speed paint video.

 Pros of using MediBang Paint:

• create stickers and draw icons
• time-lapse function to film a speed 
• Share your art on social platforms

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($2.99- $9.99)

13. SVG Maker – Assembly 

SVG Maker is a feature-rich app that allows you to create and manipulate scalable vector graphics with ease. With point editing and bezier curves, you have precise control over the shape of your designs. Combine, cut out, and intersect shapes to create complex compositions. Import SVG, PNG, and JPG files, and export your creations in various formats, such as SVG, PNG, PDF, and JPG, up to a high resolution of 8192 x 8192 pixels. The app features an intelligent snapping system that facilitates the precise placement of shapes. You can access 21 themed shape packs containing over 1,000 shapes to expand your creative possibilities. Additionally, the app offers a library of over 250 fully finished stickers which you can even customize, reuse, and remixed in your designs. You can also create and save your own custom stickers, providing a personal touch to your artwork. You can also sync your projects across devices using iCloud, ensuring seamless access and continuity. 

Pros of using SVG Maker – Assembly:

• Cut-out and intersect shapes
• Intelligent snapping system
• Over 250 fully finished stickers

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($1.99- $29.99)

14. ArtWorkout 

ArtWorkout is Best free iPad drawing app for beginners that serve as your personal drawing trainer, revolutionizing the way you learn and improve your drawing skills. With game-like features and performance evaluation, it makes drawing an enjoyable and interactive experience. The app offers Apple Pencil support, ensuring a seamless and natural drawing experience. Step-by-step guides break down complex concepts into easy-to-follow, bite-size pieces, making learning stress-free and accessible to users of all levels. With over 500 lessons available, ArtWorkout caters to both kids and adults, beginners and professionals alike. The interactive courses cover various artistic disciplines, including Doodling, Sketching, Drawing, Painting, and Handwriting. The app provides valuable drawing tips and tricks to enhance your techniques. 

Pros of using ArtWorkout:

• 500+ lessons with theory
• Apple Pencil support
• easy to learn

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($7.99- $41.99)

15. Astropad Standard

Astropad Standard is an exceptional app that offers a natural drawing experience on your Mac. Compatible with any Mac app, it provides unparalleled image quality without compression artifacts. The app operates at blazing-fast speeds, keeping up with your drawing even at 60 FPS over Wi-Fi. It supports both wireless and USB connectivity options and works seamlessly with Apple Pencil, offering pressure sensitivity for precise control. Astropad Standard allows for customizable shortcuts, enabling you to streamline your workflow. With true Retina resolution and accurate palm rejection, you can immerse yourself in illustration, sketching, painting, animation, and photo editing. Supported styluses include the Apple Pencil, making it a powerful tool for artists and creatives.

Pros of using Astropad Standard:

• Works with all Mac app
• Supports Customizable shortcuts
• Accurate palm rejection

Price = Free & In-App Purchase ($29.99)

Conclusion

The availability of top-notch iPad drawing apps has revolutionized the digital art landscape, offering artists and designers a vast array of tools and features for sketching and creating captivating graphics. Whether you’re a beginner exploring the world of digital art or a seasoned professional seeking advanced functionalities, there are exceptional options to suit every need. 

I hope you found the above blog informative and useful in choosing the best pro apps to explore creativity. If you want to add anything or recommend any iPad drawing apps, then comment in the below comment section.

Happy sketching! 

Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)

Is there a free drawing app for iPad?

Yes, there are several Best iPad art apps available for iPad. Some popular options include Procreate Pocket, Autodesk Sketchbook, Adobe Illustrator Draw, and Concepts. These apps offer various rich features and tools to support digital drawing and sketching, providing a cost-effective solution for artists and enthusiasts.

What app do artists use to draw on an iPad?

Artists commonly use the Best free drawing apps on iPad, depending on their preferences and needs. Some popular apps include Procreate, Adobe Fresco, Autodesk Sketchbook, Concepts, and ArtRage. These apps include creative tools, including brushes and features, providing artists with a versatile platform for creating digital artwork on their iPads.

Is an iPad with Apple Pencil good for drawing?

Yes, an iPad with an Apple Pencil is excellent for drawing. The combination offers precise stylus input, pressure sensitivity, and palm rejection, making it ideal for artists and designers. The iPad’s high-resolution display provides vibrant colors and smooth rendering. Additionally, the Apple Pencil’s seamless integration (Apple Pencil Alternative) with drawing apps offers a versatile and enjoyable drawing experience.