You can choose burlap styles, cardboard and grids without messing up a drawing you've already done. It's also nice that you can swap between multicolored paper styles like canvas and the rough surface of heavyweight, cold press sheets for watercolor. Something I really like about Art Set 4 is the ease with which even the free tools work together in a piece. It's also fun if you just want to doodle. If you're overwhelmed by the idea of going into a more complex app like Procreate or Autodesk, the Art Set 4 drawing tool is a good one to get started with. This app would be best if you're brand new to digital illustration - it feels similar to having physical tools and paper in front of you. It's free to download, but most of its tools are unlocked through the Premium Pro features, which cost $10.

The image imports with a transparent background so you can immediately get to work in the app.Īrt Set 4 is one of the more basic, realistic drawing apps. Your camera doubles as a scanner so you can import your art. You might've done cool sketching in a notebook, and with Autodesk, you don't have to redraw the sketch in the app. One of my favorite parts of Sketchbook is the focus on making the transition from paper to screen easy. I also liked that, even when extensively zoomed in, the app didn't lose its 'drawing' feel by letting you see the pixels in your stroke. Even with a typical learning curve of a new drawing app, the toolbar is pretty easy to figure out. When you download the sketch app, it'll give you a quick tutorial of where all the basic tools are.Īutodesk has an extensive, well-organized brush library, and with its customizable brushes, it's easy to adjust settings like brush size, opacity and pressure. It's a little less intimidating than Procreate when you're starting off your digital art journey. You can use the free version for seven days and then you'll be asked to make an Autodesk ID, which is also free. The Autodesk Sketchbook app is free, but is surprisingly packed with art tools that aren't blocked by paywalls.

Best drawing software for surface