Ideas to Paper: Top 8 iPhone Sketching Tools Compared

Best Drawing Apps for iPhones

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Even though creative industry professionals prefer to create drawings and designs from iPads , there are still a ton of drawing apps you can use to make digital images of the highest standard from an iPhone. Their high-resolution displays and lighting fast processors allow them to handle even the most demanding drawing and painting tasks with ease.

In addition, some drawing apps are compatible with both iPads and iPhones so that you can use them on all of your smart devices and express your creativity regardless of where you are. We’ve selected some of the best drawing apps for iPhones, in order to help you shortlist the best options that fit your creative needs.

Top 8 Drawing Apps for iPhone You Should Try

The number of available brushes, layering options, or support for vector graphics are some of the most important features that can make the process of selecting a drawing app for the iPhone easier. Whether or not the drawing app supports a stylus pen can also be an important factor that may help you pick a drawing app. So, without further ado, here are some of the best drawing apps for iPhone.

1. Adobe Photoshop Sketch

Price: Free, but offers in-app purchases

Like all other Adobe’s products, Adobe Photoshop Sketch is capable of great performances. The app is equipped with the famous Adobe’s brush engine and it features 24 built-in brushes. You can customize the size, opacity, blending options, or color for each brush you pick, while you can also import brushes from Photoshop.

The app doesn’t limit the number of layers you can create and it lets you combine photo and drawing layers to create unique designs. In addition, Adobe Photoshop Sketch lets you use perspective and graph grids that assist you with the composition of your drawings. The app is compatible with Apple Pencil which gives you more precision while you are working on demanding projects. Each image you create with Adobe Photoshop Sketch can be printed in 8K or lower resolutions.

However, Adobe Photoshop Sketch was discontinued for iOS and Android and are no longer available for download, from July 19th, 2021. You can have a look at the following apps.

2. Tayasui Sketches App

Price: Free, but offers in-app purchases

The long list of tools Tayasui Sketches App offers includes a broad range of wet brushes, oil pastels, or a felt pen, to mention a few. A ruler and a smudge tool are also available which enables you to correct your mistakes quickly or create geometric drawings. The app features a brush editor that lets you customize each brush in accordance with your current needs.

Creating layers with Tayasui Sketch App is easy and you can export layers as transparent PNG files or import PSD files into the app. All strokes you make with Wacom, Apple or Adonit styluses adapt to the width, pressure, and angle of your movements. The free version of the app offers only limited options and you must upgrade to the Pro version if you want to use the app on a daily basis.

3. Paper by WeTransfer

Price: Free, but offers in-app-purchases

This award-winning sketching app has everything you need to produce captivating visual content. Paper by WeTransfer lets you create drawings, collages, and digital paintings by following your natural movements.

In addition, this iOS app offers assistance to inexperienced digital artists through a series of how-to activities and guides that take you through the basics of painting and drawing with Paper by WeTransfer. Besides creating images from scratch, the app lets you add and arrange multiple photos on a single canvas which enables you to produce storyboards quickly.

Also, Paper by WeTranfer features an impressive font collection so that you can easily incorporate textual elements into your drawings and paintings. Purchasing Paper Pro may be necessary if you want to use the app for professional purposes.

4. Sketch Club

Price: $2.99

Besides being a powerful drawing app, Sketch Club is also a community of talented artists who inspire each other to continue producing art through participation in competitions or collaborations. The app’s 16K canvas brushes with resolution pattern textures and input curves or a huge selection of layer filters and blending modes are just a few reasons why Sketch Club attracts so many users.

The app offers vector tools as well as thousands of tool presets that are shared by the community, which means that you can design, draw, or paint almost anything. All images you produce with Sketch Club can be exported to Dropbox, iCloud or you can send them to your friends and clients via email.

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5. Procreate Pocket

Price: $4.99

VSDC Pro Video Editor is a light professional non-linear video editing suite for creating a movie of any complexity. It supports the most popular video/audio formats and codecs, including 4K, HD and GoPro videos. Preconfigured profiles make the creation of videos for various multimedia and mobile devices absolutely hassle-free.

• Import from any devices and cams, including GoPro and drones. All formats supported. Сurrently the only free video editor that allows users to export in a new H265/HEVC codec, something essential for those working with 4K and HD.
• Everything for hassle-free basic editing: cut, crop and merge files, add titles and favorite music
• Visual effects, advanced color correction and trendy Instagram-like filters
• All multimedia processing done from one app: video editing capabilities reinforced by a video converter, a screen capture, a video capture, a disc burner and a YouTube uploader
• Non-linear editing: edit several files with simultaneously
• Easy export to social networks: special profiles for YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter and Instagram
• High quality export – no conversion quality loss, double export speed even of HD files due to hardware acceleration
• Stabilization tool will turn shaky or jittery footage into a more stable video automatically.
• Essential toolset for professional video editing: blending modes, Mask tool, advanced multiple-color Chroma Key

A brief look at the Procreate Pocket’s list of features will make you wonder if there is anything this drawing app cannot do. Besides a rich brush library, the app also gives you access to more than fifty settings for each brush and it lets you create your own brushes. It also supports third-party styluses which makes drawing or painting feel more natural.

The app is equipped with 3D Touch technology designed for pressure-sensitive painting, while its Silica M painting engine eliminates lagging. Procreate Pocket has an advanced layer system that includes clipping and layer masks that enable non-destructive editing. In addition, you can create vector text or use Isometric, Symmetry, 2D, and Perspective visual guidelines. However, the app is optimized for iPhone X and it may not work as smoothly on other versions of the iPhone.

6. iColorama S – Photo Editor and Brush Painter

Price: $4.99

Although iColorama S is primarily a photo editing app, you can still use it to create digital paintings and drawings. Its impressive selection of brushes grants you the creative freedom you need to turn your ideas into pieces of art. Importing Adobe Photoshop brushes into the app is also an option if you want to have the versatility the brushes in this iconic photo editing software offer.

There are over three hundred effects to choose from and each of them can be applied to a photo in just a few taps. Moreover, all effects are fully customizable so that you can choose their intensity or adjust other settings. Despite being a well-rounded photo editor and brush painter iColorama S lacks some essential features other drawing apps for iPhones offer.

7. Autodesk SketchBook

Price: Free

In addition to being one of the best drawing apps for the professional artist, Autodesk SketchBook is also an excellent learning tool aspiring artists can use to perfect their skills. Perspective guides, different types of grid tools and a Predictive Stroke assistive technology are just a few ways Autodesk SketchBook can help you take your digital drawing and painting to a new level.

There are 190 fully customizable built-in brushes to choose from in the app’s brush library, while the ruler and eclipse tools ensure that you can find the best position for each object you draw on the canvas. Autodesk SketchBook is compatible with the second generation of the Apple Pencil and it supports the double-tap functionality. Currently, you cannot scan sketches from an iPhone.

8. Clip Studio Paint for iPhone

Price: Free, but offers in-app purchases

Creating a digital drawing or painting with Clip Studio Paint is a fun and intuitive process as this feature-packed app offers everything you need to produce stunning images. You can choose from a broad spectrum of brushes and pens, and pick an airbrush, oil, or watercolor paint style. The app stabilization and correction features help you draw lines as you intended them to be which reduces the need to use the eraser tool.

You can import photos into Clip Studio Paint and paint over them or use the Pose Scanner feature to create automatic poses. However, creating high-resolution images with Clip Studio Paint on older versions of the iPhone may be difficult and you must have iPhone Pro Max or some similar model in order to produce artwork in high resolutions. The free version of the app has time limitations, and you must purchase one of the available subscription models in order to use Clip Studio Paint without any restrictions.

Conclusion

We don’t always have time to be creative, but having a drawing app on your iPhone is going to enable you to use the free time you have more creatively. Drawing apps for iPhones are aimed at both professionals and enthusiasts who like to pass their time by doing something creative.

Which of the best drawing apps for iPhones are you going to choose?

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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