Artists and illustrators have a new super-tool in their arsenal - Drawing Apps. Tech-savvy creatives are switching from paper to digital and reaping the benefits that drawing apps and art apps offer - powerful drawing tools, special effects, the ability to create vectors or raster images, and even 3D models.
There are a ton of drawing apps, art apps, painting apps, and sketch apps available now to creatives, each with its own USP. Some excel in vector drawings, others in graphic illustrations. There are dedicated apps for image manipulation, mimicking hand drawing, and 3d modelling. While several apps come only in paid versions, plenty of free drawing apps are also available. If you google drawing apps, an extensive list of good drawing apps with their popular features and website links comes up.
We have curated a list of the 47 best free and paid drawing apps for 2024 to express your ideas in the form of digital art.
How we reviewed the list of best drawing apps
In our roundup of the best drawing apps, we spotlight tools that combine user-friendly design with advanced artistic capabilities, perfect for doodlers and seasoned artists alike. These apps offer a seamless drawing experience across devices, with a rich palette of brushes, sophisticated layer management, and customizable controls.
We continuously update our picks to capture the newest innovations in digital art, ensuring you're equipped with the latest features for sketching, painting, and illustrating.
Here are our top picks of the best drawing apps and art apps in 2024:
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Photoshop Sketch
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Illustrator Draw
- Autodesk Sketchbook
- Astropad Studio
- Affinity Designer & More
What are the Best Drawing Apps For 2024?
1. Adobe Photoshop
No list of digital art apps would be complete without listing offerings of Adobe drawing apps. Adobe has led the pack for decades, and Adobe Photoshop is still the professional's choice for raster art creation. Photoshop is one of the best drawing apps for iPad, Mac and PC; they also provide accessory apps for mobile devices and tablets.
The biggest drawback of Adobe’s offerings, especially for beginners, is that you must purchase a subscription to use these drawing apps for computers. For established pros with stable cash flow, this presents a little problem, but for aspiring amateurs and beginners, there are plenty of good editing apps that offer good functionality at a fraction of the cost.
| PROS | CONS |
| Surplus of cutting-edge tools at one’s disposal | The interface may be difficult-to-use for beginners |
| Easily transfer files between different programs | Full functionality may not be utilized by every user |
| Convenient built-in library | Lags with larger files and multiple layers |
| Active Community of +1000000 Users | Expensive subscription-based pricing model |
2. Adobe Photoshop Sketch
If you’re looking for a drawing app that combines the ease and simplicity of drawing on your mobile device with the power of Adobe Photoshop, check out Photoshop Sketch. When combined with your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, Photoshop Sketch allows you to fine-tune images created on your tablet later on your computer.
| PROS | CONS |
| Exporting to 2x for retina display is super easy | Nested symbols can confuse users |
| Excellent user interface without illustrator bloats | Plugin updates and font search tedious |
| Preview design can be seen on mobile instantly | It does not do well with complex SVGs |
| Quickly create wireframe shapes easily | Being made for Mac only is extremely limiting. |
3. Adobe Illustrator
Just as Photoshop is the industry-standard drawing app for iPad, PC and MacOs for raster pictures, Illustrator is the go-to digital art app for vector art. Illustrator is used to creating everything from basic graphic design tasks like logos to elaborate and beautiful landscapes and portrait photos. With a little practice, you can make nearly anything into a vector in Illustrator.
| PROS | CONS |
| Better connectivity with other Adobe Products | It is still slow to load and run |
| Proficient in typography and custom design | Some features of nodes tool are hard to use |
| Good for vector designs with color variation | Managing the "art boards" is kind of clunky |
| It can recover your files even if it isn't saved | Lack of Advanced Graphic Design Tutorials |
4. Adobe Illustrator Draw
Similar to Photoshop Sketch, but for vector drawing, Illustrator Draw, a great drawing app for iPad, allows you to create vector drawings on the go easily. You can then save them to your creative cloud account and fine-tune them in the full program later. Both Photoshop Sketch and Illustrator Draw are free downloads, but if you want to export the images for later editing, you’ll need a Creative Cloud subscription.
| PROS | CONS |
| Easily create illustrations and graphics | Features are limited to drawing tools, and masks |
| Intuitive interface and requires less learning time | Weaker application when compared to Illustrator |
| Effortlessly export designs to various formats. |
5. Autodesk Sketchbook
Sketchbook from Autodesk is one of the most robust raster drawing apps you will find. Compared to Photoshop, Sketch is a purpose-built platform for artists on the go. It’s not meant for photo editing or other tasks, so the program focuses on just what you need to draw on your tablet easily. The program is available for Macs, PCs, iOS, and Android devices. Unlike many drawing apps that stick to proprietary or generic formats, Sketchbook conveniently has the option to export to Photoshop PSD format with layers intact. The best part? Autodesk has now released the full-featured drawing app for free. There are plenty of completely alternatives to Photoshop here are the best.
| PROS | CONS |
| Facilitates digital art creation for students | Limited amount of layers and can be quite tedious |
| Single subscription and access on all devices | Mobile app not friendly as desktop version |
| Great options from pencils, pen, airbrushes to sketch | The lasso and selection tools can get better |
| The software is open to all and is free to use | Some features like perspective take longer to load |
6. Lunacy
A full-featured vector editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Create your own vector art or use built-in graphics to craft original scenes from pre-made elements. A perfect tool for those who work with visuals for social media, content marketing, ads, etc. The app is 100% free. Built-in graphics are free for a link.
7. Mega Creator
An online graphic app that lets everyone create awesome visuals without special skills and costly design software. Use templates or create your own illustrations from pre-made elements (including 3Ds!). Or quickly make up custom photos that look like real. The app's gallery features thousands of cutout photos of diverse people, objects, and animals. Drop them on them on the canvas, combine with a proper background, and your photo is good to go. Working in Mega Creator is like playing a graphic lego.
8. Sketchpad
Sketchpad is a free drawing application, to create stunning digital art, suited for all ages. You can easily share your work online and export it in various formats like JPEG, PNG, SVG and PDF. Sketchpad is available for download on both PC and Mac.
9. Astropad Studio
The Astropad Studio is a different sort of art app that can be a great help to folks looking to create digital drawings. For Mac and iPad users, Studio allows you to connect your iPad wirelessly to your desktop and use it as if it were a drawing tablet. The interface is pretty smooth, but make sure you have a clean system with plenty of free memory to avoid lag. You’ll also want a great stylus like the Apple Pencil.
| PROS | CONS |
| Nearly imperceptible lag when drawing | The fee is too high for infrequent users |
| Magic Gestures and easy manipulation controls | Repositioning in Retina mode can cause lag while redrawing |
| Pen input enhances Mac drawing |
10. Affinity Designer
The Affinity set of art apps is poised to take a significant bite out of Adobe’s market share. These programs are full-featured to the point of having things you have to buy aftermarket in Adobe. Designer is Affinity’s answer to Illustrator. It is a desktop vector art program with every feature you could ever want and one of the best drawing apps for Apple computers. Designer is available for Mac desktop or iPad.
| PROS | CONS |
| Unlimited design history access | Design functions works only for one object at a time |
| Apply numerous strokes and fills to single object | Users found issues while exporting |
| Bottom bar reveals usage options on clicking a tool | There is no natural perspective grid |
| Create isometric and 2D designs seamlessly | The Designer Persona don’t have a vector eraser |
11. Affinity Photo for iPad
Affinity is also ready to answer your raster art needs. Photo by Affinity is analogous to Photoshop. Its user interface is a bit smoother, however, with cleaver skin changes based on the type of task you’re looking to complete.
Both Affinity apps are inexpensive when compared to Photoshop and Illustrator. If you’re looking for a great drawing app for iPad and one that is a digital art application for editing or raster drawing, look no further than Photo and Photo for iPad.
12. Inspire Pro
For all the painters out there, Inspire Pro turns your iPad into the ultimate painting canvas. This is one of those simple raster drawing apps that can produce some really fantastic artwork thanks to super realistic brushes and massive canvas sizes. You can download Inspire Pro from the Apple App Store.
13. MediBang Paint
A few key features make Medibang’s apps the best drawing app for some artists. The app is available on any platform you can think of, from Windows and Mac desktops to Apple and Android tablets. They all have a cloud feature, which allows you to easily store, share, and open your work from any device. This is one of the best free drawing apps you really should check out if you are looking at an affordable and easy way to start drawing.
14. Procreate
Procreate is an iOS-only app designed to fully harness the power of Apple’s popular iPad Pro and Apple Pencil combination. More than just a drawing app, Procreate combines many of the powerful tools you’d expect to find in a much more robust program like Photoshop. Layers, custom brushes, and all sorts of special effects are available on your tablet. You can export images, with intact layers, straight to PSD format to open in Photoshop. It is a popular drawing app for iPad for 2024. For on-the-go art, check out the drawing app iPhone version as well.
15. Zen Brush 2
Zen Brush is a simple ink brush app for mobile devices. A drawing app for free, it’s super inexpensive and fun to use, but it is pretty limited. However, ink and paper are limiting too, but that hasn’t stopped artists from making amazing artworks with them for the last thousand years.
16. Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator Pro is a Mac OS app that combines many features and functions of the best editing apps all into one tidy app. Pixelmator features many of the best features for drawing and the standard top photo editing apps functions of other editors. It also features a "layouting" mode for publishing and graphic design work. Their iOS app for mobile is really more of a photo editor rather than an art app.
17. Assembly
Those in the graphic design world know that there’s a lot more to digital art creation beyond hand sketching. Illustrator and other vector programs use shapes to “assemble” designs, and this is the idea beyond the Assembly app. By simplifying this process, the app allows users to create logos and design elements with ease quickly. Assembly is made for iOS devices.
18. Graphic
Formerly iDraw, Graphic is a full-featured vector design program for Mac, iPhone, or iPad. The program has all of the features of its more popular competitors, and it allows for the creation of anything from portraits to technical layout and CAD style drawings.
19. Inkist
Inkist is a super basic drawing app that is available for Mac computers and iOS devices. The mobile app is currently free. It’s not flashy, but it has all the right features to make your artwork pop.
20. ArtStudio
Luckyclan’s ArtStudio is a full-featured raster art app for iPad or iPhone. It features multiple canvas sizes, layers with masks, over 400 brushes, unlimited undo/redo, and even over 40 filters.
21. Pixaki
Rizer’s Pixaki has a bit of a limited audience, but if you’re into pixel art, you’re going to love it. Export your creations to GIFs and other simple animation formations. The program can open and save to all the popular formats, including Photoshop, PNGs, and ZIP archives. Start with a sketch or photo, and soon you are rocking it retro style like it’s 1990. Here is the list of some best Animation software in the market.
22. Infinite Painter
Available on Google Play for Android tablets, Painter is a user-friendly drawing app that you’ll love. Organized workflows make navigating the screen easy and keep the workspace less cluttered. Powerful tools like 3D rendering and over 80 brushes make this one of the best full-featured 3D drawing apps for Android devices.
23. ArtRage
If you’re looking for great drawing apps that can work on nearly any computer or tablet, you’ve got to check out ArtRage. ArtRage is available in multiple versions, including their free drawing apps called ArtRage Lite for Windows and Mac computers. This program and a loyal following of users, with many fantastic tutorials and inspiration available from other artists.
24. Concepts
The Concepts App is an interesting program aimed at professional designers that work on Apple, Windows, and Google devices. It uses a vector drawing app to store ideas; it is very much like a pocket notebook that has gone entirely digital. From brainstorm to “exploring happy accidents,” as the company puts it, to rendering captivating color illustrations and sharing them with the built-in presentation mode, Concepts has your creative brain covered.
25. Comic Draw
If drawing comics is your beat, Comic Draw is worth checking out. The app is tailor-made for creating single-panel cartoons on your mobile device. You can pair it with the company’s Comic Life app for desktop on either Windows or Mac. Put your frames together into a full-featured comic spread with this digital art app.
26. Paper by Wetransfer
If you’re looking for a doodle and sketchbook app to collate your ideas and let your creativity go on a walkabout, you’ll love this app. One of the best free drawing apps we know of, it's super simple and yet powerful. With a simple toolset and a blank page, let your mind go creative in Paper.
27. Tayasui Sketches
Available for Mac desktop, iOS mobile devices, and Android, Tayasui’s Sketches app is an artist favorite for many reasons. The user interface and app functions are some of the smoothest on the list. The clean look of the sketch space can’t be beaten. Color blending and gradient tools, along with patterns and the most realistic brushes you can find, round out this fantastic app. Not many free drawing apps offer so many great features. If you really like what you see inside of Sketches, there is an upgraded Pro version available with even more brushes and tools. The community is an excellent source of both advice and examples.
28. Sketch Club
As the name suggests, one of the best parts of Sketch Club is the club. The first rule of sketch club: everyone talks about Sketch Club. Combining social media inside the app, you can share your creations and comment on others. Who doesn’t love browsing an art gallery on your tablet? The community features daily themed challenges and lots of featured artists whose works you can browse for inspiration. The Sketch Club app is available for Apple iOS in the App Store.
29. Artflow
If your Android tablet isn't feeling the love with all of these iPad apps in the running, don't lose heart. Artflow is a beautiful drawing app for Android that features a clean user interface and lots of pro features like layers and custom brushes. It is the perfect drawing and painting app to create paint your dream.
30. Art Set 4
Art Set app for Ipad features tools that look very similar to ones in real life. Art Set 4 is the redesigned and upgraded version of Art Set with more advanced tools for digital painting. This paint program now also has a 3D paint feature along with a workspace that adjusts according to your needs. Although it is a free drawing app for iPad, the pro version gives a ton of features that are essential like setting the canvas size of any resolution, auto backup, layers, and 150 more brushes than the free version.
31. uMake
An award-winning app, uMake is an iPad Pro drawing app for 3D design. Its website claims that uMake is the first 3D design app created for iPad. This 3D modeling and design app gives the features of desktop CAD software on the iPad. An excellent tool for those who are learning 3D modeling and the ability to do so in iPad opens the door for more creative work on the go. They also provide video tutorials on different topics so that it gets easier to learn how to use the app and to create desired results. Some of their best features are 3D tools to pull and push, augmented reality features and complex surface creation making it one of the best drawing apps for iPad pro. They offer a 14-day trial and then you can subscribe monthly, quarterly or yearly based on your requirement.
32. iPastels
This app also features pastel tools that give the feel of real pastels. You can also blend colors on the app using your fingers. iPastels is a free drawing app that is especially useful when you want something to improve your skills when you are in the early stages of your learning. This iPad Pro drawing app has features like layers, apple pencil support, high accuracy which is done by "floating point accuracy." The blending of pastels also can be done without much effort in this art drawing app. One unique feature of this easy drawing app is that you can show the pictures as tiles alongside each other; this feature is called the seamless pattern editing mode. Don't have an iPad? Don't worry, iPastels is also a drawing app for the iPhone.
33. Brushes Redux
Brushes Redux is a free open source painting app which is used both on iPad and iPhone and the work syncs between the two. Other features of this iOS app are the ability to autosave, unlimited undo and redo, adding layers among others. This digital drawing app is quick and easy to use with openGL based painting engine and offers 64-bit paint. On their 3.2 version of the app, they are now providing experimental apple pencil support and started the iTunes file sharing option.
34. Clip Studio Paint EX
If you are looking for an iPad drawing app that has dedicated tools to create manga and comics, this might be the perfect app for you. Not only this, but you can also do illustration, drawing, and painting on this art app. To get six months free subscription a user has to sign up for the EX version of the app. This online drawing app is specially designed for professionals as it has a different exporting option like a movie or animated GIFs, it supports apple pencil, and Wacom bamboo sketch. One can draw moving illustrations as well in this drawing app for iPad.
35. Paper Colour (Paint Draw Sketchbook, Paint Draw)
This android drawing app is suitable for those who want to learn drawing or painting. It has a feature called basemap which helps a user to set a photo as translucent and draw over it. This Android painting app is very similar to someone tracing on a paper and drawing over the original. This free app is suitable is more amateurs and has additional features on the pro version which can is through in-app purchases.
36. ibisPaint X
ibis Paint is the of the best drawing apps for Android out there. It has some unique features like recording your drawing as video, and SNS features where you can see and learn from videos other users have made. Other features like fast open GL technology, 142 brushes, 37 filters, and 700 fonts makes it an obvious choice for people looking for an android drawing app with lots of plus points. Apart from this, there are separate features for those artists who are interested in creating manga. To get more features like lesser ads, additional fonts, and materials, gradation map filter, etc. one has to purchase through in-app purchases.
37. Dotpict
Dotpict drawing free app is available on Android, iPhone, and iPad. This drawing app is only designed to create pixel art. Some features of the dotpict app are different sharing and exporting options, zoom of canvas to see fine details, and display of grids among others.
38. RoughAnimator
As the name says, RoughAnimator is used to create animations. RoughAnimator drawing app lets you create hand-drawn frame-by-frame animations on multiple kinds of devices like Android, iOS and desktop as well. This animation app offers essential features like unlimited layers, onion skinning, audio, and video import, apple pencil and Wacom stylus support, and more but at a price. What better way to start learning animation on your mobile?
39. Sketch by Sony
Sketch by Sony is a simple Android and iOS sketching app in which brushes and other tools are used to create digital art. The drawing can be done using a finger or a stylus, and the user can create layers in this application. Sony has provided with a big community in this app where people can explore other works and showcase their work as well. One can also personalize their feed and collaborate with other artists to create new work. The in-app purchases can access some additional features.
40. Pigment
Pigment describes itself as an adult coloring app, but it looks like kids will also have a lot of fun with it. It is an app to color already drawn pages by professionals and many exclusively by Disney. There are more than 4000 pages to choose from and its drawing tools like pencils, markers and paintbrushes give you the feeling like you are using natural colors and tools. There are unlimited colors to choose from the color wheel, sounds fun right? To get features like premium brushes and the entire library you have to subscribe to the premium version.
41. Hexagon
Hexagon is a free software for creating 3D models. It has all the tools a graphic artist would need. Some of the outstanding features are DAZ Studio Bridge, freehand modeling brushes, micro displacement modeling tools, comprehensive UV mapping modules, and more. In Hexagon, you can see real-time shadows and instant ambient occlusion. With this free 3D modeling software, you can create 3D models for game development in high quality.
42. Sculptris
An excellent platform for someone who wants to make a foray into the world of 3D drawing. With Sculptris, you can create base models which can then be refined in other software like ZBrush. The 3D software can locally redefine the internal structure of the model you are working with. Sculptris has tools that will make you feel like you are working with real clay. You can also paint a wrapped texture on the mesh surface with this software. (Please note that Sculptris was last updated in 2011 and may not function in newer systems)
43. Blender
Blender is an open-source, free 3D software, which supports modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, composition, and motion tracking, editing video, and 2D animation pipeline. Developed by experts from multiple fields around the world, Blender has a built-in powerful path-trace engine that offers real results. It has advanced sculpting and other tools through which you can create and transform the models with ease. Blender has a flexible interface in which you can adjust the layout, colors, fonts, etc. There are a lot of add-ons created by users which can be used by anyone using the software.
44. ZBrush
ZBrush is one of the best software for digital sculpting. With the customizable brushes, you can create shapes, textures, and paint virtual clay. The advanced tools offered by ZBrush is the same as the tools used by designers and artists worldwide. The software has a Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR), which enables you to see the artwork in a whole new way. You can convert the 3D artwork into 2D drawing and transfer the sculpted artwork into a comic book. Through ZBrush, you can add overlaying textures, draw outlines, and apply various effects from built-in presets.
45. Krita
Krita is an open-source painting program, made by artists to provide affordable art tools. This free painting app can be used to create conceptual art, texture and matte, illustration, and comics. Krita, designed for both amateurs and professionals, provides an intuitive interface. This interface can be customized according to your workflow. The dynamic brush tool in Krita can be used to create drag and mass and you can smoothen and stabilize your brush strokes. There are more than nine different brush engines like color smudge engine, shape engine, and more through which you can customize your brushes, to suit specific requirements.
46. Aseprite
Aseprite is a program through which you can create 2D animations. Through this program, you can also create sprites, pixel art, retro-style graphics, and everything related to the 8-bit and 16-bit era. Aseptrite can work on Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu. The program can organize layers, create animations, and custom brushes. The work can be saved in GIF, PNG, and JSON format.
47. Marmoset Hexels 3
Hexels is a grid-based painting, animation, and design program. With Hexels, you can create complex designs and stunning drawings. With the combination of digital art tools and geometric grid, through which you can paint in free form with the precision of vector art. Powerful software for a pixel artist who can keep track of the colors and gradients with the palette. The canvas can be turned into animation, and a sprite sheet can also be exported easily. This program can be used on Windows as well as Mac devices.
Things to consider when choosing a drawing app:
Platform Matters
If you're serious about taking up digital drawing, consider your hardware choices carefully. Ideally, you'll want to sample the exact tablet and computer setup with the stylus of your choice. In short, some are glitchier than others, and creating art requires more finesse than some can deliver.
If possible, consider a tablet with a stylus made by the same manufacturer, for example, the Apple iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil. This ensures the two pair perfectly for the smoothest possible drawing experience.
Also, look for pressure sensitivity. Different styluses handle the task differently. The feedback provided with pressure sensitivity adds an extra realism that makes drawing on your tablet as close to analog pencil and paper as you can imagine.
As with all apps, be sure to check the operating system used by the app of your choice. The most popular platforms are Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, and Android, and unfortunately, very few apps work on all of them.
Raster vs. Vector Drawing Apps
In the digital world, there are two sorts of images you can draw. Raster images, like JPG or PNG photographs, are drawn pixel by pixel. If you zoom in or enlarge the picture, it will get blurrier and blurrier if it exceeds the pixel size of the image. Think of this as drawing on paper, and you are limited by how large your paper is. You cannot expand the paper size like you cannot expand the pixels. Drawing a raster image is as simple and reasonably intuitive, depending on the app.
Vector drawings solve this problem but unfortunately, add much more complexity. Vector images, like AI or EPS formats, are the world standard in the printing industry. These pictures are made more like computer programs than photographs. In vector drawing applications, you make many paths (lines or shapes) that make up your image. It takes a bit more practice. Some vector apps make the process super simple, but the professional programs with all the bells and whistles take a bit of getting used to.
3D Programs
No discussion of online drawing apps would be complete without a word about three-dimensional drawing apps. If you're looking to create 3D modeling,3D printing ideas or going for that other-worldly feel that is everywhere, you'll want to make sure to pick the best drawing app that is capable of producing 3D images too. And don't feel left out if you got your drawing apps for free, some of these include 3D rendering also!
Here are most useful 3d printing ideas that you can get inspired by.
Conclusion
Now that you have an idea of how many free drawing apps are out there to choose from, you may feel a bit taken back. But remember, the most fun part of finding the best canvas for your project of choice is the adventure in trying them all out! So which do you think is the best drawing app?
Do check out our list of the best Drawing tablets for Graphics, Art, and Illustration.
Disclaimer: The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the final product. All images are copyrighted to their respective owners.