The Best Drawing Apps for Every Kind of iPad Artist

Adobe has been synonymous with professional graphic design and illustration for decades. Fresco is the latest software suite from the company, and it was built from the ground up with the iPad Pro in mind. If you’ve ever used Photoshop, the interface will be clear and familiar, but it's also a touch-first user interface, not one that was designed for a mouse. That design sensibility has made for a surprisingly robust and flexible application.

It came out in 2019, so it has several updates under its belt and it’s only getting better. The “live brushes,” which approximate the physics of real-world watercolor and oil painting, have become much more than a gimmick. You can control the spread and fluidity of watercolors, and even use the oil brushes to mix your own colors just like you would on a traditional palette. Adobe has also added new raster brush sets, for everything from sketching to inking and full-fledged illustration. Fresco is the most expensive app on this list, though. It’s $10 a month, but if you already use other Adobe products, it’s included in several bundles. Check! You might already have access to it.

Sometimes you just want to color, and Lake is a great way to do that. Lake is a subscription app that provides you with line drawings done by a rotating cast of amazing illustrators and artists. The app has a wide array of brushes and colors, and there are dozens of categories to choose from. It's like a coloring book subscription service. Every time I open the app there's something new to check out, and that takes a lot of the pressure out of finding just the right illustration to color. It's a very relaxing experience. Lake is $9 per month after a one-week free trial. 

Note-taking is an art form too! For reals. Even if you're not doodling in the margins (you should be), sometimes you need an app custom-built for handwriting and drawing notes. I've tried every note-taking app there is, and Notability is the best. It organizes your notes by category, making it easy to manage complex notes (like journaling, brainstorming, or project planning), and the writing dynamics are smooth and fluid.

Writing on a sheet of glass can take some getting used to, as the Apple Pencil doesn't quite feel like a pen scratching across paper. But once you get the hang of it, you'll want to do it all the time. Notability turns your iPad into a never-ending pad of paper. We also have a roundup of more smart pens and note-taking tools here.

Graphic design is a little different than illustrating and painting. It's not all about flowy lines or brush dynamics. Often, you need to work with vectors, which are scalable lines that can get as hi-res or lo-res as you want without losing detail. Vector art isn't always great for detailed illustrations, but it's the standard for graphic design, especially logo design. Picta Graphic has a powerful vector engine with all the tools you need to make scalable artworks.

The second-gen Apple Pencil has a great overall design, but it can be a little slippery. If you have wrist problems, or if you find your hands getting sore after awhile, a thicker grip might help. By increasing the width of the pencil, you're actually reducing the strain on your hands. Grips like this one from Uppercase help you hold the pencil in a more relaxed way. These have been great for keeping my hands nice and limber at the end of a long day of drawing, plus they add a little splash of color to your stylus. You'll have to take it off the Pencil to charge the stylus (doesn't apply to the first-gen Apple Pencil).