Technology

Android smartphones and tablets, iPhones and iPads come with great touchscreens, and some smartphones support active styluses, such as the Galaxy S22 Ultra, or at least passive styluses. You can take advantage of these for hobbyist and professional painting, or at least experiment with this art form.

Drawing on your phone or tablet is really fun and a great learning experience. So, if you have the right phone or tablet and a stylus pen ready, it’s time to pick the app of your choice! Both Android and iOS offer great drawing apps to choose from.

Below are the best mobile drawing apps. Let’s see what they are. For convenience, we divide them into his best drawing apps for Android and best drawing apps for iPhone/iPad. Let’s start with the best apps for drawing on your Android smartphone or tablet…

best drawing app for android

infinite painter

Available for both Android and iOS

Infinite Painter is one of the most popular Android drawing apps, but luckily (for iPhone users) it’s also available on the App Store.

It offers almost everything you need in a pocket-sized drawing app – dozens of brushes with different textures, support for layers, and like most apps, an active stylus (such as Samsung’s S Pen stylus) and the general Works with both styluses. passive ones.

sketchbook

Available for both Android and iOS

Like Infinite Painter, Sketchbook has a large number of brushes to choose from, plus the use of layers.

Free to download and no in-app purchases! If you value simplicity above all else and just want the basics, Sketchbook is worth checking out.

clip studio paint

Available for both Android and iOS

And it’s a straight jump from simplicity to complexity. Clip Studio Paint is an Android app to get, especially if you’re serious about drawing on your Android tablet.

The app’s interface is basically what you’d expect from a full-fledged desktop app for the PC, so it has menus that are mouse-friendly, but works just as well with a stylus.

Clip Studio Paint is free for a trial period of up to 6 months. After that, you will need to set up a plan for $0.99 per month.

adobe illustrator draw

Available for both Android and iOS

Adobe offers several drawing apps, but Adobe Illustrator Draw is one of my personal favorites.

However, Adobe requires you to create an account, unlike other apps in these apps. As such, it’s at the end of our Android list, and it’s hard to recommend above them.

The best drawing apps for iPhone and iPad

With the exception of Adobe Illustrator Draw for Android and iPad only, all apps listed for Android can also be downloaded and used on iPhone.

However, iPads and iPhones have the following dedicated apps worth mentioning and checking out if you have an Apple device…

Procreate and Procreate Pocket

Only available for iPad and iPhone respectively

In my experience, Procreate for iPad is the best mobile drawing app available for tablets. Of course, its iPhone version, Procreate Pocket, is no slouch either.

Procreate offers a large number of brushes to use, powerful brush creation tools, multi-layer support, and great optimizations for Apple devices. In fact, many legitimate professionals use this app on their iPad and Apple Pencil.