5 Best Drawing Apps for iOS & Android

Creating stunning digital artwork from your Android device has become a reality for everyone, whether a novice or a seasoned artist. The Google Play Store is a treasure trove of drawing and painting applications designed to cater to various artistic needs. However, with an extensive array of options at your disposal, it can be quite challenging to pinpoint the perfect app that aligns with your specific requirements.

In this article, we’re focusing on some of the best drawing apps for Android and iOS that we found and tested.

Artflow: Paint Draw Sketchbook

Artflow is an all-encompassing art application designed to facilitate the creation of intricate and detailed pieces. Its highly adaptable features allow users to tailor their experience, enabling them to produce exceptional artwork effortlessly. Sporting a user-friendly interface, it’s an ideal choice for swiftly generating content suitable for sharing on social media platforms.

Advantages: With over 80 brushes and various drawing tools at your disposal, Artflow offers extensive layer support, including blending modes. Additionally, it allows exporting to several formats like JPEG, PNG, or PSD, ensuring compatibility with Adobe Photoshop.

Drawbacks: The free version of the app provides access to only 20 brushes, and the availability of more than 16 layers is limited to specific tablet models.

Artflow is available for iOS and Android.

Autodesk Sketchbook

Autodesk Sketchbook is a widely favored digital drawing application compatible with desktop and mobile devices. Boasting a neat and intuitive interface, it’s remarkably user-friendly. The app is packed with features catering to professional and casual artists, making it one of the leading free drawing apps available today.

Advantages: Sketchbook comes with an extensive collection of brushes, pressure sensitivity, a color indicator, a time-lapse feature, perspective tools, and layer support for up to 10 layers.

Drawbacks: The application lacks a wide range of touch gestures and has a limitation on export resolution, which is capped at 72 dots per inch (DPI).

Autodesk Sketchbook is available for Android, iOS, Windows, and MacOS.

Infinite Painter

Infinite Painter is an application specifically tailored to the needs of painters. It offers a respectable array of brushes, tools, and textures, all crafted to resemble their real-world artistic counterparts closely.

Advantages: The app features gradient maps and color palettes, compatibility with PSD files, an advanced brush engine that allows for the creation of custom brushes, and a lasso fill tool.

Drawbacks: Infinite Painter does not include text tools, and users may experience a relatively challenging learning curve when getting used to the app.

You can get Infinite Painter for both Android and iOS.

MediBang Paint

MediBang Paint is another free drawing application that stands out as an excellent option, particularly for those seeking a solution with cross-platform and cloud support capabilities.

Advantages: The cloud-saving feature enables you to work simultaneously on multiple devices. The app is equipped with abundant tools, brushes, and other functionalities, making it suitable for creating a diverse range of art. It is especially well-suited for comic and manga artists.

Drawbacks: MediBang Paint does not offer keyboard support. In-app advertisements may frequently disrupt your creative process and result in occasional glitches within the app. Consequently, you might lose progress if you don’t save your work regularly.

MediBang Paint is available for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.

Ibis Paint X

Ibis Paint X is a more limited version of Ibis Paint that comes without a price tag. The application is remarkably user-friendly and features numerous art tutorials to help you learn how to utilize the app for producing top-notch digital artwork. Should you require more advanced functionalities, upgrading to the paid version is always an option.

Advantages: Ibis Paint X is free of charge, provides layer support, includes helpful tutorials, and offers a straightforward learning experience.

Drawbacks: The app comes with a smaller set of features compared to some of the paid alternatives. Additionally, the presence of advertisements might cause frustration while you’re in the process of drawing.

You can install Ibis Paint X for both Android and iOS devices.

As you can imagine, being a digital artist doesn’t confine you to Windows or Mac as it did a while ago, you can easily create gorgeous art using your smartphone or tablet.